Virtual dog new tricks: virtual reality game a creative tool to help manage acute pain

School of Art & Design

A virtual reality game featuring a dog offers a non-pharmacological complement to opioid interventions in acute pain management.

A virtual reality (VR) game featuring a little dog and a simple quest offers a non-pharmacological alternative to acute pain management.

The immersive game, called Finding Home, builds rapport between the user and dog, developing patient resilience and coping skills. As such, it presents a compelling distraction to help reduce high dose opiates.

This character-driven approach is an innovative take on VR use for pain management, says Director of the at UNSW Sydney, Scientia Associate Professor John McGhee, a lead researcher on the project.

By introducing a canine character as a companion in its quest, the game provokes stronger attachments with its users, the Director of the 3D Visualisation Aesthetics Lab at UNSW Sydney says.

“It’s about building connection with character. We designed this little dog – it’s super cute – and you’re in this very abstract landscape and you’ve got to take the dog home.

“You’re investing in the [dog’s] character, rather than just investing in yourself which moves you away from the internalisation of pain.”

The project is a collaboration between UNSW and St Vincent’s Hospital Pain Medicine Department, Sydney, and is funded by the and Samsung. Samsung have also donated VR headsets for the randomised control clinical trial. The prototype is currently being tested through the Acute Pain Service at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney.

The project moves to explore alternatives to acute pain relief to complement opioid intervention and, in so doing, to minimise the risk of chronic pain, says Professor Steven Faux, Director of the Department of Pain Medicine at St Vincent's, Sydney.

“Reliance on medication alone makes people feel passive in their pain management. By contrast studies engaging with virtual reality have shown that it can decrease anxiety and distress, thereby helping to control pain levels.

“Sometimes, you just feel stressed and uncomfortable, and the only thing you can do is take an opiate, which is not always the right thing to do. A/Prof. McGhee and I have worked on technologies to give them an alternative.”

By introducing a canine companion, the game provokes stronger attachments with users, says lead researcher A/Prof. John McGhee. Image: 3D Visualisation Aesthetics Lab.

A quest beyond pain’s walls

The VR game has been codesigned by computer animation artists, virtual reality/gaming designers, psychologists and pain specialists. Users navigate an imagined landscape trying to help the dog find its way home.

“To practice the controls, you throw sticks and the dog has to bring them back. Then you do a number of activities with the dog, building a bridge, finding a rainforest. You have to find the parrots in the trees. It’s very Australian,” A/Prof. McGhee says.

Using research and published evidence to guide the design of the program was also a key focus of the team. “There have been lots of lessons learned in past research about the types of imagery, visual and audio stimulation that can help people experiencing pain,” says Dr Christine Shiner, a senior researcher on the project from St Vincent’s, Sydney. “This research helped inform the design of the program, to make it more than just a ‘game’.”

Priming the palette

The game uses cool hues – notably blues and purples – to placate patients’ pain response.

“We’ve developed the environment to keep the patient feeling cool so we avoided reds, and really intense colours – it doesn’t look like a real place – that’s informed by the psychology of aesthetics,” A/Prof. McGhee says.

“[It’s about] trying to cool them down, moving away from that red-hot white pain feeling towards a cool self-soothing environment.”

The aesthetic is cartoon in style to maximise the capabilities of the equipment and to minimise the threat of the unfamiliar, A/Prof. McGhee says. “It’s a portable headset so it has some limitations… so we had to be smart with the design.”

Additionally it had to accommodate patients being bed bound, engaging purely through head movements, he says. “We had to make the interface conducive to that very restrictive movement while still feeling immersive and interactive.”

The spaces, the palette and the interactions are all informed by research to create a positive, healing environment. “All these little microtransactions and interactions, they’re all there to make you feel safe. And in doing so, it takes your attention away from simply pressing the opioid button,” he says.

Users navigate an island, following a trail of lanterns through a series of settings, to take the dog home. Image: 3D Visualisation Aesthetics Lab.

A team from the UNSW School of Art & Design have designed a virtual reality game that could offer an alternative to pain management in the future. Image: 3D Visualisation Aesthetics Lab.

Teach a virtual dog…

Ultimately the team aims to build artificial intelligence into the dog, and introduce additional levels to the game, if the initial trials are successful, A/Prof. McGhee says.

“You could build resilience into the dog so the more you play, the better the dog copes and gets on with things… like a Tamagotchi, [the handheld Japanese digital pet], you keep coming back to it.

“We wanted the game to have this kind of stickiness to it so it wasn’t just a one-hit wonder,” he says.

Prof. Steven Faux says: “Our initial results with the prototype have been very positive. If the trial shows marginal improvements, it’s a win-win. As a non-pharmacological intervention, the game has multiple advantages: the less reliant on medication the patient is, the better the long-term outcomes.”

Harnessing the power of storytelling

“The game exemplifies how creative skills such as visualisation and animation can be re-tasked to directly impact health outcomes and quality of care in clinical settings,” A/Prof. McGhee says.

“A lot of it boils down to story, whether it’s immersive, interactive or a linear animation. Storytelling provides a powerful tool for better informing patients, and the general public more broadly, about treatment and the nature of disease and other health messages.”

A/Prof. McGhee’s previous research collaborations have included immersive platforms that simulate scientific phenomena, such as to help patients understand their treatment (again with St Vincent’s), , and educational 3D animations demonstrating the .

He received the inaugural Distinguished Research Award for his work with the and was nominated for the . He also recently participated on a panel at the internationally renowned that celebrates innovation for social change.

VR for good

The 3D Visualisation Aesthetics Lab (the Lab) harnesses creative practice, technical innovation and immersive platforms to create world-class data visualisations. Their research contributes to virtual world design, scientific discovery, education and engagement, biomedical communication and clinical interaction.

The Lab’s visual approach to designing content is what sets them apart from more technical labs, including industry heavyweights in Silicon Valley more focused on delivering new hardware and tools, he says.

“Our production on the activity of soap on the COVID-19 virus, for example, the quality of the output was world-class. It was recognised by prestigious animation festival SIGGRAPH Asia. For a small highly effective animation lab to get a foothold there says something.”

If the trials of the VR gaming prototype deliver on their promise, the platform has commercial potential.

“If we get this right – if we can show evidence that it works – we could license it to other hospitals, distribute it more broadly,” he says.

Nanoscape: A 3D computer-generated real-time visualisation depicting proteins and cellular processes on the surface of a cancer cell. Image: 3D Visualisation Aesthetics Lab, UNSW Sydney.

The 3D Visualisation Aesthetics Lab harnesses creative practice, technical innovation and immersive platforms to create world-class 3D animation and data visualisation. Their research contributes to virtual world design, science education and engagement, biomedical communication, patient interaction and immersive storytelling.

Images: In VR App screenshots from Finding Home - John McGhee, Mark Arrebola, Steven Faux and Christine Shiner. Created by UNSW 3DVAL and St Vincent's Hospital Sydney.

This article was originally published in 2022.

Written by Kay Harrison