Positive Technology Journal

A mobile data collection platform for mental health research

Augmented Reality - Projection Mapping from Dane Luttik on Vimeo.

A little old video but still inspiring...

THE BEGINNING OF INFINITY from Jason Silva on Vimeo.

Neural Reorganization Accompanying Upper Limb Motor Rehabilitation from Stroke with Virtual Reality-Based Gesture Therapy.

Top Stroke Rehabil. 2013 May-June 1;20(3):197-209

Authors: Orihuela-Espina F, Fernández Del Castillo I, Palafox L, Pasaye E, Sánchez-Villavicencio I, Leder R, Franco JH, Sucar LE

Background: Gesture Therapy is an upper limb virtual reality rehabilitation-based therapy for stroke survivors. It promotes motor rehabilitation by challenging patients with simple computer games representative of daily activities for self-support. This therapy has demonstrated clinical value, but the underlying functional neural reorganization changes associated with this therapy that are responsible for the behavioral improvements are not yet known. Objective: We sought to quantify the occurrence of neural reorganization strategies that underlie motor improvements as they occur during the practice of Gesture Therapy and to identify those strategies linked to a better prognosis. Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) neuroscans were longitudinally collected at 4 time points during Gesture Therapy administration to 8 patients. Behavioral improvements were monitored using the Fugl-Meyer scale and Motricity Index. Activation loci were anatomically labelled and translated to reorganization strategies. Strategies are quantified by counting the number of active clusters in brain regions tied to them. Results: All patients demonstrated significant behavioral improvements (P < .05). Contralesional activation of the unaffected motor cortex, cerebellar recruitment, and compensatory prefrontal cortex activation were the most prominent strategies evoked. A strong and significant correlation between motor dexterity upon commencing therapy and total recruited activity was found (r2 = 0.80; P < .05), and overall brain activity during therapy was inversely related to normalized behavioral improvements (r2 = 0.64; P < .05). Conclusions: Prefrontal cortex and cerebellar activity are the driving forces of the recovery associated with Gesture Therapy. The relation between behavioral and brain changes suggests that those with stronger impairment benefit the most from this paradigm.

Illusory ownership of a virtual child body causes overestimation of object sizes and implicit attitude changes.

Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2013 Jul 15;

Authors: Banakou D, Groten R, Slater M

Abstract. An illusory sensation of ownership over a surrogate limb or whole body can be induced through specific forms of multisensory stimulation, such as synchronous visuotactile tapping on the hidden real and visible rubber hand in the rubber hand illusion. Such methods have been used to induce ownership over a manikin and a virtual body that substitute the real body, as seen from first-person perspective, through a head-mounted display. However, the perceptual and behavioral consequences of such transformed body ownership have hardly been explored. In Exp. 1, immersive virtual reality was used to embody 30 adults as a 4-y-old child (condition C), and as an adult body scaled to the same height as the child (condition A), experienced from the first-person perspective, and with virtual and real body movements synchronized. The result was a strong body-ownership illusion equally for C and A. Moreover there was an overestimation of the sizes of objects compared with a nonembodied baseline, which was significantly greater for C compared with A. An implicit association test showed that C resulted in significantly faster reaction times for the classification of self with child-like compared with adult-like attributes. Exp. 2 with an additional 16 participants extinguished the ownership illusion by using visuomotor asynchrony, with all else equal. The size-estimation and implicit association test differences between C and A were also extinguished. We conclude that there are perceptual and probably behavioral correlates of body-ownership illusions that occur as a function of the type of body in which embodiment occurs.

Re-blogged from Textually.org

What are our devices doing to us? We already know they're snuffing our creativity - but new research suggests they're also stifling our drive. How so? Because fussing with them on average 58 minutes a day leads to bad posture, FastCompany reports.

The body posture inherent in operating everyday gadgets affects not only your back, but your demeanor, reports a new experimental study entitled iPosture: The Size of Electronic Consumer Devices Affects Our Behavior. It turns out that working on a relatively large machine (like a desktop computer) causes users to act more assertively than working on a small one (like an iPad).

That poor posture, Harvard Business School researchers Maarten Bos and Amy Cuddy find, undermines our assertiveness.

Read more.

Via Medgadget

NeuroMetrix of out of Waltham, MA received FDA clearance for its SENSUS Pain Management System to be used by patients during sleep. This is the first transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation system to receive a sleep indication from the FDA for pain control.

The device is designed for use by diabetics and others with chronic pain in the legs and feet. It’s worn around one or both legs and delivers an electrical current to disrupt pain signals being sent up to the brain.

Via MedGadget

From Microsoft:

"In this project—which is being shown during the DemoFest portion of Faculty Summit 2013, which brings more than 400 academic researchers to Microsoft headquarters to share insight into impactful research—the hand tracking leads to a process of 3-D motion-trajectory alignment and matching for individual words in sign language. The words are generated via hand tracking by theKinect for Windows software and then normalized, and matching scores are computed to identify the most relevant candidates when a signed word is analyzed.

The algorithm for this 3-D trajectory matching, in turn, has enabled the construction of a system for sign-language recognition and translation, consisting of two modes. The first, Translation Mode, translates sign language into text or speech. The technology currently supports American sign language but has potential for all varieties of sign language."