VR Researcher and Games Developer, Ivan Phelan introduces his research to the BBC

This week C3RI’s VR Researcher and Games Developer, Ivan Phelan spoke to the BBC about how virtual reality (VR) games can help patients through rehab.

Ivan and his team are currently working on a collaborative project with Sheffield Children’s Hospital researching the ways in which VR might help children through rehab for limb injuries.

This research will be featured on the BBC this weekend. The report will be on Saturday’s BBC Breakfast and on BBC Click on the News Channel at 12.30, and throughout the weekend.

Ivan’s primary area of expertise is in Unity and C# which are great tools to create fast functional prototypes. His current research uses Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality with Health Technologies to aid patient rehabilitation.

Other projects that Ivan and the VR research team are working on include the application of VR games technology to train adult amputees to use their prosthetic arm for a range of everyday tasks, and the use of VR games to reduce pain for burns patients under going dressing changes.