Virtual reality, robot, and object touch: Blended reality sensorimotor training experience

Loss of body sensations often accompanies injuries to the central or peripheral nervous system and can lead to disintegration of body schema resulting in altered sensory dependent motor skills. Localizing external objects within peripersonal space plays an important role in the strategies of accurate human movement, towards targets and for obstacle avoidance. In our system, practicing viewing and finger-tip contact with real objects is enabled using Blended Reality: Virtual Reality, Robot Assistance, and Real Object Touch. Arm Location exercises accompany multi-sensory experience in the blended reality. Adding vision and touch, salient properties of three dimensional real objects, to the technology assisted training environment increases the number and realistic qualities of sensory modalities for integration to bolster performance of the trainee. A number of exercises have been developed and are being investigated to understand contributions of the multi-sensory experiences upon performance, and to identify appropriate protocols for therapy.