Three applications of virtual reality for brain injury rehabilitation of daily tasks

Part of the process of rehabilitation after a brain injury is the relearning of various daily tasks such as preparing food, managing finances, getting from one place to another and so forth. These tasks require learning on all levels from physical to cognitive. Remembering a PIN code for a bank card, for example, can become automatic and ‘in the fingers’ after much repetition. However, other tasks require a certain cognitive process, for example, procedures must be followed, quantities estimated, numbers of items remembered or dangerous situations avoided. Even in these cases, repetition of the task many times can help fix the important aspects in the mind. This paper describes three applications of a Virtual Reality based method of rehabilitation which are a part of a larger project to investigate the potential and pitfalls of Virtual Reality technology as a complement to physical training in Brain Injury Rehabilitation. Virtual Reality has the advantage of providing a safe, controlled and highly repeatable environment that a patient can experience in a relaxed manner before having to encounter the potentially dangerous or stressful real environment. The three applications considered here are: kitchen work, an automatic teller machine (ATM) and finding ones way in a complex environment.