Is it possible to use highly realistic virtual reality in the elderly? A feasibility study with image-based rendering

International audienceBackground: Virtual reality (VR) opens up a vast number of possibilities in many domains of therapy. The primary objective of the present study was to evaluate the acceptability for elderly subjects of a VR experience using the image-based rendering virtual environment (IBVE) approach and secondly to test the hypothesis that visual cues using VR may enhance the generation of autobiographical memories.Methods: Eighteen healthy volunteers (mean age 68.2 years) presenting memory complaints with a Mini-Mental State Examination score higher than 27 and no history of neuropsychiatric disease were included. Participants were asked to perform an autobiographical fluency task in four conditions. The first condition was a baseline grey screen, the second was a photograph of a well-known location in the participant’s home city (FamPhoto), and the last two conditions displayed VR, ie, a familiar image-based virtual environment (FamIBVE) consisting of an image-based representation of a known landmark square in the center of the city of experimentation (Nice) and an unknown image-based virtual environment (UnknoIBVE), which was captured in a public housing neighborhood containing unrecognizable building fronts. After each of the four experimental conditions, participants filled in self-report questionnaires to assess the task acceptability (levels of emotion, motivation, security, fatigue, and familiarity). CyberSickness and Presence questionnaires were also assessed after the two VR conditions. Autobiographical memory was assessed using a verbal fluency task and quality of the recollection was assessed using the “remember/know” procedure.Results: All subjects completed the experiment. Sense of security and fatigue were not significantly different between the conditions with and without VR. The FamPhoto condition yielded a higher emotion score than the other conditions (P,0.05). The CyberSickness questionnaire showed that participants did not experience sickness during the experiment across the VR conditions. VR stimulates autobiographical memory, as demonstrated by the increased total number of responses on the autobiographical fluency task and the increased number of conscious recollections of memories for familiar versus unknown scenes (P,0.01).Conclusion: The study indicates that VR using the FamIBVE system is well tolerated by the elderly. VR can also stimulate recollections of autobiographical memory and convey familiarity of a given scene, which is an essential requirement for use of VR during reminiscence therapy

Promoting reminiscences with virtual reality headsets: A pilot study with people with dementia

This study aimed to explore the feasibility and effects of promoting reminiscences, using virtual reality (VR) headsets for viewing 360° videos with personal relevance, with people with dementia. A study with a mixed methods design was conducted with nine older adults diagnosed with dementia. Interventions consisted of four sessions, in which the participants’ engagement, psychological and behavioral symptoms, and simulation sickness symptoms were evaluated. Neuropsychiatric symptomatology and quality of life were measured pre- and post-intervention. Caregivers were interviewed regarding the effect of the approach. In most cases, participants appeared to enjoy the sessions, actively explored the 360° environment, and shared memories associated with the depicted locations, often spontaneously.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Archives of thrill: the V-Armchair experience

Technology for older people is typically concerned either with health care or accessibility of existing systems. In this paper we take a more ‘entertainment-oriented’ approach to developing experiences aimed at older users. We describe here the design, development and a user study of the V-Armchair, a virtual reality and motion platform based roller coaster experience. The V-Armchair constitutes a blueprint for the digital archiving of physical ride experiences through the simultaneous capture of 360 video, sound and motion. It gives access to thrill experiences to those who may not be able to go on real thrill rides, such as older riders, and it can be considered as a class of technology that could help to support ‘active aging’ as defined by the World Health Organisation. We discuss strategies for capturing and then ‘toning down’ motion experiences to make them accessible for older users. We present a study which explores the user experience of the V-Armchair with an older group (median age 63) using a DK2 headset, and a younger group (median age 25) using a CV1 headset, via thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews and a modified version of the Game Experience Questionnaire, and discuss emergent themes such as the role of the presenter, reminiscence, presence and immersion

Virtual Reality in Residential Aged Care: a study of adoption and system complexity.

Virtual Reality (VR) has been increasingly adopted by residential aged care facilities (RACFs) for enriching residents’ experiences. RACFs are sensitive settings with complex sociocultural elements, thus aged care providers might experience challenges when introducing new technologies. This paper presents findings from a descriptive analysis of survey responses exploring the complexity brought about by adopting VR in RACFs. By understanding technology-in-use as socio-technical systems, this study draws on the work of Greenhalgh et al. to understand how the adoption of health-care technologies is influenced by complexity across seven domains: condition, technology, value proposition, adopter(s), organization(s), wider system, and adaptation over time. The paper details the design of a new survey instrument. Results indicate that it is challenging to sustain a VR program within RACFs due to the complexity arising from residents’ conditions and the technology itself, and the complicated challenges involving staff who facilitate VR activities and those who provide training

24th Bilateral Student Workshop CTU Prague and HTW Dresden - User Interfaces & Visualization

This technical report publishes the proceedings of the 24th Bilateral Student Workshop CTU Prague and HTW Dresden -User Interfaces & Visualization-, which was held on the 26th November 2021. The workshop offers a possibility for young scientists to present their current research work in the fields of computer graphics, human-computer-interaction, robotics and usability. The works is meant as a platform to bring together researchers from both the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU) and the University of Applied Sciences Dresden (HTW). The German Academic Exchange Service offers its financial support to allow student participants the bilateral exchange between Prague and Dresden.:1) Robot assisted reminiscence therapy for people with dementia, p.4 2) VENT-CONECT: System for remote monitoring of instruments used in intensive care, p.12 3) Conversational assistant for smart home, p.17 4) Perspectives and challenges of the research project ”SYNC ID” , p.23 5) Music-based emotional biofeedback: the state of the art and challenges, p.26 6) Ambient Assisted Living Lab - Smart Systems and CoCreation, p.30 7) Board Game Playing and Consuming Beverages in VR, p.36 8) An approach to measure and increase the level of participation of people with dementia in cognitive games, p.41 9) Forced perspective illusions and scaling users in VR - state of the art., p.47 10) Training Deep Learning Models for Punctuation Prediction, p.51 11) Towards an Evaluation of Ambiguity in Point-Feature Labelling, p.56 12) The ReZA method goes digital, p.60 13) Haptic interface for spatial audio web player, p.6

Virtual reality therapy takes greenspace to older nursing home residents : a pilot study

Older nursing home (NH) residents receiving antidepressant, anxiolytic, or sedative-hypnotic medications for depression or anxiety are at increased risk of falling, sustaining injury, social isolation, and dying. Virtual reality (VR) therapy may provide a safe alternative or adjunct to the traditional pharmacological approach for managing depressive and anxiety symptoms, but the use of VR technology has not been studied in the NH setting. Preliminary work for this study indicated that a fully immersive VR intervention was feasible in a similar population and identified barriers that might hinder success in a subsequent trial. Two main barriers identified were usability of the head-mounted display system and content within the VR application. Modifications were made to the intervention with the intent of reducing or eliminating these problems. For this study, a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest design was used to pilot test ViRT-Ta-GO: Virtual Reality Therapy Takes Greenspace to Older NH residents on depressive and anxiety symptoms. Findings demonstrate the usefulness of the intervention within the NH population, suggesting that it will be advantageous to evaluate the application of ViRT-Ta-GO through controlled clinical trials.Includes bibliographical references

Assistive technologies to address capabilities of people with dementia: from research to practice

Assistive technologies (AT) became pervasive and virtually present in all our life domains. They can be either an enabler or an obstacle leading to social exclusion. The Fondation Médéric Alzheimer gathered international experts of dementia care, with backgrounds in biomedical, human and social sciences, to analyse how AT can address the capabilities of people with dementia, on the basis of their needs. Discussion covered the unmet needs of people with dementia, the domains of daily life activities where AT can provide help to people with dementia, the enabling and empowering impact of technology to improve their safety and wellbeing, barriers and limits of use, technology assessment, ethical and legal issues. The capability approach (possible freedom) appears particularly relevant in person-centered dementia care and technology development. The focus is not on the solution, rather on what the person can do with it: seeing dementia as disability, with technology as an enabler to promote capabilities of the person, provides a useful framework for both research and practice. This article summarizes how these concepts took momentum in professional practice and public policies in the past fifteen years (2000-2015), discusses current issues in the design, development and economic model of AT for people with dementia, and covers how these technologies are being used and assessed

Mood Worlds: A Virtual Environment for Autonomous Emotional Expression

Immersive interactive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) have the potential to foster well-being. While VR applications have been successfully used to evoke positive emotions through the presetting of light, colour and scenery, the experiential potential of allowing users to independently create a virtual environment (VE) has not yet been sufficiently addressed. To that end, we explore how the autonomous design of a VE can affect emotional engagement and well-being. We present Mood Worlds - a VR application allowing users to visualise their emotions by self-creating a VE. In an exploratory evaluation (N=16), we found that Mood Worlds is an effective tool supporting emotional engagement. Additionally, we found that an autonomous creation process in VR increases positive emotions and well-being. Our work shows that VR can be an effective tool to visualise emotions, thereby increasing positive affect. We discuss opportunities and design requirements for VR as positive technology