Positive Technology Journal

From Emerging Technology Trends

Engineers and computer scientists at West Virginia University's GeoVirtual Laboratory (GVL) have developed what they called the VRGIS solution - short for 'virtual reality geographic information systems.' The VRGIS project combines several technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), location based services (LBS), and geographic information systems (GIS) with 'the power of the Internet to provide people with a portal to dynamically share information in a revolutionary new way.'

Via Medgadget

Robert Kirsch and coll., researchers at the at Louis Stokes Veterans Affairs Medical Center, are developing a more intuitive way for severely paralyzed individuals to regain motor function:

Scientists are now building a device that records brain signals and transmits them to paralyzed muscles, potentially returning muscle control to severely paralyzed patients. In the prosthetic system, which is still in early development, a brain chip records neural signals from the part of the brain that controls movement. The chip then processes those signals, sending precise messages to wires implanted in different muscles of the patient's arm or hand, triggering the paralyzed limb to grab a glass or scratch the nose. "Our ultimate goal is for a person to think and effortlessly move the arm ," says Robert Kirsch , associate director of the Functional Electrical Stimulation Center, at Louis Stokes Veterans Affairs Medical Center, in Cleveland, OH.

But for some patients, especially severely paralyzed individuals with control over few muscles, using signals recorded directly from the brain to control the paralyzed limbs could provide an easier and more intuitive way to move. So the Cleveland researchers are working with John Donoghue , a neuroscientist at Brown University, who has developed implantable brain chips that record and process electrical activity directly from neurons. The device, made by Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems , in Foxborough, MA, consists of a tiny chip containing 100 electrodes that record signals from hundreds of neurons in the motor cortex, the part of the brain that modulates movement. A computer algorithm then translates this complex pattern of activity into a signal used to control a computer or prosthetic limb.

The project is likely to be complex. Donoghue and colleagues must first make their brain chip wireless and fully implantable. (Currently, patients have some hardware protruding from their skull and are connected to a computer via wires.) An implantable system would minimize the risk of infection, and it might also help patients learn to use the system. Eberhard Fetz , a neuroscientist at the University of Washington, in Seattle, who is developing similar systems in monkeys, says that an implantable device would allow patients to use the system 24 hours a day, which would help them learn to modulate neural signals for precise control.

 

MIT Technology Review article

From usability news

You are invited to submit papers for PERSUASIVE 07 at Stanford University, April 27-28, 2007.

We welcome original papers based on empirical studies, theory, methods for research, and related ethical issues; and case studies of the highest quality.

Link to the conference website

Re-blogged from Videogame workout 

The Games for Health Competition runs from October 19 to April 1, 2007.

[there are] three specific competitions - two for storyboards & game treatments, and a grand prize for best working prototype/game. The following links provide basic information on each competition:

Student Storyboard & Treatment ($5,000 prize)
Organization Storyboard & Treatment ($5,000 prize)
Open Prototype/Health Game ($20,000 prize)

Five finalists will be announced in each competition with one finalist receiving the prize for that competition.

Official Rules are available here.

Via Videogame Workout

oh, that's brilliant! 

For many people, exercise is simply boring, so they turn to devices that can help them keep their minds off what they’re doing while they exercise. Entertainment fitness uses technology to engage users rather than distract them.

Tetris Weightlifting is a prototype entertainment fitness system that allows players to lift weights as the means of control for a modified version of Tetris. User testing with the device suggests great potential for combining casual games with exercise activity.

 

Link to the Tetris Weightlifting website

Via VRoot

Presence: a unique characteristic in educational virtual environments

Virtual Reality Journal, Volume 10, Number 3-4 / December, 2006, Pages 197-206.

Author: Tassos A. Mikropoulos

This article investigates the effect of presence on learning outcomes in educational virtual environments (EVEs) in a sample of 60 pupils aged between 11 and 13 years. We study the effect of personal presence, social presence and participant’s involvement on certain learning outcomes. We also investigate if the combination of the participant’s representation model in the virtual environment (VE) with the way it is presented gives a higher sense of presence that contributes to learning outcomes. Our results show that the existence of an avatar as the pupils’ representation enhanced presence and helped them to successfully perform their learning tasks. The pupils had a high sense of presence for both cases of the EVE presentation, projection on a wall and through a head mounted display (HMD). Our socialized virtual environment seems to play an important role in learning outcomes. The pupils had a higher sense of presence and completed their learning tasks more easily and successfully in the case of their egocentric representation model using the HMD.

Via 3D Point

SL resident Turner Boehm has developed an application that allows to automatically model the links and nodes of a complex system using SL objects. The picture above shows multiple interconnecting software systems represented by an automatically generated set of prims, based on information stored outside SL.

From 3D point

Multiverse, is a free virtual-world development platform, which has just gone from closed to open beta.

From the Multiverse website:

Virtual reality, telemedicine, web and data processing innovations in medical and psychiatric education and clinical care.

Acad Psychiatry. 2006;30(6):528-33

Authors: Hilty DM, Alverson DC, Alpert JE, Tong L, Sagduyu K, Boland RJ, Mostaghimi A, Leamon ML, Fidler D, Yellowlees PM

OBJECTIVE: This article highlights technology innovations in psychiatric and medical education, including applications from other fields. METHOD: The authors review the literature and poll educators and informatics faculty for novel programs relevant to psychiatric education. RESULTS: The introduction of new technologies requires skill at implementation and evaluation to assess the pros and cons. There is a significant body of literature regarding virtual reality and simulation, including assessment of outcomes, but other innovations are not well studied. CONCLUSIONS: Innovations, like other uses of technology, require collaboration between parties and integration within the educational framework of an institution.

Education about hallucinations using an internet virtual reality system: a qualitative survey.

Acad Psychiatry. 2006;30(6):534-9

Authors: Yellowlees PM, Cook JN

OBJECTIVE: The authors evaluate an Internet virtual reality technology as an education tool about the hallucinations of psychosis. METHOD: This is a pilot project using Second Life, an Internet-based virtual reality system, in which a virtual reality environment was constructed to simulate the auditory and visual hallucinations of two patients with schizophrenia. Eight hundred sixty-three self-referred users took a self-guided tour. RESULTS: Five hundred seventy-nine (69%) of the users who toured the environment completed a survey. Of the survey responders, 440 (76%) thought the environment improved their understanding of auditory hallucinations, 69% thought it improved their understanding of visual hallucinations, and 82% said they would recommend the environment to a friend. CONCLUSIONS: Computer simulations of the perceptual phenomena of psychiatric illness are feasible with existing personal computer technology. Integration of the evaluation survey into the environment itself was possible. The use of Internet-connected graphics environments holds promise for public education about mental illness.

Via 3D Point 

A browser called 3B that allows you take existing 2D Web content and make an avatarized 3D space out of it that others can visit. From the site:

“3B allows you take any web sites or photos and place them in a personalized 3D space, your 3B village. You can use MySpace, Hi5 or Bebo pages or photos you’ve loaded onto Flickr, Photobucket or any other web service.”

From the project's website (via 3D point):

The Ogoglio project is exploring shared online worlds in the context of web enabled work. If World of Warcraft is "the new golf", then we're exploring "the new business district".

We are creating spaces where people will meet with remote coworkers, collaborate using new tools, integrate existing business applications, and enjoy the benefits of being in the same office with people in different time zones.

Project summary:

Many people now start their careers with a deep understanding of cooperative 3D communities like World of Warcraft, but when they enter the workplace they are handed email and a shared calendar and are expected to teach themselves how to be productive. Instead of forcing people to limit their communication to these thin channels, The Ogoglio project will provide community workspaces with the planning and coordination tools which have proven to be effective in multiplayer online games.

Link to the Ogoglio blog

From Smart Mobs

Rhythms of social interaction: messaging within a massive online network (PDF) by Scott Golder, Dennis Wilkinson, and Bernardo Huberman:

"We have analyzed the fully-anonymized headers of 362 million messages exchanged by 4.2 million users of Facebook, an online social network of college students, during a 26 month interval. The data reveal a number of strong daily and weekly regularities which provide insights into the time use of college students and their social lives, including seasonal variations. We also examined how factors such as school affiliation and informal online “friend” lists affect the observed behavior and temporal patterns. Finally, we show that Facebook users appear to be clustered by school with respect to their temporal messaging patterns.

Re-blogged from TechCrunch 

Instant messaging programs connect people across the Internet. Newer programs like RadiusIM and Meetro, connect people by their real-world location. RadiusIM is an AJAX application, while Meetro is a downloadable client. Both allow you to fill out your location and profile as a way to meet new people in your area, or even another country. Unlike the other developments in chat, location based IM hasn’t seen heavy adoption on other platforms, which continue to connect people based on a user generated buddy list.

National LambdaRail (NLR) announced today that it is developing a plan to implement a Telepresence testbed based on the Cisco Telepresence Meeting solution by mid-2007. With its nationwide optical backbone connected to nearly 20 regional optical networks, it will be simple for researchers to participate in the testbed from key research and education facilities throughout the nation. A call for participation will be issued early next year.

Read the full news release

Controlling posture using a plantar pressure-based, tongue-placed tactile biofeedback system.

Exp Brain Res. 2006 Nov 30;

Authors: Vuillerme N, Chenu O, Demongeot J, Payan Y

The present paper introduces an original biofeedback system for improving human balance control, whose underlying principle consists in providing additional sensory information related to foot sole pressure distribution to the user through a tongue-placed tactile output device. To assess the effect of this biofeedback system on postural control during quiet standing, ten young healthy adults were asked to stand as immobile as possible with their eyes closed in two conditions of No-biofeedback and Biofeedback. Centre of foot pressure (CoP) displacements were recorded using a force platform. Results showed reduced CoP displacements in the Biofeedback relative to the No-biofeedback condition. The present findings evidenced the ability of the central nervous system to efficiently integrate an artificial plantar-based, tongue-placed tactile biofeedback for controlling control posture during quiet standing.

Analgesic effects of posthypnotic suggestions and virtual reality distraction on thermal pain.

J Abnorm Psychol. 2006 Nov;115(4):834-41

Authors: Patterson DR, Hoffman HG, Palacios AG, Jensen MJ

The individual and combined effects of posthypnotic suggestion (PHS) and virtual reality distraction (VRD) on experimentally induced thermal pain were examined using a 2 x 2, between-groups design. After receiving baseline thermal pain, each participant received hypnosis or no hypnosis, followed by VRD or no VRD during another pain stimulus. Consistent with the hypothesis that hypnosis and VRD work via different mechanisms, results show that posthypnotic analgesia was moderated by hypnotizability but VRD analgesia was not. The impact of PHSs for analgesia was specific to high hypnotizables, whereas VRD was effective independent of hypnotizability. Results also show a nonsignificant but predicted pattern for high hypnotizables: Audio hypnosis combined with VRD reduced worst pain 22% more and pain unpleasantness 25% more than did VRD alone. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed. ((c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).

Rehabilitation after Stroke using Virtual Reality, Haptics (force feedback) and Telemedicine.

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2006;124:51-56

Authors: Broeren J, Dixon M, Stibrant Sunnerhagen K, Rydmark M

We have constructed a haptic immersive workbench to be placed in the patients' home for daily adjusted rehabilitation. We also propose a system for Internet based connection and communication between patients and between patients and a clinical rehabilitation center and clinical assessment/evaluation centers. The benefits of a system for rehabilitation after stroke, based on VR, Haptics and Telemedicine should be: increased quality of life, lesser isolation, feeling more secure, fewer tiring transportations, more frequent exercising, better compliance to training, lower cost for transportation. The long term recovery for a larger group of patients with motor impairments is presently under evaluation.

Virtual reality applications for the remapping of space in neglect patients.

Restor Neurol Neurosci. 2006;24(4-6):431-41

Authors: Ansuini C, Pierno AC, Lusher D, Castiello U

Purpose: The aims of the present article were the following: (i) to provide some evidence of the potential of virtual reality (VR) for the assessment, training and recovery of hemispatial neglect; (ii) to present data from our laboratory which seem to confirm that the clinical manifestation of neglect can be improved by using VR techniques; and (iii) to ascertain the neural bases of this improvement. Methods: We used a VR device (DataGlove) interfaced with a specially designed computer program which allowed neglect patients to reach and grasp a real object while simultaneously observing the grasping of a virtual object located within a virtual environment by a virtual hand. The virtual hand was commanded in real time by their real hand. Results: After a period of training, hemispatial neglect patients coded the visual stimuli within the neglected space in an identical fashion as those presented within the preserved portions of space. However it was also found that only patients with lesions that spared the inferior parietal/superior temporal regions were able to benefit from the virtual reality training. Conclusions: It was concluded that using VR it is possible to re-create links between the affected and the nonaffected space in neglect patients. Furthermore, that specific regions may play a crucial role in the recovery of space that underlies the improvement of neglect patients when trained with virtual reality. The implications of these results for determining the neural bases of a higher order attentional and/or spatial representation, and for the treatment of patients with unilateral neglect are discussed.

From the Journal of Personal Cyberconsciousness, 1(3) 2006 (via IEET) 

In this article, Martine Rothblatt, a "geoethical samurai", introduces Macro-Bushido, a set of ethical guidelines for the modern Info-Cultural Age. Macro-Bushido is based on Bushido, the unwritten code of ethics that guided Japan's samurai until about one hundred years ago. The seven principles of Bushido are: Rectitude, Courage, Benevolence, Politeness, Veracity, Honor and Loyalty. Rothblatt dissects each principle and explains how it could be applied to the modern world and in particular, to emerging cyberconsciousness. Rothblatt argues that upholding Macro-Bushido in today's world will result in many benefits, among them that humans may be saved from the consequences of shortsightedness by refocusing their attention on loyalty to a higher goal. In addition, a class of modern samurai may emerge to help keep humanity loyal to the objectives of diversity, unity and immortality. These ideals are invaluable as we arrive at personal cyberconsciousness within humanity's quest for survival.

Link to the article