mcantamesse.net Wandering on virtual reality, social psychology and new media.

Laval Virtual 2008 – How Virtual is VR to your brain ?

Direttamente  da a VR Geek Blog, questo interessante aggiornamento da Laval

Lutz Jancke, from the Neuropsychology lab of Univeristy of Zurich, made an amazing presentation about the reality of VR to our brain. The short answer is for the brain, VR is just another reality; the brain only interprets inputs from its senses and experience, and VR is providing inputs that can be realistic enough to fool the brain. Moreover, VR experiences can shape your brain!

The brain evolves during all your life

The human brain is highly constructive, and constructs reality with the input it gets from the different senses. Perception of our world is a matter of interpretation by your brain of these different inputs.

Studies have been conducted on twins that were separately fostered to know what is the influence of the genes on intelligence. It turns out that only 50% max of your intelligence comes from your genes; this means that 50% of intelligence comes from experience!!

It also appears that much of the grey matter that makes us humans (visual sense, language etc..) is not determined by genes. In fact the brain is largely prepared to learn, it’s a giant learning machine that is able to learn during the whole lifetime of a human. During all your life your brain is restructured based on what you do, what you train at, for example music, juggling etc. But your capacities also decrease when you stop practicing.

Grey matter density can increase with elder people too. Aging doesn’t prevent learning; the cognitive aspects of learning of an elder people is comparable to youths.

[...]

Presence

Studies have proved what we intuitively already knew; even on a simple screen, 1st person view is more immersive than 3rd person.

Another experiment was conducted with a driving simulator. During the ride, a deer or a child would jump on the street in front of the car. It turns out that people didn’t get used to the kid jumping on the street, proving that the brain is working as if the situation was real!

[...]

Conclusion

The brain constructs reality. It is remarkably plastic and matures late, and for him, VR can be real.

The brain can also be shaped by VR experience.

M. Janke states that The Matrix is completely possible; reality is already a virtual world. We interpret reality through the lens of our experience, and if properly created, a virtual environment can seem very real to the brain, with all the positive and negative aspects this can give to its creator.

So let’s use that great possibility for the better!

“I know kung-fu!”

Il post completo è qui:

http://cb.nowan.net/blog/2008/04/16/laval-virtual-2008-how-virtual-is-vr-to-your-brain/

Taxi driver

Fabien Girardin, da 7.5th Floor, ha presentato un suo interessante lavoro sulla co-evoluzione dei tassisti e dei sistemi di navigazione “in-car”.

Tempo fa, a Milano, ho visto in un taxi le informazioni sulla tariffazione visualizzate nello specchietto retrovisore centrale… oltre alla curiosità tecnologica, la prima impressione era di un’aumentata “confidenza” con il guidatore, per via dei continui scambi di sguardi

Cmq, da Fabien:

In recent years, the relative market success of in-car navigation systems has symbolized the emergence of location-based services for wayfinding. This market success creates the opportunity to learn from real-world use of current location-aware systems in order to inform the design of future applications. With this aim, we are using an ethnographic approach to study the different ways taxi drivers rely on their navigation system. This work describes how location technologies impact the wayfinding practices and also how practices influence the appropriation of navigation systems. This co-evolution goes from the acquisition and setup of a navigation system to mastering the system shortcomings and limitations. Next, we study the reasons upon which a driver selects among the different modes of a navigation system and the other artifacts and tools (e.g. maps, street directories, landmarks) he or she uses for location awareness and wayfinding. Moreover, we analyze the role of context in this dynamics, i.e., where and when a driver accesses location information from the system, the external supports and the surrounding environment. We present the findings that emerged from 12 interviews augmented by in-car observations within the community of taxi drivers of the city of Barcelona, Spain. This community forms a massive population of early adopters of in-car navigation systems with a strong past practice of relying on mobile technologies and maps to support their work.

Il post originale è qui: http://liftlab.com/think/fabien/2008/04/16/presentation-the-co-evolution-of-taxi-drivers-and-their-in-car-navigation-systems/

Disembodiment in Online Social Interaction

Disembodiment in Online Social Interaction: Impact of Online Chat on Social Support and Psychosocial Well-Being

Cyberpsychology & Behaviour, Jun 2007, Vol. 10, No. 3 : 475 -477

Seok Kang, Ph.D.

This study investigates how disembodiment—that is, transcendence of body constraints in cyberspace—in online chat affects social psychological well-being. The results demonstrate that disembodiment is a strong predictor of increased loneliness and depression, and decreased social support. However, the amount of chat use is a positive contributor to decreased offline estrangement and depression, and increased happiness. These contrasting results suggest that online chat use is a technology for social connection used for offline connectivity, but the disembodiment motive is associated with declines in social support and psychosocial well-being. The investigation of specified motives for online interaction, personal competency, or advanced technological alternatives in interaction is suggested for future research on the effects of online interaction on offline outcomes.

Source: Disembodiment in Online Social Interaction
Originally published on Fri, 06 Jul 2007 13:18:12 GMT by Andrea Gaggioli

Field dependency and the sense of object-presence in haptic virtual environments

Field dependency and the sense of object-presence in haptic virtual environments.

Cyberpsychol Behav. 2007 Apr;10(2):243-51

Authors: Hecht D, Reiner M

Virtual environment (VE) users often report having a sense of being present in the virtual place or a sense that the virtual object is present in their environment. This sense of presence depends on both the technological fidelity (e.g., in graphics, haptics) and the users’ cognitive/ personality characteristics. This study examined the correlation between user’s cognitive style on the field-dependency dimension and the level of object-presence they reported in a haptic VE. Results indicated that field-independent individuals reported higher presence ratings compared to field-dependent participants. We hypothesize that field-independents’ advantage in reorganizing the perceptual field and constructing it according to their previously acquired internal knowledge enables them to cognitively reconstruct the VE experience more efficiently by selectively attending only to the relevant cues and by filling in the gap of missing information with their previous knowledge and creative imagination. This active and creative cognitive process may be behind the enhanced sense of presence. In addition, we raise a possible linkage between field dependency, the sense of presence, and simulator sickness phenomenon.

Source: Field dependency and the sense of object-presence in haptic virtual environments
Originally published on Sat, 07 Jul 2007 22:48:31 GMT by Andrea Gaggioli

Randomized controlled trial of virtual reality simulator training: transfer to live patients

Randomized controlled trial of virtual reality simulator training: transfer to live patients.

Am J Surg. 2007 Aug;194(2):205-11

Authors: Park J, MacRae H, Musselman LJ, Rossos P, Hamstra SJ, Wolman S, Reznick RK

BACKGROUND: New Residency Review Committee requirements in general surgery require 50 colonoscopies. Simulators have been widely suggested to help prepare residents for live clinical experience. We assessed a computer-based colonoscopy simulator for effective transfer of skills to live patients. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial included general surgery and internal medicine residents with limited endoscopic experience. Following a pretest, the treatment group (n = 12) practiced on the simulator, while controls (n = 12) received no additional training. Both groups then performed a colonoscopy on a live patient. Technical ability was evaluated by expert endoscopists using previously validated assessment instruments. RESULTS: In the live patient setting, the treatment group scored significantly higher global ratings than controls (t(22) = 1.84, P = .04). Only 2 of the 8 computer-based performance metrics correlated significantly with previously validated global ratings of performance. CONCLUSIONS: Residents trained on a colonoscopy simulator prior to their first patient-based colonoscopy performed significantly better in the clinical setting than controls, demonstrating skill transfer to live patients. The simulator’s performance metrics showed limited concurrent validity, suggesting the need for further refinement.

Source: Randomized controlled trial of virtual reality simulator training: transfer to live patients
Originally published on Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:54:27 GMT by Andrea Gaggioli

Papers

Alcuni articoli interessanti, trovati questa settimana:

Characteristics of personal space during obstacle circumvention in physical and virtual environments.
Author: Gerin-Lajoie M, Richards CL, Fung J, McFadyen BJ.
Date: 2007-05-01
Gait Posture. 2007 May 16; [Epub ahead of print]
[Link]

Do medical students respond empathetically to a virtual patient?
Author: Deladisma AM, Cohen M, Stevens A, Wagner P, Lok B, Bernard T, Oxendine C, Schumacher L, Johnsen K, Dickerson R, Raij A, Wells R, Duerson M, Harper JG, Lind DS; Association for Surgical Education.
Date:2007-06-01
Am J Surg. 2007 Jun;193(6):756-60.
[Link]

Immersive Simulation Training for the Dismounted Soldier. Final study rept.
Date: 2007-01-01
National Technical Information Service (NTIS)
[Link]

Cybermedicine tools for communication and learning.
Author: John NW, Lim IS.
Date: 2007-03-01
J Vis Commun Med. 2007 Mar;30(1):4-9.
[Link]