A Coruña, August 23, 2024.– The use of technology as a tool for inclusion is one of the action lines of the Center for Research in Information and Communication Technologies (CITIC) of the University of A Coruña. In this regard, researchers at the center are working on the development of virtual reality applications designed to improve people’s lives.

Users and healthcare professionals from the entities Asociación Coruña de Esclerosis Múltiple (ACEM) and Fisioterapeuta del Mayor visited the CITIC Virtual Reality and Localization Laboratory last May to put the designed technologies into practice, which allowed them to gather several suggestions and ideas to improve the developments, as well as to work on creating new virtual reality scenarios.

One of these scenarios is an application that simulates a home, tested by Rebeca and Miguel, users of ACEM and Fisio del Mayor. In it, different daily life tasks must be performed. Its objective is to improve the work of physical and cognitive skills through a safe, motivating environment with tasks easily transferable to daily life.

The second virtual reality application developed uses the Virtuix Omni Pro device, a captive movement system that allows unlimited movement in virtual environments. This scenario simulates a supermarket, and its purpose is to practice the usual tasks of this environment, with the added value of being able to work on walking without the usual limitations of virtual reality systems. One of the tasks is to make a purchase from a list of products, locating them on different shelves and storing them in a shopping basket. Its purpose is to work on physical skills during the movement and reach of the different products. However, distinguishing the different products also involves cognitive work.