The Soothing Sea: A Virtual Coastal Walk Can Reduce Experienced and Recollected Pain

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this recordVirtual reality (VR) distraction has become increasingly available in health care contexts and is used in acute pain management. However, there has been no systematic exploration of the importance of the content of VR environments. Two studies tested how interacting with nature VR influenced experienced and recollected pain after 1 week. Study 1 (n = 85) used a laboratory pain task (cold pressor), whereas Study 2 (n = 70) was a randomized controlled trial with patients undergoing dental treatment. In Study 1, nature (coastal) VR reduced both experienced and recollected pain compared with no VR. In Study 2, nature (coastal) VR reduced experienced and recalled pain in dental patients, compared with urban VR and standard care. Together, these data show that nature can improve experience of health care procedures through the use of VR, and that the content of the VR matters: Coastal nature is better than urban.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was funded by a Plymouth University scheme to support interdisciplinary collaborations

"Seeing the Faces Is So Important" -- Experiences From Online Team Meetings on Commercial Virtual Reality Platforms

During the Covid-19 pandemic, online meetings became common for daily teamwork in the home office. To understand the opportunities and challenges of meeting in virtual reality (VR) compared to video conferences, we conducted the weekly team meetings of our human-computer interaction research lab on five off-the-shelf online meeting platforms over four months. After each of the 12 meetings, we asked the participants (N = 32) to share their experiences, resulting in 200 completed online questionnaires. We evaluated the ratings of the overall meeting experience and conducted an exploratory factor analysis of the quantitative data to compare VR meetings and video calls in terms of meeting involvement and co-presence. In addition, a thematic analysis of the qualitative data revealed genuine insights covering five themes: spatial aspects, meeting atmosphere, expression of emotions, meeting productivity, and user needs. We reflect on our findings gained under authentic working conditions, derive lessons learned for running successful team meetings in VR supporting different kinds of meeting formats, and discuss the team's long-term platform choice.Comment: This article has been published at Frontiers in Virtual Reality, Research Topic "Everyday Virtual and Augmented Reality: Methods and Applications, Volume II": https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2022.94579

A Somatic Approach to Combating Cybersickness when using Head-Mounted Displays

This thesis presents a novel approach for reducing the risk of cybersickness during virtual reality locomotion in a 3D environment through the use of somatosensory feedback. This project looks directly at existing theories regarding the cause of cybersickness and describes the processes taken to develop, test and measure the efficacy of a solution. The solution proposed by this thesis builds on the concept of sensory misalignment, where the body struggles understand its state due to conflicting sensory feedback and consequently generates negative health symptoms and discomfort. As such, the studies in this project attempt to emulate the feedback of real movement during VR locomotion by artificially generating the passive airflow undergone whilst moving. To evaluate the work, two studies are carried out where users drive a simulated car around a virtual environment, which in one condition is accompanied by the solutions dynamic airflow emulation equipment. Primarily, studies examine for cybersickness, however on-going discussions in the research community regarding the nature of correlation between sickness and presence present interesting insights that this project could contribute to. The project’s pilot study failed to find conclusive results but provided a major amount of information about the correct strategies to use when investigating this exploratory area. A second study was far more successful, providing conclusive results showing that users felt less sickness and increased presence during the session supported by the somatic feedback extension. As such this work concludes suggesting somatosensory feedback has positive interactions with cybersickness, as per the project hypothesis regarding existing theories. Additionally, positive correlations with presence suggest somatic feedback can have an overall positive effect on VR locomotion

Restorative virtual environments for rehabilitation: interactive technologies for enhanced recovery following critical illness and injury

The expectation for patients surviving admission to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is that they make the best possible functional recovery. Rehabilitation from the point of physiological stability is directed at reducing the impact of the consequences of critical illness. It was proposed that interactive technologies (iTech) could be used by patients on the ICU to enhance their trajectory and experience of recovery. The aim of this research was to develop and evaluate methodologies to investigate the feasibility of introducing novel iTech-based systems to the ICU. Four novel Virtual Natural Environments were combined with commercial-off-the-shelf technologies to produce interventions to improve pain management and sleep and enhance deep breathing and cycling exercises. Cohort and intervention choice were informed by the development of programme theories describing how the interventions might work. These were further developed and used to investigate mediators and modifiers of response to the interventions. Human Centred Design and Usability Engineering techniques were combined with methods to evaluate complex interventions in clinical settings. The four feasibility studies developed and refined methodologies to evaluate their usefulness and effectiveness. This research concludes with lessons learned and a guide to inform future development and implementation

SafeSpace: what is the feasibility and acceptability of a codesigned virtual reality intervention, incorporating compassionate mind training, to support people undergoing cancer treatment in a clinical setting?

Objectives: The SafeSpace study codesigned and tested a virtual reality (VR) intervention, incorporating relaxation and compassionate mind training to determine acceptability/feasibility in an oncology setting and evaluate impact on physical/psychological well-being and quality of life. Design: A two-phase study. Phase I determined key characteristics using an experienced-based codesign approach. Phase II evaluated the intervention using various measures and qualitative interviews in a mixed methods approach. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse measures data and framework analysis to analyse interviews. Setting: A specialist cancer centre, UK. Participants: 11 in phase I and 21 in phase II. Participants were in cancer treatment, recovery or palliative care. Primary and secondary outcome: Primary outcome: acceptability of the intervention, assessed by >60% uptake of three sessions. Secondary outcomes: impact on psychological well-being using EQ-5D/QLQ-C30, Profile of Mood Scale, Warwick and Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale, Depression and Anxiety Severity Scale 21, Self-Compassion Scale, Acceptance and Action Questionnaire and a locally developed questionnaire to capture self-compassion post use. Physiological impact was assessed by change in heart rate (HR)/HR variability and electrodermal activity (EDA). Results: Twenty participants (mean age=48.7 years; SD=16.87); 65% (n=13) completed three sessions. Mental well-being improved following each use and from baseline to after session 3 (VR 1—z=2.846, p≤0.01; VR 2—z=2.501, p≤0.01; VR 3—z=2.492, p≤0.01). There was statistically significant difference in mean scores for EDA at mid-session and post session compared with pre session (F (1.658, 4.973)=13.364, p<0.05). There was statistically significant reduction in stress levels from baseline to post session 3. Participants found the intervention acceptable and highlighted areas for development. Conclusion: The intervention is acceptable and feasible and has shown positive effects on mental well-being/stress in the oncology setting. Larger studies are needed to confirm findings

Activity-promoting gaming systems in exercise and rehabilitation

Commercial activity-promoting gaming systems provide a potentially attractive means to facilitate exercise and rehabilitation. The Nintendo Wii, Sony EyeToy, Dance Dance Revolution, and Xbox Kinect are examples of gaming systems that use the movement of the player to control gameplay. Activity-promoting gaming systems can be used as a tool to increase activity levels in otherwise sedentary gamers and also be an effective tool to aid rehabilitation in clinical settings. Therefore, the aim of this current work is to review the growing area of activity-promoting gaming in the context of exercise, injury, and rehabilitation

Чинники, що спричиняють кіберхвороби

The section discusses factors impacting cybersickness.У розділі розглянуто чинники, що спричиняють кіберхвороби