A Web-based cost-effective training tool with possible application to brain injury rehabilitation

• Virtual reality (VR) has provoked enormous interest in the medical community. In particular, VIR offers therapists new approaches for improving rehabilitation effects. However, most of these VR assistant toots are not very portable, extensible or economical. Due to the vast amount of 3D data, they are not suitable for Internet transfer. Furthermore, in order to run these VR systems smoothly, special hardware devices are needed. As a result, existing VIR assistant toots tend to be available in hospitals but not in patients' homes. To overcome these disadvantages, as a case study, this paper proposes a Web-based Virtual Ticket Machine, called WBVTM, using VRML [VRML Consortium, The Virtual Reality Modeling Language: International Standard ISO/IEC DIS 14772-1, 1997, available at http://www.vrml.org/Specifications/VRML97], Java and EAI (External Authoring Interface) [Silicon Graphics, Inc., The External Authoring Interface (EAI), available at http://cosmosoftware.com/developer/eai.htmt], to help people with acquired brain injury (ABI) to relearn basic living skills at home at a low cost. As these technologies are open standard and feature usability on the Internet, WBVTM achieves the goals of portability, easy accessibility and cost-effectiveness. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Internet

VRML

virtual reality

acquired brain injury

rehabilitation

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

ref (subject category)