At Wildwood Healthcare Center on East 16th Street, patients are playing for their health. A virtual reality gaming system, the only one of its kind in Indiana, is helping patients going through physical, speech or occupational therapy.
Victoria Maryman has been at the center for nine months and says before she started using the program, she was having 10 seizures a day and could hardly speak.
"With epilepsy, a lot of poeple don't know it burns up brain cells and the therapy it helps with memory," Maryman said.
She plays a program where she has to match and remember icons. Unlike most gaming systems, the OmniVR doens't require the player to hold a remote control. Instead a camera on top of the mointor captures the patient's movements.
"It actually avitars their body. It takes in all their information that their body movements are and it avitars that and then from that it actually captures all their movements. So, if someone's had a stroke or has Parkinsons and is a little more jittery with their movements it can capture that, whereas something like a Wii would just shut off," said Rehab Manager Kelly Wunderly.
She said patients used to spend an average of 50 days in the rehabilitation center. Now, they spend closer to an average of 30 days. She said she believes technology like the OmniVR is helping to decrease the time patients spend at the center, and increase their liklihood for success when they get home.
One of the keys to the OmniVR is the programs are geared toward the elderly. The games are functional, like gardening and crossing the street, so they easily translate into reality.
Patient Maryan Lewis fractured her hip this winter and said the best thing about playing the OmniVR is it doesn't feel like work.
"The games are fun, and of course you want to see your score," said Lewis.
The company that makes OmniVR, Accelerated Care Plus, is based in Minneapolis. It is still making more programs for the OmniVR, including one that would simulate a trip to the grocery store.
