I love to read. When I was a child, I would read in the back seat while my parents drove. Soon, I would get sick. I experienced motion sickness. But, what was actually going on?
As Apple explains in their May 15, 2024 Press Release, “…research shows that motion sickness is commonly caused by a sensory conflict between what a person sees and what they feel…”
Think of your brain like a computer. You have at least two (or, maybe four) inputs to sense motion: vision and vestibular. Vision is obvious. But, what is vestibular?
Vestibular refers to your inner ears. The inner ears contain sense organs that detect motion – we describes these motions in 6 directions:
- Yaw (turning left or right)
- Pitch (tilting forward or backwards)
- Roll (tilting side-to-side)
- Surge (move forward)
- Sway (rolling left or right)
- Heave (bobbing up or down)
We detect motion with vision, too. For example, Apple noticed that iPhone users sometimes got car sick when watching their screens while in a moving vehicle.
Their vestibular systems detected the vehicle forward motion (surge) but their eyes were fixed on the iPhone screen.
Their brains registered a conflict. This conflict is why we experience motion sickness.
Vehicle Motion Cues Can Help Reduce Motion Sickness
Vehicle Motion Cues is a new experience for iPhone and iPad that can help reduce motion sickness for passengers in moving vehicles. Research shows that motion sickness is commonly caused by a sensory conflict between what a person sees and what they feel, which can prevent some users from comfortably using iPhone or iPad while riding in a moving vehicle.
With Vehicle Motion Cues, animated dots on the edges of the screen represent changes in vehicle motion to help reduce sensory conflict without interfering with the main content.
Using sensors built into iPhone and iPad, Vehicle Motion Cues recognizes when a user is in a moving vehicle and responds accordingly. The feature can be set to show automatically on iPhone, or can be turned on and off in Control Center.
Visual Conflict and Fall Risk Detection
Physical therapists screen their patients for balance disorders (such as vertigo) using quick screening tests. The gold standard in outpatient physical therapy is the Clinical Test of Sensory Integration and Balance (CTSIB) – also known as the Foam-and-Dome Test.
The CTSIB tests people under 6 conditions:
- Eyes open, firm surface
- Eyes closed, firm surface
- Visual conflict, firm surface
- Eyes open, compliant (soft) surface
- Eyes closed, compliant (soft) surface
- Visual conflict, compliant (soft) surface
Notice that Conditions #3 and #6 test the ‘visual conflict’ situation – the same situation Apple iPhone users experience while using their devices in a moving vehicle.
Why do physical therapists put our poor patients through this uncomfortable experience?
A fall can be devastating. Think of your older loved ones – your mom or dad. Maybe your grandmother. This is the population we seek to serve by preventing injurious falls.
- There are over 35 million adults over the age of 65 years in the United States.
- 1 in 4 of these older adults will fall within the next 12 months.
- A fall with injury can result in a wrist fracture, hip fracture or head injury.
- A visit to the emergency room as a result of a fall costs, on average, $14,652.15.
- Falls are preventable if detected early.
Physical therapists use the CTSIB to screen for and identify people who need specific training that addresses one or more of their balance deficits to improve their balance and reduce fall risk:
- Specific visual eye tracking exercises.
- Specific vestibular repositioning maneuvers.
- Specific lower extremity strengthening exercises for balance.
But, CTSIB testing is under used in PT clinics nationwide. Currently, patients only get to a PT for testing AFTER they have had a fall.
For example, your mom, dad or grandparent we mentioned earlier. Would you prefer if America’s healthcare system screened and detected their fall BEFORE it happened and they got hurt?
VisualPT.ai – The Fall Risk Detection mobile app
Today, fall risk detection relies on heavy, expensive force plates built into equipment that costs from $5,000 to $87,000. Hospitals and physical therapy clinics must invest in this equipment in order to test their patients. And, not all Doctors of Physical Therapy have access to the equipment.
The solution is software: an inexpensive, widespread and easy-to-use mobile device app that virtualizes the CTSIB so every physical therapist has the tools to test your mom, your dad or your grandparents.
The mission of VisualPT.ai is not to 10x fall risk detection. Not to 100x fall risk detection. We want to 1000x fall risk detection to that all of your loved ones are safe from an injurious fall.
Apple’s new Vehicle Motion Cues
Visual conflict (detectable by Condition #3 and #6 of the CTSIB) will never go away. Physical therapy can’t cure visual conflict. But, we know falls can be prevented. But, we can’t prevent people from falling down if we don’t know they are at risk.
More falls risk screening is needed. As more people ride in autonomous vehicles and look at their phones while in the car, their visual conflict will become more evident.
Let’s not wait for them to fall down before we get them the help they need. We’re not going to take away their phones.
But, let’s get them physical therapy before they fall down.
Virtual Student Data Collection Experience
The VisualPT.ai is partnering with schools and universities to provide a Physical Therapist Students’ Capstone Data Collection Project to Doctor of Physical Therapy students.
Your DPT students will participate with Machine Learning Engineers and Mobile App Designers to train the next generation of AI-augmented physical therapy tools.
Create the Future of Physical Therapy
Join the PT Student Data Collection Experience
