Positive Technology Journal

Via Pink Tentacle

SGI Japan has developed a system that can control the electronics, appliances and hardware in a room based on the spoken commands and emotions of the room’s occupants. RoomRender relies on AmiVoice voice recognition technology (developed by Advanced Media) to recognize and analyze spoken commands, enabling the room to close the blinds, turn on the heater, etc. as instructed.

Read the full story on Pink Tentacle

Via Infoaesthetic

univeRSS is a 3D RSS feed reader for VISTA that "introduces a full-screen 3D universe where galaxies represent the folders of your RSS feed directory, and the stars are represented by the spinning cubes that hold the feed information. Size and position of the feed cubes indicate how many unread items they contain" (quoted from the Microsoft website)

Currently UniveRSS uses the RSS Feed Store managed through Internet Explorer 7. Later versions will allow you to manage the Feed Store from within the UniveRSS application.

Via Human Productivity Lab

Spain researchers have created a new type synthesizer that is controlled by a touchscreen tabletop interface..

Read the full story on HPL blog

Via Medgadget 

According to the Associated Press, the FDA is planning to consider for approval a TMS device, developed for the treatment of major depression, called Neurostar System by Neuronetics.

To learn more about the Neurostar System go here

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.

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Changes in p300 following two yoga-based relaxation techniques.

Int J Neurosci. 2006 Dec;116(12):1419-30

Authors: Sarang SP, Telles S

Cyclic meditation (CM) is a technique that combines "stimulating" and "calming" practices, based on a statement in ancient yoga texts suggesting that such a combination may be especially helpful to reach a state of mental equilibrium. The changes in the peak latency and peak amplitude of P300 auditory event-related potentials were studied before and after the practice of cyclic meditation compared to an equal duration of supine rest in 42 volunteers (group mean age +/- SD, 27 +/- 6.3 years), from Fz, Cz, and Pz electrode sites referenced to linked earlobes. The sessions were one day apart and the order was alternated. There was reduction in the peak latencies of P300 after cyclic meditation at Fz, Cz, and Pz compared to the "pre" values. A similar trend of reduction in P300 peak latencies at Fz, Cz, and Pz was also observed after supine rest, compared to the respective "pre" values, although the magnitude of change in each case was less after supine rest compared to after cyclic meditation. The P300 peak amplitudes after CM were higher at Fz, Cz, and Pz sites compared to the "pre" values. In contrast, no significant changes were observed in the P300 peak amplitudes at Fz, Cz, and Pz after supine rest compared to the respective "pre" state. The present results support the idea that "cyclic" meditation enhances cognitive processes underlying the generation of the P300.

Cross-sectional and longitudinal study of effects of transcendental meditation practice on interhemispheric frontal asymmetry and frontal coherence.

Int J Neurosci. 2006 Dec;116(12):1519-38

Authors: Travis F, Arenander A

Two studies investigated frontal alpha lateral asymmetry and frontal interhemispheric coherence during eyes-closed rest, Transcendental Meditation (TM) practice, and computerized reaction-time tasks. In the first study, frontal coherence and lateralized asymmetry were higher in 13 TM subjects than in 12 controls. In the second study (N = 14), a one-year longitudinal study, lateral asymmetry did not change in any condition. In contrast, frontal coherence increased linearly during computer tasks and eyes-closed rest, and as a step-function during TM practice-rising to a high level after 2-months TM practice. Coherence was more sensitive than lateral asymmetry to effects of TM practice on brain functioning.

Via KurzweilAI.net

The Microvision system, composed of semiconductor lasers and a tiny mirror, will be small enough to integrate projection technology into a phone or an iPod.

Read Original Article

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.

re-blogged from infoaesthetics

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: