Manipulating the Experience of Reality for Rehabilitation Applications

Augmented reality (AR) has the potential to change the way therapy and rehabilitation is understood and administered. It can be used to manipulate the experience of reality, resulting in novel rehabilitative applications including but not limited to augmented mirror box (AMB) manipulations. We present a conceptual framework for the effective use of AR in a therapeutic context developed around the aspects of belief, interactivity, predictability, and decoupling. This framework is based on previous work in perception and emotion manipulation and is derived from and illustrated with a number of empirical studies. In particular, we describe how our augmented reflection technology (ART) system is able to manipulate the experience of reality in an effective way and how this demonstrates the potential of augmented environments to improve health and wellbeing.