Phantom Mirror

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  Phantom Mirror Logo

Inspiration

Phantom limb pain is a debilitating condition experienced by 95% of amputees and even some stroke patients. It is described as tingling and/or stabbing pain occurring in the missing limb and is theorized to result from a mix-up in nervous system signaling between the spine and the brain. Current therapies, including antidepressants, electromagnetic stimulation, and mirror box therapy, are expensive and costly to administer consistently. Phantom Mirror is designed to be a free therapy for phantom limb pain that mimics the functionality of mirror box therapy.

Phantom Mirror, like mirror box therapy, works by creating an illusion of the missing limb using mirror image of the functioning limb. This has been shown by multiple trials to relieve phantom limb pain.

What it does

Phantom Mirror creates a mirror image of a functioning limb by reflecting half the camera input. Tapping the screen allows the user to toggle which half of the screen is reflected, in order to allow Phantom Mirror to cater to both right and left-limbed amputees.

Challenges I ran into

Phantom Mirror was originally also intended to incorporate a segmentation mask for limb tracking, but the current segmentation models weren't entirely effective in tracking limbs accurately and without noise. Since mirror box therapy requires the brain to believe the illusion, mirroring the screen was deemed the optimal choice.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Phantom Mirror is the first SnapLens that I have created and uploaded. It has the potential to help patients suffering from Phantom Limb pain, which I think is a huge step for a free Snapchat lens.

What's next for Phantom Mirror

With better limb tracking segmentation models, I hope to reimplement Phantom Mirror to solely reflect the functioning limb without the underlying background.

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