Though the most popular application of virtual reality is in entertainment, like in movies and games, scientists are exploring its potential uses in the healthcare segment.
A team of researchers in Cardiff University is looking at the possibility of applying virtual reality in the treatment of people with ‘visual vertigo’ — those who suffer from dizziness and nausea at places that have repetitive visual patterns, like supermarkets.
One of the hurdles in the treatment is knowing what the trigger is: it could be anything from multiple aisles and products in a department store to multiple apartments or the flow of a river. The trigger differs from one patient to another.
“We do not know very much about what causes visual vertigo at the moment. There also are not many effective rehabilitation therapies. So the aim of our project is to try and understand those two things,” Georgina Powell of the School of Psychology, Cardiff University, told the BBC.
The scientists believe that the different environments, presented to the patients by virtual reality, will help identify the trigger. Once the cause is known, specific rehabilitation therapies could be tailored for them.
Virtual reality has also been found to be effective in the treatment of Phantom Limb Syndrome — the feeling of sensations like pain in limbs that don’t exist. It could also occur in people who have survived strokes and lost control over some part of their body. According to a report in Lancet , phantom limb syndrome patients who underwent VR therapies reported improvement in their condition after 12 sessions.
Scientists at the University of Southern California have been studying the effect of virtual reality on people with post-traumatic stress disorder. They say exposing such people to the trigger, in a controlled environment, helps alleviate symptoms. Controlled exposure through virtual reality is also used to condition human mind to conquer different phobias. For example, in New York, an entrepreneur, Tim Suzman, developed a VR app to get rid of the fear of spiders, CNN has reported.
Solutions Infini adds new features
Solutions Infini, a leader in enterprise mobile messaging, recently added a few new features. The Bengaluru-based company, which was founded in 2009 and provides solutions addressing challenges businesses face in connecting with their customers, launched email services for enterprise businesses with automated mechanisms, along with toll-free numbers in over 30 countries.
This service enables clients to have toll-free numbers in their countries to boost region-specific connectivity with end-customers, said CEO and co-founder Aniketh Jain. The number of messages it handles on its proprietary cloud platform has gone up from 3 million a month in 2009 to 1.5 billion in 2016. The SMS gateways have the capability to deliver messages to more than 1,000 network operators in over 190 countries, said Mr. Jain. The company also handles about 30 million voice calls a month.
Among the over 5,000 clients are Flipkart, Ola, Jabong, Practo, Bank of Baroda, Federal Bank, Vijaya Bank and Muthoot Finance. Recently, leading Italian mobile services provider Ubiquity acquired a 51% stake in Solutions Infini.
APPVIEW: WOOHOO
This is a gifting app from Qwikcilver, the company whose technology works in the background powering many gift card schemes. Woohoo’s online cards can be redeemed at online and offline stores. In the run-up to Valentine’s Day, the app has got a new feature that allows users to schedule the delivery of the gift cards. Users will no longer have to wait till the last moment to pick their gift, personalize and send it, said Pratap T.P., co-founder & CMO, Qwikcilver.
Meanwhile, there has been 75% to 300% increase in the adoption of prepaid gift cards across different segments, says the company.
