OBJECTIVE Fear of falling is defined as an ongoing concern about falling that is not explained by physical examination. Focusing on the psychological dimension of this pathology (phobic reaction to walking), we looked at how virtual reality associated with serious games can be used to treat this pathology. METHODS Participants with fear of falling were randomly assigned to either a treatment ...

BACKGROUND Albeit exercise is currently advocated as one of the most effective management strategies for fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS); the implementation of exercise as a FMS treatment in reality is significantly hampered by patients' poor compliance. The inference that pain catastrophizing is a key predictor of poor compliance in FMS patients, justifies considering the alteration of pain catast...

This chapter describes the deployment of Virtual Reality (VR) for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to treat anxiety and other psychological disorders. Regarding anxiety, the most common technique is constituted of Exposure Therapy that, transposed to Virtual Reality, allows the patient to face a digital version of the feared object or situation, instead of a real or imaginal one. Virtual Real...

This study presents the evaluation results of a clinical trial of robotic-assisted rehabilitation in Virtual Reality performed with the PERCRO L-Exos (Light-Exoskeleton) system, which is a 5-DoF force-feedback exoskeleton for the right arm. The device has demonstrated itself suitable for robotic arm rehabilitation therapy when integrated with a Virtual Reality (VR) system. Three different schem...

Virtual reality is a media allowing users to interact in real time with computerized virtual environments. The application of this immersive technology to cognitive behavioral therapies is increasingly exploited for the treatment of mental disorders. The present study is a review of literature spanning from 1992 to 2012. It depicts the utility of this new tool for assessment and therapy through...

Virtual reality (VR) offers today a new paradigm for human-computer interaction, in which users are no longer simply external observers of images on a computer screen, but active participants within a computer-generated three-dimensional world. Most of the psychological therapies carried out with the help of virtual reality rely on the principle of exposure. This review surveys the state of the...

UNLABELLED The objective of this study was to test acceptance of, and interest in, a newly developed prototype of virtual reality enhanced mannequin (VREM) on a sample of congress attendees who volunteered to participate in the evaluation session and to respond to a specifically designed questionnaire. METHODS A commercial Laerdal HeartSim 4000 mannequin was developed to integrate virtual rea...

Virtual environments (VEs) also known as virtual reality (VR) are increasingly being considered for industrial, medical, and educational / training applications, to name a few. A VE provides real-time interaction with 3-D models when combined with a display technology that gives the user immersion in the model world and direct manipulation of objects. In many of the applications, the truthful r...

Educational applications based on augmented reality (AR) are integrating real objects into a computer environment thus creating a more engaging and enjoyable learning environment for students. The interaction with real objects in an AR setting may lead to usability problem that affect the extent to which the user learning experience is perceived as enjoyable. The objective of this paper is to m...