Objectives and Activity

　The complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a type of chronic pain to remain and increase the pain even an flaw (breaking a bone, etc.) is medically recovered. To decrease the pain by the CRPS, the mirror visual feedback (MVF) therapy is widely applied. In this therapy, a patient moves his/her arm or leg of the intact side in a mirror box and sees the image of it on a mirror with imagining that his/her arm or leg in the injured side is smoothly control by himself/herself. However, the moving range of arm/leg is limited in a mirror box and therefore it is hard to move his/her arm or leg largely and variously.

 This study develops a MFV system applying virtual reality (VR) technology to realize a variety of movement of arm/leg for MFV therapy. In addition, an interface system to keep the motivation of patient for a long MVF therapy.

Future plans

　The developed prototype VR based MVF system uses a display to show a virtual space. A system that introduces a low-cost goggles type display is developed to improve the sense of reality in order to increase the therapeutic effect.

Virtual reality based MVF system with a head mounted display