| Résumé |
We developed a visual and auditory 3D Virtual Environment (VE) dedicated to the rehabilitation of tinnitus. Our aim is to investigate whether immersive Virtual Reality (VR) can contribute to tinnitus treatment by promoting plasticity, through the active manipulation of a 3D auditory object linked to a visual representation. Although VR techniques are very attractive for health care, their adaptations are mandatory in order to allow their practical clinical use. In the case of tinnitus patients, a special effort has to be dedicated to the work on the monitoring of 3D audio features. Our rehabilitation protocol is composed of two main steps. In a first test, an acoustic modelisation of the perceived tinnitus is established. The acoustic model is then used as a tinnitus avatar in the second step, involving three auditory and visual VE designed in Virtools, a VR development application. The three VEs were chosen as representative of realistic situations (countryside, urban and indoor scenes) and are inhabited with a collection of auditory sources (animals, cars, domestic noises, …). These auditory sources are spatialized according to the location and orientation of the patient in the VE. Immersion is provided through the use of a stereoscopic Head Mounted Display equipped with a head sensor and headphones. An additional sensor attached to the tip of a rod allows the patient to control the virtual position of the tinnitus avatar through the displacement of the rod. The position and orientation of the two sensors are tracked with infra-red cameras. A randomised clinical trial will compare VR rehabilitation to cognitive-behavioral therapy and delayed treatment. The efficacy will be evaluated by standardised questionnaires. This research is supported by a TRI Grant (PB 07 01) and Amplifon. |
