An Analysis of Virtual Reality Applications in Rehabilitation Engineering

The application of science and technology for more efficient medical rehabilitation processes has led to the inclusion of new fields such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) among specific approaches of Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology. The primary goal of this paper is to identify what are the most common VR solution in rehabilitation engineering, and suggest directions for the future research. In terms of research methodology, this paper involved identification of relevant publications through keyword searches and bibliometric analysis. As results we identified the key medical domains where virtual reality has a significant impact with measurable results. In this paper, the Virtual Reality impact on research in the rehabilitation engineering field is emphasized and analyzed. Representative examples of VR and AR systems are studied and future research and development topics are identified.