Burn Patient Pain Therapy

SnowWorld is an immersive application to help burn victims lessen the extreme pain experienced during burn treatment and rehabilitation. The pain can be so severe that burn patients often resist the daily treatments required to fully recover from the traumatic experience.

Using Vega and MultiGen Creator Pro, SnowWorld creates an experience of flying a fighter jet through an icy 3D canyon. The application allows the user to shoot virtual snowballs at snowmen and igloos. Patients wear a high-resolution virtual reality helmet with a 60 degrees diagonal field of view, which allows some peripheral vision of the virtual world. In addition, the helmet completely blocks their view of the real world.

University of Washington
Harborview Burn Center
Dr. Hunter Hoffman
215 Fluke Hall
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
www.hitL.washington.edu/research/burn/

Team: Hunter Hoffman, Ph. D., David Patterson, Ph. D., Paul Allen Foundation for Medical Research