Reducing risk and improving maternal perspective-taking and empathy using virtual embodiment

The ability to perspective-take (cognitive awareness of another's state) and empathise (emotional/affective response) are important characteristics for sensitive, co-operative and constructive parenting, which assists in developing adaptive functioning for children. For the first time, immersive virtual reality was used to place parents in the position of a child in order to assess impact on perspective-taking and empathy. This novel study was conducted with 20 non-high risk Spanish mothers (a pilot study with 12 mothers is reported in supplementary files). Mothers were virtually embodied as a 4-year-old child, experienced from the first-person perspective and with virtual and real body movements synchronised. They interacted with a 'mother avatar', which responded either in a Positive or Negative way. Participants reported a strong body ownership illusion for the child body that led to cognitive, emotional and physical reactions. Experiencing negative maternal behavior increased levels of empathy. In addition, the Negative mother led to increased feelings of fear of violence. Physiological data indicated greater stress in the Negative than Positive condition. Although further research is required to assess the effectiveness of such methods, any improvement in empathy that leads to a change in parenting behavior has the potential to impact on developmental outcomes for children

Unimanual and Bimanual Weight Perception of Virtual Objects with a new Multi-finger Haptic Interface

Accurate weight perception is important particularly in tasks where the user has to apply vertical forces to ensure safe landing of a fragile object or precise penetration of a surface with a probe. Moreover, depending on physical properties of objects such as weight and size we may switch between unimanual and bimanual manipulation during a task. Research has shown that bimanual manipulation of real objects results in a misperception of their weight: they tend to feel lighter than similarly heavy objects which are handled with one hand only [8]. Effective simulation of bimanual manipulation with desktop haptic interfaces should be able to replicate this effect of bimanual manipulation on weight perception. Here, we present the MasterFinger-2, a new multi-finger haptic interface allowing bimanual manipulation of virtual objects with precision grip and we conduct weight discrimination experiments to evaluate its capacity to simulate unimanual and bimanual weight. We found that the bimanual ‘lighter’ bias is also observed with the MasterFinger-2 but the sensitivity to changes of virtual weights deteriorated

Using cloud technologies for engaging people with cultural heritage

Cultural heritage is an important asset of Europe which is largely underexplored. One of the main reasons is that the general public do not really incorporate cultural activities in their life style. Currently, curators and professionals in the heritage sector face the toughest challenges on how to attract, engage and retain visitors of heritage institutions (libraries, museums, archives and historical societies). TAG CLOUD FP7 European project seeks to overcome this situation and promote lifelong engagement with culture by personalising the visitors? cultural experiences through cloud technologies

Design and Development of a Multimodal Vest for Virtual Immersion and Guidance

This paper is focused on the development of a haptic vest to enhance immersion and realism in virtual environments, through vibrotactile feedback. The first steps to achieve touch-based communication are presented in order to set an actuation method based on vibration motors. Resulting vibrotactile patterns helping users to move inside virtual reality (VR). The research investigates human torso resolution and perception of vibration patterns, evaluating different kind of actuators at different locations on the vest. Finally, determining an appropriate distribution of vibration patterns allowed the generation of sensations that, for instance, help to guide in a mixed or virtual reality environment

An innovative solution based on human-computer interaction to support cognitive rehabilitation

This contribution focuses its objective in describing the design and implementation of an innovative system to provide cognitive rehabilitation. People who will take advantage of this platform suffer from a post-stroke disease called Apraxia and Action Disorganisation Syndrome (AADS). The platform has been integrated at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and tries to reduce the stay in hospital or rehabilitation center by supporting self-rehabilitation at home. So, the system acts as an intelligent machine that guides patients while executing Activities of Daily Living (ADL), Journal of Accessibility and Design for All (CC) JACCES, 2014 - 4(3): 238-254. ISSN: 2013-7087 J. M. Cogollor, M. Pastorino, J. Rojo, A. Fioravanti, A. Wing, M. T. Arredondo, M. Ferre, J. Breñosa, J. Hermsdörfer, J. De Teresa, C. Walton, A. Worthington, C. Giachritsis 239 such as preparing a simple tea, by informing them about the errors committed and possible actions to correct them. A short introduction to other works related to stroke, patients to work with, how the system works and how it is implemented are provided in the document. Finally, some relevant information from experiment made with healthy people for technical validation is also shown.Peer Reviewe