Imersive simulator for rare medical condition

[drnick]

Hi, slightly strange question but some advice would be appreciated.

I am a medical researcher and have been approached about a very rare case/condition that is basically like being permanently severely sea sick. Essentially messed up brain systems for visuo-spatial awareness. Symptoms can be minimal when under passive motion like in a car or on train but this individual cannot drive. There is no known treatment but lots of cross over research and theory suggests that immersive graded exposure to virtual passive motion could form the basis of a treatment, effect would be modulated by the realism of the experience.

So the question is what set-up equipment (within a vaguely reasonable price range) would provide the most immersive train, truck, car (not race), flight simulation experience, It needs not to be too hard to play as there is cognitive processing difficulties (imagine having to play with the severe motion sickness or epic hangover perhaps. I know the new gen of VR has just been brought by facebook (much to gamers like me disgust) but I need something practical and available now.

How are the older VR goggles, are they compatible with any good sim games, has to mimic reality not fantasy. Might just be decent big screen, headset and really good graphics, maybe 3 screen set up, I really don't know. An idea of cost with suggestions would be useful.

Any and all advice very welcome

 

[m4rk84]

The only virtual reality which is in the slightest bit immursive right now is the Oculus Rift headset, it's leagues ahead of anything else really to the point where if it's not in your price range then I really wouldn't bother at all. The combo I would recommend is Oculus Rift + Euro Truck Simulator 2 which works brilliantly with the headset. I think this will give you exactly what you are after.

https://www.oculusvr.com/order/

 

[Nrober]

Have you tried getting in contact with Facebook/Oculus about this? I'd imagine they'd be cooperative if you can sell them that you are doing this for research to improve people's lives, they'd love the PR. I don't know if that Development Kit 2 linked above is their latest model, might be an idea to try and blag something newer.

Buying the actual headset would only be a couple of hundred quid if they don't just give you one.

 

[Madeddie]

Agree also ; you could probably pick up a 2nd hand OR unit from ebay for around £200 if you didn't want to wait for the gen 2 dispatch which I believe is August. Not the easiest simulator to control when you have the OR unit on so would also recommend buying a steering wheel.

The only virtual reality which is in the slightest bit immursive right now is the Oculus Rift headset, it's leagues ahead of anything else really to the point where if it's not in your price range then I really wouldn't bother at all. The combo I would recommend is Oculus Rift + Euro Truck Simulator 2 which works brilliantly with the headset. I think this will give you exactly what you are after.

https://www.oculusvr.com/order/

 

[Xordium]

Hi, are you studying MdDS? I would wager your best bet in this regard would be to invest in Oculus Rift. I don't think anything else will really offer a suitable alternative for the sensation you are trying to achieve. If it were me then I would explore the possibility of using the Unity Game engine (you can rent Pro now on a per monthly basis) to create a controlled environment so you can determine whether there is any efficacy to the approach. My guess is if you are studying MdDS that you would have to consider the sensory overload and the complexity of a game that may mask any advantageous effects you observe.

Good luck it's an interesting idea - run with it. Do as the others say and ask but don't be shocked if they say no whilst it may look a no-brainer for them it would open up their hardware to a load of compliance issues with medical device standards which they may not want to explore at the moment.

 

[caff]

Have you tried getting in contact with Facebook/Oculus about this? I'd imagine they'd be cooperative if you can sell them that you are doing this for research to improve people's lives, they'd love the PR. I don't know if that Development Kit 2 linked above is their latest model, might be an idea to try and blag something newer.

Buying the actual headset would only be a couple of hundred quid if they don't just give you one.

I'd agree this is worth a shot. Contact Oculus support by e-mail and raise a query. However, having tried the Rift, and reading your request, I'd think you'd need highly specialist software to accompany the hardware, which I imagine simply doesn't exist yet. You could try developing it, but this is very cutting edge stuff.

I'm no medical expert but I'd assume that real life techniques would be of more benefit? I'd imagine both the old & forthcoming dev kits would not be immersive enough for the person you are helping.

 

[drnick]

Thanks for the ideas, I will try and contact the company, can't hurt, yes its a patient with MdDS, Its just an idea at the moment but when there isn't a single evidence based treatment out there and the condition is so severe its got be worth a shot.

Yes overload is a concern and a flare can follow exposure to a symptom reducing experience, the exposure will start very small and build very slowly, lighting, noise and even smell are an issue so the whole environment will have to be controlled, there is no rushing into this that's for sure.

thanks again.

 

[arknor]

quake 3 arena

 

[tamzzy]

has to be occulus rift
watch this:

skip to the latter half lol

 

[Reaper 392]

I don't know if this would be of any help to you, but I know that quite a lot of the lecturers/researchers at the department I'm in at Reading University are very interested in virtual reality and haptics, especially in medical and therapeutic applications. If you want I will fire off some emails and see if they can get in contact with you.



As everyone else has said, for the visual side of things the oculus rift is probably the best bet out there. What would worry me about the oculus rift is that when you wear it you cannot see your own body or any input devices that you want to use, and this may cause more problems than its solves.

As for the input side of things, for driving games I assume that a wheel + pedals would be your best bet. The cheapest decent wheel with force feedback is the logitech DFGT, which can be found new for ~£100. From what I've heard the main downside about this wheel is the pedals are quite weak to push, but other than that it is a very nice wheel.

The next wheel up from that would be logitech G27, which is what I have and can be bought for ~£200 new. Its main upsides compared to the DFGT are the much better and stiffer pedals, larger flappy paddles and a 'H pattern' gearbox like you would have in a normal car (unlike the sequential gearbox of the DFGT). Quite a few people also find the 'Nixim pedal mod' to make the pedals feel a lot stiffer and more realistic, particularly for the brake pedal, but I haven't tried this myself so I couldn't comment on it personally.
You could also look for a preowned G25 (which also works with the nixim pedal mod). The G25 is incredibly similar to the G27, but the G27 has a slightly different gearbox and a different kind of gears for the force feedback motors which makes it a lot quieter than the G25.

One other thing I have sometimes heard people using with their racing simulators that is just about in the land of sensible prices is called a buttkicker. From what I can see this is supposed to give you the feeling of all the small bumps and vibrations that you would get when driving a car.

That is very much the limit of my knowledge here. If this sort of advice is what you are looking for then I would suggest visiting the forums of any of the popular racing simulators, such as iRacing, as they will know a lot more about what devices are out there.

 

[HAz]

has to be occulus rift
watch this:

skip to the latter half lol

lol at the pony tail first then the end

 

[drnick]

Thanks everyone, and Reaper for the offer, The Uni I am associated with has a very good VR lab so I will be talking to them shortly and I am hoping to hear from a neuro consultant in UCLA who is about the only person in the world studying the disease, so rare its just not viable as a speciality really.

Pragmatically and cost wise I think it will have to be a DIY job hence the advice on home based interventions but the Uni VR people may have a few ideas, no chance of getting funding for this unfortunately. I will contact Oculus next week and see what happens...

Last thing, what kind of spec rig do you need to run occulus with Eurotruck with graphics that make the trouble worth while?