A virtual reality program presented today at the University of Haifa conference on VR in rehabilitation will help American soldiers in Iraq. Both those who return from the battlefield and those who are training to enter the killing fields.
"Among the syndromes that the soldiers suffer from are depression, low self-image, flashbacks, and thoughts of loss," said Prof. Albert (Skip) Rizzo of the University of Southern California, one of the developers of the program. Early treatment with the help of this VR tool, he stresses, can lessen the damage that might be caused the soldier.
The VR program helps a soldier experience fighting through a number of sensors. The soldier, he explains, puts on special goggles that include earphones. These allow him to see the sights and hear the noises on the battlefield. He can sense the fighting in open areas, in closed structures, while walking or riding in a vehicle or flying in a helicopter. Even when at night, when he wears night-vision goggles, the researcher said.
Today's soldiers, he notes, grew up in a digital world, and so it is easier for them to adopt and use the program.
The special goggles measure the soldier's heart rage, blood oxygen level, and other medical indices relevant to the soldier's mental state.
"There are already a number of soldiers who returned from Iraq suffering from battle fatigue and trauma who are being treated by the new VR program, Rizzo said, adding that it has lessened such phenomena as nightmares and depression. By the end of the year, he projects that some 200 soldiers will have been treated by the new system.
This number is only a drop in the pocket, compared to the figures that one in three soldiers returning from Iraq suffers from some mental disorder as a result of the type of fighting there. It was, in fact, this horrendous statistic that led to the development of the virtual reality battlefield for rehabilitation purposes.
Rizzo, who has conducted joint projects with University of Haifa occupational therapists and virtual reality specialists, claims that the program is also appropriate for physicians going to the battlefield who are forced to deal with serious medical dilemmas. "Many doctors arrive with any military skill," he explains. "The program enables them to experience ahead of time what might happen in reality and so to prepare themselves for vario9us medical cases. It will make it easier for them to function under fire.
The California professor, who often comes to Haifa, adds that the IDF can also find the program useful. "It is universal," he says. "It is appropriate for every country that is interested in preparing its soldiers to experience the difficulties of war."
The program will be displayed publicly tomorrow (Wednesday, June 21) in the framework of the VR technology exhibition that is part of the conference. The display will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the University's Rabin Complex. Other technologies to be on display deal with early detection and prevention of post traumatic stress disorders, virtual reality games for improving motor and cognitive functioning, and VR systems for working with autistic children.
