Positive Technology Journal

re-blogged from 3pointD.com

 

Filmmaker James Cameron of Titanic fame (and, probably more importantly to readers of this blog, The Terminator), has just gotten the go-ahead on his next film. What interests 3pointD about this is the fact that it will be filmed in a moviemaking version of a virtual world, and new details of the process have emerged in a story in today's New York Times [Computers Join Actors in Hybrids On Screen]. Cameron is using the latest "performance-capture" technology to record the movements of actors' bodies, as well as their facial expressions. But such recordings are usually made against a blank background that's later filled with a digitally produced environment. In the case of Avatar, Cameron's next film, "The most important innovation thus far has been a camera, designed by Mr. Cameron and his computer experts, that allows the director to observe the performances of the actors-as-aliens, in the film's virtual environment, as it happens," the Times writes.

The key phrase here is "as it happens." Cameron and his team have essentially created a virtual world that they view live as the performances are recorded. What they see on their screen is the motion-capture already composited into the digital environment, rather than having to wait until later to see the combination of the two streams of content. In addition, Cameron can pan and zoom around on the fly: "If I want to fly through space, or change my perspective, I can. I can turn the whole scene into a living miniature and go through it on a 50 to 1 scale. It's pretty exciting," he says. That's exciting technology indeed. Though it bears little direct impact on current multiuser virtual worlds, it's the kind of technology that will gradually filter down to broader levels, and the kind of filmmaking that could help promote Internet-based 3D spaces. Will the movie be any good? Who knows. The filmmaking techniques, however (which almost resemble the ultimate in machinima), are fascinating. And don't forget that Cameron sits on the Multiverse advisory board. 

 

Via Future Cinema Course 

An International Conference presented by the Interactive Arts and Science Program - Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario

JUNE 5-6, 2007

Keynote Speakers:

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Director of the Quality of Life Research Center at the Drucker School, Claremont Graduate University

James Paul Gee, Tashia Morgridge Professor of Reading, University of Wisconsin at Madison (sponsored by Owl Children’s Trust and the Brock Research Institute for Youth Studies)

Chris Csikszentmihalyi, Director of the Computing Culture group at the MIT Media Lab

Denis Dyack, Director/President, Silicon Knights 

The primary focus of this conference is to explore the growing cultural importance of interactive media. All scholarship on digital interactive media (such as computer games, mixed realities and interactive fiction), as well as users (including adults and children), will be considered in one of four broad conference streams:

Theory of Immersive Worlds explores: i. the theory of interactivity, from perspectives such as narrative and gameplay (ludology); ii. analyses of the cultural and psychological effects of immersive worlds.

Creative Practices in Immersion examines interactive new media art, and its exploration of new idioms and challenges in immersive worlds.

Immersive Worlds in Education examines the application of immersive technologies to teaching and learning.

Immersive Worlds in Entertainment examines entertainment applications of immersive technologies.

Visit the conference website for details

Today the International Association of Virtual Reality Technologies has announced the creation of NeuroNet, defined as “a first generation network created specifically for the transmission of real-time, virtual reality (VR) and gaming data"

From the press release:

The network, called the Neuronet, will evolve into the world's first public network capable of meeting the data transmission requirements of emerging cinematic and immersive VR technologies. The Neuronet will be separate and distinct from the Internet and will be used for everything from gaming to entertainment to 'v-business', or virtual business.

The massive overcapacity of fiber optic cable left over from the dot-com era makes the new network feasible with minimal investment. Much of the infrastructure and programming utilized to facilitate the Neuronet will be outsourced to telecommunications and virtual reality innovators, but a private sector monopoly on the Neuronet itself will not serve the greater good of the global community. Competing networks have the potential to destabilize evolving virtual worlds and potentially compromise consumer safety. To that end, IAVRT was formed as an international not-for-profit organization that will, through its members, govern the Neuronet, foster its growth and guard its integrity. 
 

Sounds cool... I'll keep an eye on it

Effects of distraction on pain, fear, and distress during venous port access and venipuncture in children and adolescents with cancer.

J Pediatr Oncol Nurs. 2007 Jan-Feb;24(1):8-19

Authors: Windich-Biermeier A, Sjoberg I, Dale JC, Eshelman D, Guzzetta CE

This study evaluates the effect of self-selected distracters (ie, bubbles, I Spy: Super Challenger book, music table, virtual reality glasses, or handheld video games) on pain, fear, and distress in 50 children and adolescents with cancer, ages 5 to 18, with port access or venipuncture. Using an intervention-comparison group design, participants were randomized to the comparison group (n = 28) to receive standard care or intervention group (n = 22) to receive distraction plus standard care. All participants rated their pain and fear, parents rated participant fear, and the nurse rated participant fear and distress at 3 points in time: before, during, and after port access or venipuncture. Results show that self-reported pain and fear were significantly correlated (P = .01) within treatment groups but not significantly different between groups. Intervention participants demonstrated significantly less fear (P <.001) and distress (P = .03) as rated by the nurse and approached significantly less fear (P = .07) as rated by the parent. All intervention parents said the needlestick was better because of the distracter. The authors conclude that distraction has the potential to reduce fear and distress during port access and venipuncture.

Smoking cues in a virtual world provoke craving in cigarette smokers.

Psychol Addict Behav. 2006 Dec;20(4):484-9

Authors: Baumann SB, Sayette MA

Twenty smoking-deprived cigarette smokers participated in a study to test the ability of smoking cues within a virtual world to provoke self-reported craving to smoke. Participants were exposed to 2 virtual-reality simulations displayed on a computer monitor: a control environment not containing any intentional smoking stimuli and a cue-exposure environment containing smoking stimuli. At various points, participants rated their urge to smoke on a scale of 0-100. Results indicated that baseline urge ratings were equivalent in both conditions, but the maximum increase in urge ratings was significantly higher in the cue-exposure environment than in the control environment. This is comparable to what in vivo studies have reported, but with the advantage of simulating more naturalistic and complex settings in a controlled environment.

Virtual reality training for stroke rehabilitation.

NeuroRehabilitation. 2006;21(3):245-53

Authors: Lam YS, Man DW, Tam SF, Weiss PL

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a 2-D virtual reality (2DVR) programme in the training of people with stroke on how to access and use the station facilities of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR). Method: A flat-screen 2DVR based training programme and a corresponding, typical psycho-educational programme with video modelling were developed for comparison through a research design that involved a randomised control group pre-test and post-test. Results: Twenty and sixteen subjects respectively received 10 training sessions using the 2DVR strategy and a video-based psycho-educational programme. An additional 22 subjects formed the control group. They were assessed by using a behavioural checklist of MTR skills and a newly validated MTR self-efficacy scale. The subjects of both training groups showed a significant improvement in their knowledge, skills and self-efficacy in using the MTR (p<0.01), whereas, the MTR skills and self-efficacy of the control group remained stable over a four-week interval. Conclusion: Though both training programmes were effective in training the patients with stroke, they demonstrated differential improvements in MTR skills and related self-efficacy. Additional studies are recommended to identify the most effective training procedures for maintaining these skills and the best transfer ratio in the training of VR-based community living skills of people with stroke.

Visuomotor learning in immersive 3D virtual reality in Parkinson's disease and in aging.

Exp Brain Res. 2006 Dec 5;

Authors: Messier J, Adamovich S, Jack D, Hening W, Sage J, Poizner H

Successful adaptation to novel sensorimotor contexts critically depends on efficient sensory processing and integration mechanisms, particularly those required to combine visual and proprioceptive inputs. If the basal ganglia are a critical part of specialized circuits that adapt motor behavior to new sensorimotor contexts, then patients who are suffering from basal ganglia dysfunction, as in Parkinson's disease should show sensorimotor learning impairments. However, this issue has been under-explored. We tested the ability of 8 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), off medication, ten healthy elderly subjects and ten healthy young adults to reach to a remembered 3D location presented in an immersive virtual environment. A multi-phase learning paradigm was used having four conditions: baseline, initial learning, reversal learning and aftereffect. In initial learning, the computer altered the position of a simulated arm endpoint used for movement feedback by shifting its apparent location diagonally, requiring thereby both horizontal and vertical compensations. This visual distortion forced subjects to learn new coordinations between what they saw in the virtual environment and the actual position of their limbs, which they had to derive from proprioceptive information (or efference copy). In reversal learning, the sign of the distortion was reversed. Both elderly subjects and PD patients showed learning phase-dependent difficulties. First, elderly controls were slower than young subjects when learning both dimensions of the initial biaxial discordance. However, their performance improved during reversal learning and as a result elderly and young controls showed similar adaptation rates during reversal learning. Second, in striking contrast to healthy elderly subjects, PD patients were more profoundly impaired during the reversal phase of learning. PD patients were able to learn the initial biaxial discordance but were on average slower than age-matched controls in adapting to the horizontal component of the biaxial discordance. More importantly, when the biaxial discordance was reversed, PD patients were unable to make appropriate movement corrections. Therefore, they showed significantly degraded learning indices relative to age-matched controls for both dimensions of the biaxial discordance. Together, these results suggest that the ability to adapt to a sudden biaxial visuomotor discordance applied in three-dimensional space declines in normal aging and Parkinson disease. Furthermore, the presence of learning rate differences in the PD patients relative to age-matched controls supports an important contribution of basal ganglia-related circuits in learning novel visuomotor coordinations, particularly those in which subjects must learn to adapt to sensorimotor contingencies that were reversed from those just learned.

Postural adaptation in elderly patients with instability and risk of falling after balance training using a virtual-reality system.

Int Tinnitus J. 2006;12(1):41-4

Authors: Suárez H, Suárez A, Lavinsky L

Our aim in this study was to assess postural control adaptation quantitatively in unsteady elderly patients at risk of falls in open spaces and given balance training with a virtual-reality system reproducing environmental stimulation. Using a balance rehabilitation unit based on a virtual-reality system that changes sensory information (visual, vestibular, and somatosensory), we treated 26 elderly, unsteady patients who were prone to falling (age range, 73-82 years) and who were enrolled in a customized vestibular rehabilitation program. We assessed postural responses by posturography before and after 6 weeks in the vestibular rehabilitation program under two conditions: (1) standing, eyes open, static visual field, and (2) standing, eyes open, dynamic visual field through virtual-reality goggles, generating horizontal optokinetic stimulation (70 degrees per second angular velocity). We recorded postural responses with a platform measuring the confidential ellipse of the center-of-pressure distribution area and sway velocity with a scalogram analyzing postural behavior by wavelets. After 6 weeks of treatment, postural response confidential ellipse and sway velocity values were lower, evincing decreased amplitudes and sway frequency contents in the scalogram by wavelet under both stimulation paradigm conditions. These findings suggest postural adaptation under the two perceptual conditions when patients had static and dynamic visual fields. The possibility of treating elderly fallers with balance disorders using a virtual-reality environmental stimulation reproduction system is discussed.

Visuomotor learning in immersive 3D virtual reality in Parkinson's disease and in aging.

Exp Brain Res. 2006 Dec 5;

Authors: Messier J, Adamovich S, Jack D, Hening W, Sage J, Poizner H

Successful adaptation to novel sensorimotor contexts critically depends on efficient sensory processing and integration mechanisms, particularly those required to combine visual and proprioceptive inputs. If the basal ganglia are a critical part of specialized circuits that adapt motor behavior to new sensorimotor contexts, then patients who are suffering from basal ganglia dysfunction, as in Parkinson's disease should show sensorimotor learning impairments. However, this issue has been under-explored. We tested the ability of 8 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), off medication, ten healthy elderly subjects and ten healthy young adults to reach to a remembered 3D location presented in an immersive virtual environment. A multi-phase learning paradigm was used having four conditions: baseline, initial learning, reversal learning and aftereffect. In initial learning, the computer altered the position of a simulated arm endpoint used for movement feedback by shifting its apparent location diagonally, requiring thereby both horizontal and vertical compensations. This visual distortion forced subjects to learn new coordinations between what they saw in the virtual environment and the actual position of their limbs, which they had to derive from proprioceptive information (or efference copy). In reversal learning, the sign of the distortion was reversed. Both elderly subjects and PD patients showed learning phase-dependent difficulties. First, elderly controls were slower than young subjects when learning both dimensions of the initial biaxial discordance. However, their performance improved during reversal learning and as a result elderly and young controls showed similar adaptation rates during reversal learning. Second, in striking contrast to healthy elderly subjects, PD patients were more profoundly impaired during the reversal phase of learning. PD patients were able to learn the initial biaxial discordance but were on average slower than age-matched controls in adapting to the horizontal component of the biaxial discordance. More importantly, when the biaxial discordance was reversed, PD patients were unable to make appropriate movement corrections. Therefore, they showed significantly degraded learning indices relative to age-matched controls for both dimensions of the biaxial discordance. Together, these results suggest that the ability to adapt to a sudden biaxial visuomotor discordance applied in three-dimensional space declines in normal aging and Parkinson disease. Furthermore, the presence of learning rate differences in the PD patients relative to age-matched controls supports an important contribution of basal ganglia-related circuits in learning novel visuomotor coordinations, particularly those in which subjects must learn to adapt to sensorimotor contingencies that were reversed from those just learned.

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 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.

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

High sensitivity to multisensory conflicts in agoraphobia exhibited by virtual reality.

Eur Psychiatry. 2006 Oct;21(7):501-8

Authors: Viaud-Delmon I, Warusfel O, Seguelas A, Rio E, Jouvent R

The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of auditory feedback in a VR system planned for clinical use and to address the different factors that should be taken into account in building a bimodal virtual environment (VE). We conducted an experiment in which we assessed spatial performances in agoraphobic patients and normal subjects comparing two kinds of VEs, visual alone (Vis) and auditory-visual (AVis), during separate sessions. Subjects were equipped with a head-mounted display coupled with an electromagnetic sensor system and immersed in a virtual town. Their task was to locate different landmarks and become familiar with the town. In the AVis condition subjects were equipped with the head-mounted display and headphones, which delivered a soundscape updated in real-time according to their movement in the virtual town. While general performances remained comparable across the conditions, the reported feeling of immersion was more compelling in the AVis environment. However, patients exhibited more cybersickness symptoms in this condition. The result of this study points to the multisensory integration deficit of agoraphobic patients and underline the need for further research on multimodal VR systems for clinical use.

Virtual reality helmet display quality influences the magnitude of virtual reality analgesia.

J Pain. 2006 Nov;7(11):843-50

Authors: Hoffman HG, Seibel EJ, Richards TL, Furness TA, Patterson DR, Sharar SR

Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) distraction can be used in addition to traditional opioids to reduce procedural pain. The current study explored whether a High-Tech-VR helmet (ie, a 60-degree field-of-view head-mounted display) reduces pain more effectively than a Low-Tech-VR helmet (a 35-degree field-of-view head-mounted display). Using a double-blind between-groups design, 77 healthy volunteers (no patients) aged 18-23 were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups. Each subject received a brief baseline thermal pain stimulus, and the same stimulus again minutes later while in SnowWorld using a Low-Tech-VR helmet (Group 1), using a High-Tech-VR helmet (Group 2), or receiving no distraction (Group 3, control group). Each participant provided subjective 0-10 ratings of cognitive, sensory, and affective components of pain, and amount of fun during the pain stimulus. Compared to the Low-Tech-VR helmet group, subjects in the High-Tech-VR helmet group reported 34% more reduction in worst pain (P < .05), 46% more reduction in pain unpleasantness (P = .001), 29% more reduction in "time spent thinking about pain" (P < .05), and 32% more fun during the pain stimulus in VR (P < .05). Only 29% of participants in the Low-Tech helmet group, as opposed to 65% of participants in the High-Tech-VR helmet group, showed a clinically significant reduction in pain intensity during virtual reality. These results highlight the importance of using an appropriately designed VR helmet to achieve effective VR analgesia (see ). PERSPECTIVE: Pain during medical procedures (eg, burn wound care) is often excessive. Adjunctive virtual reality distraction can substantially reduce procedural pain. The results of the present study show that a higher quality VR helmet was more effective at reducing pain than a lower quality VR helmet.

Via Human Productivity Lab

Toshiba has unveiled a new head-mounted display - the "Hyper-Reality Head-Dome Projector" that allows the wearer to experience a full 360-degree view on a 40 centimetre dome-shaped screen... here are some technical details (from SID2006)

the system consists of a compact dome-shaped screen with a radius of 40 cm, a mobile projector with ultra-wide projection lens, and LED light sources. The system exhibits a wide viewing angle of 120° horizontally by 70° vertically without head tracking, and 360° × 360° with head tracking.

 

Assessment of emotional reactivity produced by exposure to virtual environments in patients with eating disorders.

Cyberpsychol Behav. 2006 Oct;9(5):507-13

Authors: Gutiérrez-Maldonado J, Ferrer-García M, Caqueo-Urízar A, Letosa-Porta A

The aim of this study was to assess the usefulness of virtual environments representing situations that are emotionally significant to subjects with eating disorders (ED). These environments may be applied with both evaluative and therapeutic aims and in simulation procedures to carry out a range of experimental studies. This paper is part of a wider research project analyzing the influence of the situation to which subjects are exposed on their performance on body image estimation tasks. Thirty female patients with eating disorders were exposed to six virtual environments: a living-room (neutral situation), a kitchen with highcalorie food, a kitchen with low-calorie food, a restaurant with high-calorie food, a restaurant with low-calorie food, and a swimming-pool. After exposure to each environment the STAI-S (a measurement of state anxiety) and the CDB (a measurement of depression) were administered to all subjects. The results show that virtual reality instruments are particularly useful for simulating everyday situations that may provoke emotional reactions such as anxiety and depression, in patients with ED. Virtual environments in which subjects are obliged to ingest high-calorie food provoke the highest levels of state anxiety and depression.