RELEASE NO. 99-065 (Identical to HQ REL. NO. 99-103)
NASA Technology May Help Victims Of Diabetes
Some of the more than 15
million Americans who have diabetes may soon use NASA virtual
reality technology as a new treatment in the self-management of the
disease.
Preliminary observations
show that NASA's artificial-vision technology can help patients at
risk for nerve damage associated with diabetes to visualize and
control blood flow to their arms and legs. This application, which
comes from several years of research aimed at enhancing aviation
safety, combines two technologies: sensors to measure the body's
reactions and powerful computer graphics to turn those measurements
into a 3-D virtual environment.
The graphics technologies
are used in research with cockpit artificial-vision systems to help
pilots see in low- or no-visibility situations, and as
data-visualization tools to help designers study air-flow patterns
around new aircraft shapes. In this fall's studies, diabetes
patients will wear a 3-D virtual-reality headset to visualize the
contraction and expansion of their own blood vessels.
Using self-management, or
biofeedback methods -- including changes in breathing and muscle
flexing -- the patients will increase blood flow, which will be
measured through sensors attached to their fingertips. The system
uses skin-surface pulse and temperature measurements to create a
computer-generated image of what is actually happening to blood
vessels under the skin. Just as pilots use artificial vision to
"see" into bad weather, patients will use this virtual reality
device to see beneath their skin.
The studies will be conducted by the Strelitz Diabetes
Research Institutes of the Eastern Virginia Medical School,
Norfolk, VA. "What we have here is an immediate and direct,
real-time visual appreciation of what's happening with blood flow,"
said Dr. Aaron Vinik, professor of internal medicine and director
of research at the Strelitz Institutes.
Researchers intend patients
to use such a device to train themselves to eventually sense and
control their blood flow with no device whatsoever. Previous
biofeedback methods, trained patients to do this by presenting them
with physiological information in simple graphics, sometimes aided
by separate mental-imagery training. Virtual-reality technology is
proving to be more easily learned and motivating for patients and
is expected to be more effective in teaching these skills by
helping patients visualize real-time physiological responses.
Studies will also begin this fall in the
Behavioral Medicine Center at the University of Virginia Health
Sciences Center, Charlottesville, VA, to evaluate the technology
for the treatment of other blood-flow disorders. "If tests are
successful, this technology may also be used to help sufferers of
migraine headaches and other chronic blood-flow disorders," said
NASA researcher Alan Pope. Pope and Kurt Severance, of NASA's
Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, are the inventors of the
virtual-reality device.
The medical centers signed
agreements with Langley's Technology Commercialization Program
Office to test the NASA device. The office is part of an active
NASA technology transfer program, established to move space-age
technology from the laboratory to the marketplace. For more
information, check the Internet at:
http://tech-transfer.larc.nasa.gov/
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Editor's Note: Broadcast media organizations
are invited to conduct live interviews via satellite with NASA
Langley's Dr. Alan Pope (research scientist) and Kurt Severance
(computer engineer), inventors of the virtual-reality biofeedback
device, on Friday, Sept. 24 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 2
p.m. EDT. B-roll is available that includes the technology's
aerospace application in aviation research and its current use with
diabetes patients. Call Ivelisse Gilman at (757) 864-5036 to book
an interview.
