Virtually real

This is my mate Dr C, who I used to work with not so long ago.  He's pictured here in his den, surrounded by more computer hardware than you could shake a stick at.  Still, that's what he does - he gets paid to play with this stuff, all day long.

Not the best shot in the world - just snapped off last weekend as he was showing off his latest tech.  This is a crop - I was handholding the square-shooter at about 1/60th.  Seemed to work OK.  All those computer rays have clearly caused his hair to fall out - even more than mine, it has to be said.

The research work we did was very applied - creating computer games for rehabilitation.  Mostly for people with stroke.  We would drive about all over the country getting people to test the systems we built - sometimes the same person for several months, a couple of times a week.  The theory was that the game-based systems provide better engagement than traditional rehab solutions, which mostly involve fairly boring, repetitive movements.   There was one lady we used to visit - lived way up the country at the end of a very long and bumpy single-track lane.  No neighbours within shouting distance.  She'd been widowed a few years ago and had since had a stroke which had left her in a pretty bad way, mostly wheelchair-bound.  She lived on her own and had a really tough lot, but I can honestly say she had the sunniest disposition of anyone we ever worked with.  An amazing lady.

Anyway, my mate Dr C is still banging away at this stuff, playing with virtual reality headsets, motion detection systems and pretty cool games.  If it wasn't for all the admin involved, the stress of research targets and the almost yearly 'restructuring' of University departments it would be close to being the best job in the world.  Next week yer man is off to Italy, he tells me.  Last month it was Spain.  And he's a couple of weeks to do in Oslo later in the year.   I did a fair bit of travelling in my day too, but to be honest, while it's always nice to go somewhere new, I don't miss it.  Airports are really not fun places to be any more and I find travelling more of a hassle these days.

So I got to try out his latest systems the other day and it was clear things have moved on in the couple of years since I've been out of it.  The technology was much improved - the headset provided better immersion, smoother movement and more accurate registration of the graphics with your own hand movements.  I'd really love to see this work come to fruition and be installed in all the stroke units up and down the country - in every country.  Eventually, of course, the idea is to have it in the home, so people can use it anytime, just as they do with a TV, laptop or games console.  That's the plan, anyway.