Source: Opposable VR
You walk through a field of crisp, white snow. The sky a fresh blue, snowflakes hang in the air like fireflies. Ice floats in shades of teal on the black water of a lake. Penguins waddle past, you scoop up a handful of fluffy snow, pack it into shape before playfully throwing it towards them. You hear something on the air – the whimsical lyrics of Paul Simon.
Sounds like the greatest dream ever, right? Well guess again. What you have just experienced is SnowWorld, a ‘pain distraction’ virtual reality (VR) project created by the University of Washington’s own HITLab.
Researchers at University of Washington, working with burn victims, found that pain experienced during wound care – bandage changing, cleaning etc – registered as strongly as the original burn experience. Pain reducing drugs such as morphine, whilst effective during rest states, were found to be highly ineffective during wound care.
SnowWorld works on the basis that pain requires ‘conscious attention’ to be felt; VR, being about illusion and immersion, lures a patient’s conscious attention to stimuli in the VR world and away from the treatment they are receiving. In preliminary tests, HITLab found patients experienced a 50% reduction in pain felt and a marked drop in anxiety.