mcantamesse.net

CSM 2007 Locomotor Control Platform Presentations: CHARACTERIZATION AND VALIDATION OF VIRTUAL REALITY WALKING SIMULATOR.

J Neurol Phys Ther. 2006 Dec;30(4):195-200

Authors: Deutsch JE, Lewis J, McCall D, Lanin M, Bowlby P, Boian R, Burdea G

Purpose/Hypothesis: Virtual Reality (VR) has been proposed as a strategy for rehabilitation. To measure the potential of new VR devices they need to be characterized and compared to their real world counterparts. The primary purpose of this study was to characterize and validate the gait of individuals who walked on a VR walking simulator (WS) by comparing it to the kinematics and velocity of overground walking. The secondary purpose was to determine if the presence of the virtual environment (VE) modified walking characteristics. We hypothesized that walking velocity would be greater overground and slowest without the VE. Number of Subjects: Ten healthy subjects (2 male and 8 female) ages 24-53 without musculoskeletal injuries or neuromuscular pathology participated. Materials/Methods: Gait step length and velocity were collected (three trials) as participants walked at their self selected speed on a Gait Rite mat. Participants wore a harness and reflective markers on the foot, ankle, knee, hip and trunk. They stood on the WS with each foot secured on a robotic platform, a harness attached to an unweighing frame, facing a screen. Unweighed 40% of their body weight they practiced walking on the WS (2-8 min.) until achieving the criterion gait pattern. Data were collected for four street crossing trials, walk without VE (2), walk with VE (2). An auditory tone or the VE green light prompted participants to begin walking. Kinematics were acquired using a 6 camera Peak system at 60 Hz. Joint angles were calculated for push off and initial contact by averaging the peak angle of three steps. Velocity data were averaged from the xtranslation plots of the fifth metatarsal. Joint excursions from push off to initial contact-loading response were compared to normative data. Differences between overgound walking velocity and step length relative to the mobility simulator with and without the VE were assessed using a repeated measures ANOVA (alpha level= .05). Results: Walking velocity and step length were significantly greater for overground walking (1.5 m/sec; .79 m) compared with the mobility simulator with (.22 m/sec; .17 m) and without (.21 m/s; .18 m) the VE. The average joint excursions on the mobility simulator for push off to initial contact-loading response were 34 (knee) and 18 (ankle) degrees; compared to a range from push off to initial contact-loading response of 22-40 (knee) and 10-20 (ankle) degrees in normal gait. Conclusions: Walking in the VE resulted in pronounced decreases in temporal distance measures of gait however joint excursions were comparable to normal gait. There were no differences in gait velocity, step length or joint excursions when walking on the mobility simulator with and without the VE. The mechanics of the robot limit step length however, changing street crossing time in the VE may increase walking velocity. Clinical Relevance: Selected aspects of gait were preserved in the WS while others were not. Transfer of training from the walking simulator to real world walking still needs to be determined.

PMID: 17233935 [PubMed - in process]

Source: CSM 2007 Locomotor Control Platform Presentations: CHARACTERIZATION AND VALIDATION OF VIRTUAL REALITY WALKING SIMULATOR.
Originally published on Sat, 20 Jan 2007 14:54:09 GMT by Deutsch JE, Lewis J, McCall D, Lanin M, Bowlby P, Boian R, Burdea G

Call for Papers:
Academic Exchange Quarterly, Winter 2007
Topic:
Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia
Feature Editor:
Dr. Chareen Snelson, Educational Technology, Boise
State University
More Information: http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/5multi.htm

The winter 2007 edition of Academic Exchange Quarterly will contain a selection  of articles on the topic of “Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia.”  Academic Exchange Quarterly is a double-blind peer reviewed print journal featuring articles from multiple academic areas.

The readership is approximately 24,000 for the print edition.  Articles are also available electronically through databases such as Expanded Academic, Expanded Academic International, and Infotrac OneFile.

Focus of the upcoming section on educational multimedia and hypermedia:

• Articles describing how educators and/or researchers are using
• Video conferencing
• PowerPoint in new and innovative ways
• online photo/video/sound archives
• digital storytelling
• virtual 3D worlds
• multimedia games or simulations
• mobile technologies (e.g. cell phones or portable digital assistants with cameras, portable music or video players)
• multimedia to support new directions in research or data collection
• multimedia used as assessments for learning
• Articles that consider the theoretical, ethical, and budgetary impact of multimedia technologies in all of its emerging forms.

Preference will be given to newer forms of multimedia technology, but all innovative uses will be considered. In addition, experiments need not be wholly successful to be of interest — when well-analyzed, unexpected results can add to our knowledge as well.

Who May Submit:
Submissions are welcome from teachers, professors, librarians, trainers, administrators, and graduate students who actively use multimedia for instructional or research purposes, or who are in the process of adopting it. Please identify your submission with keyword: MULTIMEDIA

Submission deadline:
any time until the end of August 2007; see details for other deadline
options like early, regular, and short.

Submission Procedure:
http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/rufen1.htm
or
http://www.higher-ed.org/AEQ/rufen1.htm

 From: VRoot.org|

“The virtual playground: an educational virtual reality environment for evaluating interactivity and conceptual learning”
Maria Roussou, Martin Oliver and Mel Slater
Virtual Reality Journal, Springer London, Volume 10, Number 3-4 / December, 2006, Pages 227-240.

 

The research presented in this paper aims at investigating user interaction in immersive virtual learning environments, focusing on the role and the effect of interactivity on conceptual learning. The goal has been to examine if the learning of young users improves through interacting in (i.e. exploring, reacting to, and acting upon) an immersive virtual environment (VE) compared to non-interactive or non-immersive environments. Empirical work was carried out with more than 55 primary school students between the ages of 8 and 12, in different between-group experiments: an exploratory study, a pilot study, and a large-scale experiment. The latter was conducted in a virtual environment designed to simulate a playground. In this “Virtual Playground,” each participant was asked to complete a set of tasks designed to address arithmetical “fractions” problems. Three different conditions, two experimental virtual reality (VR) conditions and a non-VR condition, that varied the levels of activity and interactivity, were designed to evaluate how children accomplish the various tasks. Pre-tests, post-tests, interviews, video, audio, and log files were collected for each participant, and analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. This paper presents a selection of case studies extracted from the qualitative analysis, which illustrate the variety of approaches taken by children in the VEs in response to visual cues and system feedback. Results suggest that the fully interactive VE aided children in problem solving but did not provide a strong evidence of conceptual change as expected; rather, it was the passive VR environment, where activity was guided by a virtual robot, that seemed to support student reflection and recall, leading to indications of conceptual change.

Source: Paper: The virtual playground: an educational virtual reality environment for evaluating interactivity and conceptual learning
Originally published on Wed, 06 Dec 2006 17:19:23 GMT

J Anxiety Disord. 2006 Dec 2

Price M, Anderson P.
Georgia State University, Department of Psychology, 140 Decatur St., Atlanta, GA, USA

A growing body of literature suggests that virtual reality is a successful tool for exposure therapy in the treatment of anxiety disorders. Virtual reality (VR) researchers posit the construct of presence, defined as the interpretation of an artificial stimulus as if it were real, to be a presumed factor that enables anxiety to be felt during virtual reality exposure therapy (VRE). However, a handful of empirical studies on the relation between presence and anxiety in VRE have yielded mixed findings. The current study tested the following hypotheses about the relation between presence and anxiety in VRE with a clinical sample of fearful flyers: (1) presence is related to in-session anxiety; (2) presence mediates the extent that pre-existing (pre-treatment) anxiety is experienced during exposure with VR; (3) presence is positively related to the amount of phobic elements included within the virtual environment; (4) presence is related to treatment outcome. Results supported presence as a factor that contributes to the experience of anxiety in the virtual environment as well as a relation between presence and the phobic elements, but did not support a relation between presence and treatment outcome. The study suggests that presence may be a necessary but insufficient requirement for successful VRE.

From Positive Technology Journal

Education about hallucinations using an internet virtual reality system: a qualitative survey.

Acad Psychiatry. 2006;30(6):534-9

Authors: Yellowlees PM, Cook JN

OBJECTIVE: The authors evaluate an Internet virtual reality technology as an education tool about the hallucinations of psychosis. METHOD: This is a pilot project using Second Life, an Internet-based virtual reality system, in which a virtual reality environment was constructed to simulate the auditory and visual hallucinations of two patients with schizophrenia. Eight hundred sixty-three self-referred users took a self-guided tour. RESULTS: Five hundred seventy-nine (69%) of the users who toured the environment completed a survey. Of the survey responders, 440 (76%) thought the environment improved their understanding of auditory hallucinations, 69% thought it improved their understanding of visual hallucinations, and 82% said they would recommend the environment to a friend. CONCLUSIONS: Computer simulations of the perceptual phenomena of psychiatric illness are feasible with existing personal computer technology. Integration of the evaluation survey into the environment itself was possible. The use of Internet-connected graphics environments holds promise for public education about mental illness.

Source: Education about hallucinations using an internet virtual reality system: a qualitative survey
Originally published on Sun, 03 Dec 2006 11:41:04 GMT by Andrea Gaggioli

From [ETHNO/cios] list:

Journal of Pragmatics,
Special Issue on “Questions of Context in Studies of Talk-in-interaction”
I have been asked to edit a special issue of Journal of Pragmatics on “Questions of Context in Studies of Talk-in-interaction”.
Papers should deal with the fraught problem of the admissibility of contextual knowledge in the analysis of talk-in-interaction and state a position with regard to that question.
If at all possible there should be some comparison with the use of contextual specifics in ethnomethodological work.
It is desireable that papers should illustrate the position taken by reference to actual materials and their analysis.
Abstracts should be sent to Alec McHoul <a.mchoul@murdoch.edu.au>.
At that point, a number of papers will be selected on the basis of the potential for overall coherence of the issue, but with a view also to representing divergent positions.
A list of the selected papers and abstracts will then be sent to the JoP special issues editor (Neal Norrick) for approval.
Completed contributions will be subject to the normal JoP refereeing process: two referees in each case.
Referees may accept or reject the papers or authors may be asked to revise their papers to the satisfaction of the guest editor(s).

Title:
The development of an integrated psychosocial approach to effective usability of 3D Virtual Environments for Cybertherapy

Authors:
Carlo Galimberti, Gloria Belloni, Matteo Cantamesse, Alberto Cattaneo, Fabiana Gatti, Maddalena Grassi & Luca Menti

Abstract:
The aim of the paper is to describe a possible direction of development and theoretical model for ergonomic research in the Virtual Reality (VR) field dedicated to psychotherapy applications. Through considerations on the strong points and limitations encountered during two different projects dedicated to the creation of virtual reality environments (VRE) for use in psychotherapy, it comments on the concepts of ecology and context of use. The theoretical perspective proposed intends to highlight the evolution from an ecology of state to an ecology of process. Given the considerable obstacles connected primarily to the lack of accepted standards for the ergonomic evaluation of 3D environments and the specific nature of the applications and user type in question, ergonomic research will represent an increasingly highly strategic aspect of clinical protocol design and upgrades: a number of closing considerations are dedicated to the operative aspects of ergonomic research and the role of the researcher.

Cite as:
Carlo Galimberti, Gloria Belloni, Matteo Cantamesse, Alberto Cattaneo, Fabiana Gatti, Maddalena Grassi & Luca Menti (2006). The development of an integrated psychosocial approach to effective usability of 3D Virtual Environments for Cybertherapy. PsychNology Journal, 4(2), 161 – 181.

Link:
http://www.psychnology.org/File/PNJ4(2)/PSYCHNOLOGY_JOURNAL_4_2_GALIMBERTI.pdf