No need to wait for Superman! In Peru, companies are using virtual reality to try to save lives. Here are two interesting examples of the new uses of this new technology!
Health is one of the most promising sectors for virtual reality. 3D modelling using immersive technologies is a valuable aid for physician training and diagnosis.
For example, it is very expensive to train surgeons: there are not many bodies donated to science. Moreover, there is no room for error with a real operation! The use of virtual reality to simulate operations therefore makes sense as can be seen in this video:
Virtual reality can also be used to fight cancer! FeelsGood, a Peruvian startup has taken over the subject.
Feelsgood – just relax, we take care
Imagine, you have a stroke. After a coma, you wake up. You can no longer communicate during the first few days. Then, the return to daily life is a shock. Rehabilitation is painful, and you can no longer carry out as many activities as before, your body is greatly weakened. There’s reason to be anxious and stressed, isn’t there? This is exactly what the grandmother of Luis Rodriguez, founder of Feelsgood, experienced.
To help him in his painful rehabilitation, he develops a game. Very quickly, he realizes that the effects of this small application are bearing fruit: the exercises are simpler, the pain is reduced and his grandmother is happier. Instead of having to do exercises to lift the arm, for example, a game suggests doing simple movements, for example pouring water into a well, higher and higher. We win points, we are no longer focused on the painful movements of the arm, but on the points to win!
Because pain is a signal sent from the body to the brain, which processes this information. With gambling, attention is diverted from the pain! With virtual reality, the effect is multiplied. From this experience was born FeelsGood.
The company now supports cancer patients with RV breathing exercises. This involves immersing the patient for 30 minutes in “Zen” spaces to get them out of bed and out of the hospital environment. This significantly reduces patients’ anxiety and stress and ultimately improves the immune system! It’s simple and it works!
The next step? Remove patients from isolation by allowing several patients, located in different places, to meet in the same virtual space to exchange and perform exercises at the same time.
The company has signed a partnership with Lenovo and works with many doctors, psychologists, musicians, VR specialists to develop solutions! Unfortunately in Peru the environment is complex, capital is lacking and few people understand virtual reality as a possible way to improve patients’ daily lives. Let’s hope that this changes!
Virtual Reality can also save the lives of… minors! Proximity, through virtual reality training, is trying to significantly reduce the number of accidents in the mines, Peru’s leading industry.
Proximity: the art of the good deed in a mine
Proximity is a company founded by three high school friends, Alexis, David and Hector, that offers simulators and interactive virtual reality training.
Among their main customers: the mining industry. And for good reason, most mine accidents are caused by human error, and the consequences are often severe.
The company first worked on an onboarding program for new miners to help them learning about the operations taking place at the mine using an Oculus Go system ! The interaction is relatively weak but here again, it seems simple but it is in fact complicated to introduce people to this universe: mines are difficult to access and without specific training it can be dangerous for newcomers to venture into them.
The company now wants to go further and create a simulator to allow miners to do the right thing when excavating mines, and avoid landslides.
We have “Alpha-tested” the simulator and it’s very promising! We find ourselves in a mine having to check the strength of the environment before continuing the excavation process (understand: dig even deeper). To do this, we use a virtual pole, and we feel the ceiling. If it seems weak, it is a question of causing a mini collapse before continuing…. The atmosphere of the mine is very well transcribed, we quickly understand our role, the pole is materialized by a tube with sensors and vibrations that allow a haptic feeling, and the experience is fluid. Technology disappears in favour of experience, and that’s all we’re asking for.
In both experiments, the employee can raise awareness of his or her achievements by means of a test report to identify the right points and areas for improvement.
On our side, we imagine that the results will be better since, for the moment, the training is limited to learning gestures on a 4334539853 page instruction booklet with often complex diagrams. The RV simulation offers a real simulation, it’s nicer than a notebook and above all the brain records information much better.
The company is still young (only 2 years old) but ambitious: in the long term, it s is developing a complete training software package accessible to the mining industry, which it evaluates licensing later.
Exchanging with the FeelsGood and Proximity teams also allowed us to better understand the Peruvian ecosystem
RV in Peru in 4 points
1.The Occulus Go has been a real accelerator by offering an affordable helmet with sufficient technical capabilities!
2.For the moment, only B2B offers real opportunities for VR content. Most B2C content is limited to entertainment.
3.Most developers in Peru are not specialized on a 3D engine type or code type, but on the contrary are rather Swiss knives.
4.Creating a partnership with an international giant in the distribution of VR helmets is a real asset to have a regional distribution platform, then global in a second step
