Full Transcript for VR and AR in Training and Rehab

Kinesiology for physical therapy. 00:02:07.709 --> 00:02:10.462 So in the physical therapy program, I would teach neuroscience. 00:02:10.462 --> 00:02:14.633 But as a clinician, I'm an acute care therapist so cardiothoraic and ICU care. 00:02:14.633 --> 00:02:20.473 So those are the things that I teach in classrooms to future physical therapists. 00:02:20.473 --> 00:02:22.349 But I'm also a neurophysiologist. 00:02:22.349 --> 00:02:24.352 So I have a research lab. 00:02:24.352 --> 00:02:36.614 So in my lab, I teach students how to run scientific experiments in understanding human mobility, whether it's balance or driving or walking. 00:02:36.614 --> 00:02:40.576 And that's how we got into virtual and augmented reality that we're talking about today. 00:02:40.576 --> 00:02:42.328 Okay. Interesting. 00:02:40.586 --> 00:02:42.328 Yeah. 00:02:42.328 --> 00:02:45.581 So if you weren't in kinesiology, what career would you choose? 00:02:46.707 --> 00:02:50.127 If I wasn't in kinesiology... 00:02:50.127 --> 00:02:54.841 When I was eight years old, I wanted to be what every eight year old wanted to be. 00:02:54.841 --> 00:02:57.176 I wanted to be an astronaut. 00:02:57.176 --> 00:03:01.306 And then I got realistic that I wasn't going to get to the moon. 00:03:01.306 --> 00:03:04.016 So I went into virtual reality moons. 00:03:04.016 --> 00:03:06.853 But I love motorcycles. 00:03:06.853 --> 00:03:17.362 And so if I had to be - and now proper dad mode, so I'm introducing you to the guy - If I was not a PT professor, then, I'd be a motorcycle cop. 00:03:17.362 --> 00:03:19.532 I'd be pulling people over for bad driving. 00:03:19.532 --> 00:03:21.533 Do you have a motorcycle? 00:03:21.533 --> 00:03:24.412 Yes, I have a few motorcycles. 00:03:24.412 --> 00:03:25.913 What colors are they? 00:03:25.913 --> 00:03:28.790 Gray. Black. Blue. 00:03:28.790 --> 00:03:30.793 Blue. Gray. 00:03:30.793 --> 00:03:32.377 Yellow. 00:03:32.377 --> 00:03:34.421 I have a yellow motorcycle. Yeah. 00:03:34.421 --> 00:03:41.346 And finally, I also heard a really cool story about you and your daughter possibly swimming at one point from Alcatraz to San Francisco. 00:03:41.346 --> 00:03:45.098 You have to tell me what inspired that adventure. Yes. 00:03:45.098 --> 00:03:46.975 So my daughter is almost 12. 00:03:46.975 --> 00:03:48.811 She turns 12 in February. 00:03:48.811 --> 00:03:57.694 She was nine when we swam from Alcatraz to San Fran to the Ghiradelli Factory around two and a half, three miles, against the current. 00:03:57.694 --> 00:04:19.259 And what inspired that was that a couple of years prior to that, as we were coming out of Covid in second grade, a few months too late, we found out that our daughter was getting bullied at school and of the many emotions that a father would go through, one of them was, how do I teach her a lifelong lesson? 00:04:19.259 --> 00:04:26.182 To be able to fight adversity and grow and get stronger? 00:04:26.182 --> 00:04:29.935 And that it's

not about falling down, but standing back up and being stronger? 00:04:29.935 --> 00:04:32.562 So we started swimming in the Pacific. 00:04:32.562 --> 00:04:38.485 I was surfing in San Diego at that time, and so I'd go out for swims also occasionally in La Jolla Cove. 00:04:38.485 --> 00:04:44.492 And she saw that and she was like, I would like to go out for a swim with you.” This is my six and a half, seven year old. 00:04:44.492 --> 00:04:45.576 And I was like, “absolutely come. 00:04:45.576 --> 00:04:49.288 I’ll show you what we can do.” And so I took her out for a couple swims. 00:04:49.288 --> 00:04:55.252 First it was 50 yards, then 100 yards, and then I taught her to duck under a wave because there are big waves in the Pacific. 00:04:55.252 --> 00:04:59.214 So once she was comfortable with that, we started swimming longer distances. 00:04:59.214 --> 00:05:04.595 And buoyancy is a tad easier in the ocean because of the salt water and so forth. 00:05:04.595 --> 00:05:10.726 So, when she was eight and a half, she swam a mile with me. 00:05:10.726 --> 00:05:18.358 She had swam enough that she swam a mile with me, to and back from the half Malibu in, the Pacific. 00:05:18.358 --> 00:05:19.651 And then we moved to Auburn. 00:05:19.651 --> 00:05:30.079 So the Pacific swimming stopped, and she's like, “I still miss swimming open water.” So not only did we join the Opelika swim team, so she swims competitively for them right now. 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:36.084 I was like, “alright, let me find something.” So I went up looking for an open water swim. 00:05:36.084 --> 00:05:45.927 Found out that annually at the tail end of summer, there is a swim that happens in Alcatraz and it's called the Shark Fest swim because supposedly the water has sharks in it. 00:05:45.927 --> 00:05:47.512 Something I did not tell my daughter. 00:05:47.512 --> 00:05:51.892 And, I signed us up for the Shark Fest swim. 00:05:51.892 --> 00:05:53.685 And then I went looking deeper. 00:05:53.685 --> 00:06:14.081 And somewhere since the internet started keeping a record, I think three girls, youngest being nine years old, had swam from San Francisco to Alcatraz, and one boy, eight and a half, nine years old, had not only swam across from San Francisco to Alcatraz but he had swam back from Alcatraz to San Francisco. 00:06:14.081 --> 00:06:16.041 I didn't know why it was important. 00:06:16.041 --> 00:06:18.961 Even though I was swimming in open water, I hadn't connected the dots. 00:06:18.961 --> 00:06:20.379 Current and tide matter. 00:06:20.379 --> 00:06:22.673 One direction, it's usually easier to swim in. 00:06:22.673 --> 00:06:24.884 That's the San Francisco to Alcatraz direction. 00:06:24.884 --> 00:06:33.850 But Shark Fest is swam, jumping off of a ferry outside of Alcatraz and then swimming to San Francisco in the opposite direction. 00:06:33.850 --> 00:06:35.644 So you have to catch the current. 00:06:35.644 --> 00:06:38.605 You have to, catch the tide, and it's a longer swim. 00:06:39.064 --> 00:06:41.526 Long story, long, we made that swim. 00:06:41.526 --> 00:06:44.528 900 people jumped out into the water that day. 00:06:44.528 --> 00:06:46.113 537 finished. 00:06:46.113 --> 00:06:52.870 The youngest of the 537 was Michelle, my daughter, and it took us an hour and a half to swim three miles. 00:06:52.870 --> 00:06:57.834 What's more important in the story is we're going back next summer because now she's a competitive swimmer. 00:06:57.834 --> 00:06:59.293 She'll be 12. 00:06:59.293 --> 00:07:04.048 So we're going back next summer to this time actually race in all categories, to put a time on the clock. 00:07:04.048 --> 00:07:06.384 I love that lesson. 00:07:06.384 --> 00:07:06.384 It's a powerful lesson. 00:07:06.384 --> 00:07:10.596 I like the way that you tied it to something that she could relate to, which was swimming. 00:07:10.596 --> 00:07:12.139 Now let's shift gears. 00:07:12.139 --> 00:07:17.310 Today's topic is virtual reality and augmented reality in training and rehabilitation. 00:07:17.310 --> 00:07:22.024 These technologies are popping up everywhere from sports performance to clinical rehab. 00:07:22.024 --> 00:07:26.237 First, what is virtual reality and what is augmented reality? 00:07:26.528 --> 00:07:27.779 Great question. 00:07:27.779 --> 00:07:29.906 So there is a continuum of technology. 00:07:29.906 --> 00:07:38.415 If you looked at visual technologies that are used to, typically thought of playing video games, But we now use them across the board for several other things. 00:07:38.415 --> 00:07:50.052 So virtual reality, as the word suggets virtual, is maybe you put on a headset and you're in an alternate reality, you're in a video game, you're a floating head in the video game with two hands. 00:07:50.052 --> 00:08:05.692 Augmented reality is where your current present reality around you in this room is augmented by the instruments that you put on your head, so AR, a good example of AR is the latest, meta glasses that came out when Zuckerberg wore them. 00:08:05.692 --> 00:08:09.362 And that is a camera, which puts up a heads up display on one of the glasses. 00:08:09.362 --> 00:08:12.492 That's augmenting reality, because it will show you the picture you just took. 00:08:12.492 --> 00:08:14.117 It will give you directions on that side. 00:08:14.117 --> 00:08:15.995 It augments your reality. 00:08:15.995 --> 00:08:23.543 It could also be a version of a mixed reality headset that it mixes virtual on top of your real reality. 00:08:23.543 --> 00:08:28.007 Okay, so that's the that's the virtual reality experiential reality continuum. 00:08:28.007 --> 00:08:36.849 And so sometimes we combine all of these, put them under the same umbrella and call it XR or otherwise virtual mixed augmented reality. 00:08:36.849 --> 00:08:38.267 That's a continuum. 00:08:38.267 --> 00:08:41.895 How do you see them changing the way we approach human movement and recovery? 00:08:42.437 --> 00:08:43.397 Huge.

00:08:43.397 --> 00:08:49.653 It's not going to replace the current rehab standards and how we treat our patients or how we teach. 00:08:49.653 --> 00:08:51.197 It's not a replacement. 00:08:51.197 --> 00:08:53.823 It's an enhancement. It's an add on tool. 00:08:53.823 --> 00:09:08.004 if one sees it as that, then it is going to improve whatever it is you're aiming to do, whether it is you're trying to teach students the phases of the moon, historically, they were taught with a popsicle stick in a dark room and a flashlight. 00:09:08.004 --> 00:09:14.261 But if you put on that VR headset, you are standing on top of the moon looking at the Earth. 00:09:14.261 --> 00:09:17.389 You can then walk up to Earth and turn around and look at the moon. 00:09:17.389 --> 00:09:19.475 And then here's the kicker. 00:09:19.475 --> 00:09:27.482 You can use your, remote control handle, grab the sun and spin it around your head, and you can see how the phases of the moon change. 00:09:27.482 --> 00:09:32.404 Because the phases of the moon are the shadow of the Earth, on the moon, when the sun is behind you. 00:09:32.404 --> 00:09:35.198 So you can see that, then it clicks. 00:09:35.198 --> 00:09:38.702 I actually remember one year for Christmas, I think it was around 7 or 8. 00:09:38.702 --> 00:09:42.539 I got a VR headset and one of the things in it was walking on the moon. 00:09:42.539 --> 00:09:44.583 So that is really cool. 00:09:42.549 --> 00:09:44.583 Yeah. 00:09:44.583 --> 00:09:48.379 How do these tools improve outcomes compared to traditional methods? 00:09:48.837 --> 00:09:55.135 Again, not replacing traditional methods, but adding on to the traditional methods. 00:09:55.135 --> 00:09:57.679 How do they improve these outcomes? 00:09:57.679 --> 00:10:00.307 You can make the exercise more specific. 00:10:00.307 --> 00:10:02.518 You can make the training more targeted. 00:10:02.518 --> 00:10:08.231 You can make the training more to the scenario in which something happens, I'll give you an example. 00:10:08.231 --> 00:10:14.904 An older adult or somebody with a stroke or Parkinson's disease or anything for that matter. You and me. 00:10:14.904 --> 00:10:24.331 Okay, we have to cross the street, but we are new to this environment Yes, I can take you to the corner of the street, and we can walk across the street and back and forth until you get comfortable crossing the street. 00:10:24.331 --> 00:10:32.923 A few people will honk at you, and then you can transfer that knowledge and go to New York and know that if I see a pedestrian crossing, press the button and cross the street. 00:10:32.923 --> 00:10:36.177 But it's unsafe if you wanted to train somebody to do that. 00:10:36.177 --> 00:10:38.220 Now, what if I took you to my laboratory? 00:10:38.220 --> 00:10:58.323 You put on that headset, I've got a 20 meter walkway, and as soon as you put on your headset, you are in downtown Manhattan on a pedestrian crossing, and you can safely walk back and forth, and I can train you how to do that, which is very useful when it comes to training individuals who have neurological diseases or older adults who are slow at moving. 00:10:58.323 --> 00:11:01.284 So you can do that in a safe environment. 00:11:01.284 --> 00:11:01.284 Train them. 00:11:01.284 --> 00:11:02.202 They're not afraid. 00:11:02.202 --> 00:11:10.293 The fear of getting hit, therefore inducing a fear of learning that activity goes away and then they're comfortable doing the things you get to do in the real world. 00:11:10.293 --> 00:11:11.169 That's how it would enhance. 00:11:11.169 --> 00:11:14.173 And that's what I meant by improving the specificity of what you're doing. 00:11:14.255 --> 00:11:21.263 Are there specific populations athletes, older adults, patients recovering from injury who benefit most? 00:11:21.806 --> 00:11:23.014 Yes and no. 00:11:23.014 --> 00:11:24.182 Anybody can benefit of it. 00:11:24.182 --> 00:11:27.186 It depends on the instance of usage. 00:11:27.186 --> 00:11:30.313 So why do you want to use it is what matters. 00:11:30.313 --> 00:11:39.782 What's the prescription of that do you want to use it to train older adults how to navigate safely in an environment that would be novel to them. 00:11:39.782 --> 00:11:49.500 Do you want to train an athlete to specifically focus at one thing that helps improve their performance in a movement? 00:11:49.500 --> 00:11:55.214 Those are the things you would use to enhance or augment the training, so it can be used on anybody. It depends. 00:11:55.214 --> 00:11:59.217 Otherwise the misconception is it's just a fad. 00:11:59.217 --> 00:12:00.302 It's a gimmick. 00:12:00.302 --> 00:12:02.929 People are just playing games and they're getting nothing out of it. 00:12:02.929 --> 00:12:06.475 And it could be true if you're using that instrument purposelessly. 00:12:06.475 --> 00:12:13.023 It depends on the application of what you're using it for, that you'd be able to see the benefits in any population you want to. 00:12:13.481 --> 00:12:16.485 Where do you see this field heading in the next five years? 00:12:16.943 --> 00:12:24.326 In five years, XR, or experiential reality, you know, virtual, augmented, you name it, it's already here. 00:12:24.326 --> 00:12:26.828 It's not a five year thing. 00:12:26.828 --> 00:12:26.828 It's already here. 00:12:26.828 --> 00:12:35.336 You put your Ray-Ban glasses, it's got a camera on it, you can talk to it and you can say, “hey Meta, where am I in space?” I have those glasses. 00:12:35.336 --> 00:12:36.254 That's what I use. 00:12:36.254 --> 00:12:39.091 It talks back to me, it converts and translates everything for me. 00:12:39.091 --> 00:12:40.926 The field is already there, okay? 00:12:40.926 --> 00:12:48.768 It's how we apply it is going to become a more mainstream application rather than right now being a specialty application. 00:12:48.768 --> 00:12:52.687 Right now it's mad scientists and those who can play with it and afford it. 00:12:52.687

--> 00:13:05.075 And, in five years, I would hope that it becomes an everyday thing for people to use, not to replace what we do, but to enhance how we use it to get better outcomes. 00:13:05.075 --> 00:13:09.538 That's where it will become more equitable for everybody. 00:13:09.538 --> 00:13:18.839 We’ll be able to apply it better, especially in telehealth kind of situations, or to teach better or to train better, not just in rehab, but in education. 00:13:18.839 --> 00:13:20.298 Hopefully in five years, we’ll get there. 00:13:20.298 --> 00:13:26.388 It'll go from being a gimmick to an everyday thing, because even ten years ago, 12 years ago, when I got into this thing, it was a fad. 00:13:26.388 --> 00:13:29.933 And us, in five years it should be an everyday thing. 00:13:29.933 --> 00:13:32.937 We shouldn't have to worry about it being a gimmick or a fad. 00:13:33.102 --> 00:13:37.566 How do you prepare students in the School of Kinesiology to work with these technologies? 00:13:38.442 --> 00:13:46.533 You know, I'm going to tell you something about training that will kind of be anti-climactic to the training. 00:13:46.533 --> 00:13:51.246 Do I want them to learn how to use the virtual reality headsets? 00:13:51.246 --> 00:13:53.791 Yes, but that's not the first thing. 00:13:53.791 --> 00:13:55.375 That's not the second thing, the third thing... 00:13:55.375 --> 00:14:23.278 it’s the fifth thing on the top ten, maybe What we need to do to train students to become good consumers and therefore, practitioners of the technology is work on fundamental knowledge, understand the basics and the foundations of movement analysis, motor learning, and applying these foundational principles to whether it is rehabilitation or athletic performance or human performance, whatever you want to study. 00:14:23.278 --> 00:14:32.370 And then teach them how to be good consumers of the technology to apply it to get that “Aha! I can use it over there. 00:14:32.370 --> 00:14:47.469 I can use my virtual reality headset to put somebody in the middle of Manhattan and help them cross the street well within my laboratory.” I can use my cell phone or my laptop to project a hologram of the skull and teach neuroanatomy. 00:14:47.469 --> 00:14:56.519 But if you don't know what you're looking for, then putting it in a virtual reality headset only makes it, a thing that sits on the shelf to look good. 00:14:56.519 --> 00:14:58.980 That's not the purpose of the technology. 00:14:58.980 --> 00:15:02.359 Can you tell me about the different technology that you have in your lab? 00:15:03.277 --> 00:15:05.236 Yes. How much time do we have? 00:15:05.236 --> 00:15:21.794 We have several virtual reality and mixed reality headsets in the lab, which are used primarily for balance training and for walking, where I can put you in the scenario that I described to you about retraining people to walk in downtown Manhattan. 00:15:21.794 --> 00:15:25.256 That's a real scenario that we have in our lab. 00:15:25.256 --> 00:15:27.884 Then we have other scenarios where we can take you skydiving. 00:15:27.884 --> 00:15:38.019 If you have the fear of heights, then we can test the physiology while having you, “skydive” safely by just sitting in a chair and jumping out of an airplane. 00:15:38.019 --> 00:15:40.188 And we can study what's the core physiology that goes on? 00:15:40.188 --> 00:15:42.649 What happens to your heart rate when you jump out of an airplane? 00:15:42.649 --> 00:15:45.443 It goes from 60 to 120 very quickly. 00:15:45.443 --> 00:15:58.539 We have, augmented reality headsets and simulations that we play on our driving simulator to understand driving behavior and retrain driving behavior in those with neurological injuries. 00:15:58.539 --> 00:16:14.974 I've worked with racecar drivers where we've put on the virtual reality headset and put them on racetracks that they would be driving on in preparation for the race next weekend, and then learn how to go through that corner faster, or breathe on the straightaway when you're driving 150mph. 00:16:14.974 --> 00:16:21.187 What's more impressive, or equally impressive that we have, is we have this technology in our classrooms. 00:16:21.187 --> 00:16:24.566 So when I came in four years ago, we set up the physical therapy program. 00:16:24.566 --> 00:16:32.115 We now have the university’s first human anatomy simulation lab, and we've got four anatomy simulation tables. 00:16:32.115 --> 00:16:38.246 Each one of these tables houses several cadavers and other anatomical and physiological models. 00:16:38.246 --> 00:16:48.090 in them that can be used in almost a virtual reality sense to run dissections and learn anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, principles of human movement. 00:16:48.090 --> 00:16:51.092 right there on that giant simulation table. 00:16:51.259 --> 00:16:54.763 How often are students using these different technologies in the lab? 00:16:54.971 --> 00:16:57.099 They have access to the lab 24/7. 00:16:57.099 --> 00:17:01.769 So, for anatomy, students have access to the lab, seven days a week. 00:17:01.769 --> 00:17:05.356 For my research lab, you have to be a student of the lab. 00:17:05.356 --> 00:17:07.859 And they are in the lab all the time. 00:17:07.859 --> 00:17:11.864 For students interested in this area, what skills should they start developing now? 00:17:12.990 --> 00:17:19.954 Before touching advanced technology, students need a rock solid understanding of motor control and motor learning. 00:17:19.954 --> 00:17:26.670 These are subfields in kinesiology, biomechanics, the kinematics and kinetics of movement. 00:17:26.670 --> 00:17:26.670 How do joints interact? 00:17:26.670 --> 00:17:27.796 How do muscles interact? 00:17:27.796 --> 00:17:29.757 How is a movement performed? 00:17:29.757 --> 00:17:32.342 They have to first become experts in that. 00:17:32.342 --> 00:17:34.303 Exercise physiology and its fundamentals. 00:17:34.303 --> 00:17:35.136 Postural control. 00:17:35.136 --> 00:17:37.931 How do we control our movement and our balance those things? 00:17:37.931 --> 00:17:40.058 How do we walk? Gait analysis. 00:17:40.058 --> 00:17:44.354 Unless you don't understand that applying technology to it is is futile. 00:17:44.354 --> 00:17:51.819 Virtual and augmented reality are only powerful tools when students understand what they are measuring and why it matters. 00:17:52.695 --> 00:17:53.946 Thanks, Dr. Baweja. 00:17:53.946 --> 00:17:55.740 This has been so insightful. 00:17:55.740 --> 00:18:01.913 Before we wrap up, what's one key takeaway you hope listeners remember about VR and AR in training and rehab? 00:18:02.247 --> 00:18:19.097 So the one key takeaway that would summarize all of what we've spoken about and things that we didn't speak about would be that experiential reality, or XR, like we like to call it, whether it is virtual reality, augmented reality - these aren’t just new tools. 00:18:19.097 --> 00:18:20.265 They've been around for a while. 00:18:20.265 --> 00:18:35.404 They have fundamentally expanded what's possible in whether you want to look at human movement training, rehabilitation, the teaching of sciences, training medical professionals on empathy and case scenarios, you name it. 00:18:35.404 --> 00:18:40.661 Okay, enabling precise, adaptive, data driven experiences. 00:18:40.661 --> 00:18:58.470 And these are an add on or superior to the traditional methods that simply can't be replicated without augmented reality or with exponential reality. So everything else: skills, challenges, student preparation, future trends, flows from that core truth. 00:18:58.470 --> 00:19:09.230 What XR allows you to do is it enhances, it accelerates and personalizes learning and recovery when it is grounded in strong foundational principles. 00:19:09.230 --> 00:19:18.740 You can not discount getting up in the morning, going to school and learning what is being taught to then apply it with the tech that we use. 00:19:18.740 --> 00:19:21.034 That would be my big take home. 00:19:21.034 --> 00:19:22.451 Thank you so much again, Dr. 00:19:22.451 --> 00:19:27.082 Baweja for joining us on Auburn Ed Talks, where great minds keep the conversation rolling. 00:19:27.082 --> 00:19:29.250 And thanks to everyone for listening. 00:19:29.250 --> 00:19:35.464 Be sure to subscribe for more conversations that inspire, inform and ignite your passion for education and innovation. 00:19:35.464 --> 00:19:37.259 War Eagle! 00:19:35.683 --> 00:19:37.259 War Eagle!