START
Anne Schmidt
Cool world: A burn victim is submerged in water and immersed in VR at Harborview.
Severe burn victims are using more than narcotics to escape the pain of treatment at the University of Washington's Harborview Burn Center. While soaking in a tub to remove their bandages, patients are plugged into a virtual environment called SnowWorld, where they fly through an arctic canyon and use a trackball to toss snowballs at snowmen, igloos, robots, and penguins.
The 3-D graphics may be more Atari than ILM, but they take a patient's mind off the burning sensation - enough to lower reported pain by 40 to 50 percent. The fully immersive treatment is possible thanks to a water-friendly VR helmet developed by the school's Human Interface Technology Lab, whose backers include Paul Allen. The helmet contains no electronics; nonconductive fiber-optic cable transmits images to each eyepiece from LCDs 15 feet away. Researcher Hunter Hoffman says the peripheral vision in the goggles is up to three times better than most conventional VR helmets, intensifying the experience. Sounds cool.
START
hype list
Why Stock Options Still Rule
Grassroots Geeks for Governor
Ranking Privacy at Work
The Graffiti Early Warning System
Optical Alchemy
Your Guide to New York's Spycams
The Architecture Zoo
How Brown Gets Around
Foam Depot
Jargon Watch
The Robot Air Corps
Frosty the Painkiller
Darpa's Gambling Man
Wired l Tired l Expired
On the Record
