Applications of Virtual Reality Technology in Rehabilitation

The usage of virtual environments in medicine has seen a significant increase, lately. The primary purpose of virtual reality is to provide human senses with a simulated reality scene, which is identical to its natural correspondence. Today, technology based on virtual reality has evolved, costs have declined, and intervention devices have become increasingly diverse in function and performance. The goal of the project is to build a small system that can be used in rehabilitation, based on a Raspberry Pi platform, reducing energy consumption and cost. The concept of design consists in a video projector or a large screen, a software which reproduces a series of interactive exercises, and via a camera which analyzes the patient's movements and interacts appropriately. Patient activity may also be recorded for later review. The core components of the system are the Raspberry Pi control unit that performs video processing by means of a video camera attached to the development platform. The Linux operating system is in association with Python and the OpenCv libraries for implementing the specific video camera function.