Immersive Technologies

2022 ◽  
pp. 34-54
Author(s):  
Christine M. Baker
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Industry Professional ◽  
Immersive Technologies

Few digital technologies have captured the world's imagination as much as the cluster of immersive experiences usually labelled virtual reality, augmented reality, and extended reality. A certain mythology has grown up around these technologies, their purpose, application, benefits, and risks. This chapter addresses these elements, offering insights into real-world applications and some thoughts about how the technologies could evolve. A limiting factor when writing about immersive technologies is the lack of comprehensive research into real-life applications and their long-term effects. In addition, there is a tendency for potential users and commentators to become overly optimistic about the latest developments in this niche. This research adopts an interpretivist qualitative approach, based on a review of existing literature and web sources, and the author's personal experiences as an industry professional. What is clear is that these technologies are not a passing fad and are likely to shape the human experience in social, economic, and technological terms in future years.

Active Shooter Protocols: Perceptions, Preparedness, and Anxiety

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-100
Author(s):  
Veronica Worthington ◽  
Matthew Hayes ◽  
Melissa Reeves
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Training Methods ◽  
Active Shooter ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Perceived Knowledge

The national concern about active shootings has pushed schools to implement intense drills without considering unintended consequences. Studies have found that, although training had the potential to increase preparedness, it also increased anxiety. These findings apply to short-term effects, but there is a lack of empirical research on long-term effects of active shooter drills. The present study investigated whether active shooter training completed in high school impacts current levels of anxiety and preparedness of undergraduates. Collegiate participants (N = 364) completed an online survey and answered questions about their perceived knowledge of protocols, protocol actions, and training methods from high school followed by the same set of questions, this time referring to their current university. Participants then completed an anxiety measure (Spielberger, 1983) and a preparedness measure. Two hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to predict anxiety and preparedness. This study expanded findings on the effects of active shooter training by demonstrating long-term effects for high school training. Evacuation protocols (β = −.13, p = .03; β = .16, p = .007) and perceived knowledge (β = −.16, p = .004; β = .14, p = .01) positively impacted anxiety and preparedness, respectively, of university students. Experiences at the university level had an additional, larger impact on student anxiety, ΔR2 = .11, F(8, 347) = 5.88, p < .001, and preparedness, ΔR2> = .26, F(8, 347) = 17.32, p < .001, which seems to overshadow the effects from high school. This may be problematic because the perceived knowledge that leads to higher feelings of preparedness may not translate into appropriate actions in a real-life situation, potentially risking lives.

scholarly journals Evaluation of FlowVR: a virtual reality game for improvement of depressive mood

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukas Bittner ◽  
Fariba Mostajeran ◽  
Frank Steinicke ◽  
Jürgen Gallinat ◽  
Simone Kühn
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Depressive Mood ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
The State ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Positive Affectivity ◽  
Head Mounted Display ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Anxiety Depression

AbstractObjectiveThis study evaluated the efficacy of FlowVR, a virtual reality (VR) game designed to improve mood and reduce feelings of depression. The aim is to contribute to the question of whether and how VR could be used for depression therapy, as research in this area is quite rare.Method18 healthy participants (9 female; Mage = 25.9) underwent three conditions, playing FlowVR in VR with a head-mounted display, playing FlowVR on a tablet or reading a text on a tablet. For each condition, they were tested on a separate day at the same time of day within a two-week period. Before and after every condition participants completed the Becks Depression Inventory II (BDI-II), the state part of the State-Trait-Anxiety-Depression-Inventory (STADI(S)) and the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule-Expanded Form (PANAS-X).ResultsWhile the participants showed only a reduction in acute anxiety in the control and the tablet conditions, they showed improved affectivity in all variables measured in the VR condition. In addition, VR had significantly better results than the control condition in improving positive affectivity, negative affectivity and acute feelings of depression. Using a less conservative statistical approach, these significant differences could also be found between the tablet and the VR condition. There were no significant differences between the tablet and the control condition.ConclusionThe results indicate that due to its immersive nature, VR can be used effectively to improve mood and temporarily reduce feelings of depression. Long-term effects of FlowVR on participants with depression must be investigated in consecutive research.

scholarly journals Long-Term Effects of a Video-Based Smartphone App (“VIDEA Bewegt”) to Increase the Physical Activity of German Adults: A Single-Armed Observational Follow-Up Study

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 4215
Author(s):  
Gesine Reinhardt ◽  
Patrick Timpel ◽  
Peter E. H. Schwarz ◽  
Lorenz Harst
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Summary Score ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Follow Up Study ◽  
Median Increase ◽  
Baseline Activity ◽  
Related Quality

As physical inactivity is one of the four leading risk factors for mortality, it should be intensively treated. Therefore, this one-year follow-up study aimed to evaluate the long-term effects of a preventive app to increase physical activity in German adults under real-life circumstances. Data collection took place from July 2019 to July 2021 and included six online questionnaires. Physical activity was studied as the primary outcome based on MET-minutes per week (metabolic equivalent). Secondary outcomes included health-related quality of life based on a mental (MCS) and physical health component summary score (PCS). At the time of publication, 46/65 participants completed the study (median 52 years, 81.5% women). A significant increase of physical activity was observed in people with a low/moderate baseline activity during the first four months of follow-up (median increase by 490 MET-minutes per week, p < 0.001, r = 0.649). Both MCS (median increase by 2.8, p = 0.006, r = 0.344) and PCS (median increase by 2.6, p < 0.001, r = 0.521) significantly increased during the first two months and the BMI significantly decreased during the first six months after the intervention (median decrease by 0.96 kg/m2, p < 0.001, r = 0.465). Thus, this study provides evidence for the medium-term impact of the app, since the effects decreased over time. However, due to the chosen study design and a sizeable loss to follow-up, the validity of these findings is limited.

A multi-methods design to understand the #longCOVID and #longhaulers conversation on Twitter (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Santarossa ◽  
Ashley Rapp ◽  
Saily Sardinas ◽  
Janine Hussein ◽  
Alex Ramirez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Network Analysis ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Patient Centered ◽  
The Social ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Twitter Users

BACKGROUND The scientific community is just beginning to uncover potential long-term effects of COVID-19, and one way to start gathering information is by examining the present discourse on the topic. OBJECTIVE The conversation about long COVID-19 on Twitter provides insight into related public perception and personal experiences. METHODS A multipronged approach was used to analyze data (N = 2,500 records from Twitter) about long-COVID and from people experiencing long COVID-19. A text analysis was completed by both human coders and Netlytic, a cloud-based text and social networks analyzer. A social network analysis generated Name and Chain networks that showed connections and interactions between Twitter users. RESULTS Among the 2,010 tweets about long COVID-19, and 490 tweets by COVID-19 long-haulers 30,923 and 7,817 unique words were found, respectively. For booth conversation types ‘#longcovid’ and ‘covid’ were the most frequently mentioned words, however, through visually inspecting the data, words relevant to having long COVID-19 (i.e., symptoms, fatigue, pain) were more prominent in tweets by COVID-19 long-haulers. When discussing long COVID-19, the most prominent frames were ‘support’ (1090; 56.45%) and ‘research’ (435; 21.65%). In COVID-19 long haulers conversations, ‘symptoms’ (297; 61.5%) and ‘building a community’ (152; 31.5%) were the most prominent frames. The social network analysis revealed that for both tweets about long COVID-19 and tweets by COVID-19 long-haulers, networks are highly decentralized, fragmented, and loosely connected. CONCLUSIONS The present study provides a glimpse into the ways long COVID-19 is framed by social network users. Understanding these perspectives may help generate future patient-centered research questions.

scholarly journals RBTT-03. USE OF VIRTUAL REALITY ENVIRONMENTS TO IMPROVE SELF-REPORTED DISTRESS, MOOD DISTURBANCE AND OVERALL SYMPTOM BURDEN USING CORRELATIVE STRESS BIOMARKERS IN PRIMARY BRAIN TUMOR (PBT) PATIENTS

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (Supplement_6) ◽  
pp. vi219-vi219
Author(s):  
Amanda King ◽  
Nicole Leggiero ◽  
Alvina Acquaye ◽  
Elizabeth Vera ◽  
Sonja Crandon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Brain Tumor ◽  
Psychological Health ◽  
Physiological Stress ◽  
Symptom Burden ◽  
Mood Disturbance ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Stress Biomarkers

Abstract Approximately 20% of PBT patients experience moderate-severe distress at the time of neuroimaging & diagnostic evaluation, which can adversely impact their psychological health and ability to tolerate oncologic therapies. Virtual reality (VR) technology is increasingly being utilized in clinical populations with demonstrated improvement in self-reported pain, anxiety, and distress, though little is known about the biological pathways involved. We hypothesize that VR can improve distress through a combination of distraction and promotion of the relaxation response, both of which could blunt activity of physiological stress pathways. The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of VR breathing and relaxation scenarios on self-reported acute and long-term distress incorporating correlative stress biomarkers, as well as assessing long-term effects on mood disturbance and overall symptom burden. This is a phase 2 experimental pre-post design with a sample size of 100 PBT patients, stratified into low and high distress groups. Self-reported measures include the Distress Thermometer, PROMIS Anxiety and Depression Short Forms, and the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory Brain Tumor instrument. Correlative stress biomarkers include salivary cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S), representing hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity, and salivary alpha amylase (sAA) and heart rate, representing activity of the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) system. Baseline and post-intervention assessments will be taken surrounding a 5 to 10 minute VR experience in clinic, with repeat assessments 1 week later and at the next clinic appointment. Anticipated outcomes include a decrease in self-reported acute and remote distress with correlative decrease in stress biomarkers, as well as improvement of mood disturbance and overall symptom burden. VR has the potential to help PBT patients improve self-management of their psychological symptoms, potentially enhancing their tolerance of oncologic therapies and overall quality of life. Additionally, the benefits of this intervention may have broad applicability to other cancer patient populations.

scholarly journals Development and Pilot Test of a Virtual Reality Respiratory Biofeedback Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 153-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Blum ◽  
Christoph Rockstroh ◽  
Anja S. Göritz
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Diaphragmatic Breathing ◽  
Sinus Arrhythmia ◽  
Breathing Exercise ◽  
Breathing Exercises ◽  
Breath Awareness

Abstract Breathing exercises with biofeedback have benefits over breathing exercises without biofeedback. However, the traditional measurement of respiratory signals that is required as part of feeding back the breath incurs high cost and effort. We propose a novel virtual reality (VR) based approach to respiratory biofeedback that utilizes the positionally tracked hand controllers integrated into modern VR systems to capture and feedback the respiration-induced abdominal movements. In a randomized controlled laboratory study, we investigated the feasibility and efficacy of the developed biofeedback algorithm. In total, 72 participants performed a short breathing exercise in VR with or without respiratory biofeedback. The feedback integration resulted in a satisfactory user experience, a heightened breath awareness, a greater focus on slow diaphragmatic breathing and an increased respiratory sinus arrhythmia. This evidences that the novel biofeedback approach is low-cost, unobtrusive, usable and effective in increasing breath awareness and promoting slow diaphragmatic breathing in the context of VR-based breathing exercises. Future studies need to investigate the broader applicability and long-term effects.

scholarly journals Impact of Virtual Reality on Rehabilitation of Distal Radial Fracture with head mounted device

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaitanya A. Kulkarni ◽  
Waqar M. Naqvi
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Conventional Therapy ◽  
Standard Technique ◽  
Distal Radial Fracture ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Radial Fracture ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Treatment Plans ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background: Rehabilitation is a stressful and exhausting procedure that includes number of exercises and activities that patients have to perform for a long period of time. Regrettably, patients often become annoyed, irritated, and lack motivation and feel discouraged which makes rehabilitation less efficient. Virtual Reality have been extensively utilized for implementing treatment plans to make the process more exciting, stimulating and empowering for patients. Within this work, we propose to use of head wearing device name oculus for patient’s wrist rehabilitation after distal radius fracture (DRF). Methodology: In the study 40 DRF patients will be enrolled. One group will receive conventional therapy and the other group will receive immersive virtual reality as well as conventional therapy for 6 weeks. Pain, ROM, dexterity and grip strength will be evaluated using to standard technique.Discussion: The goal of this Interventional study is to examine the impact of immersive virtual reality after DRF. This research will help in identifying rapid and long term effects of virtual reality in DRF patients. The study findings would help prospective patients with DRF, which may include a newly designed method of rehabilitation.

scholarly journals Impact of Virtual Reality on Rehabilitation of Distal Radial Fracture with head mounted device

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaitanya A. Kulkarni ◽  
Waqar M. Naqvi
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Conventional Therapy ◽  
Standard Technique ◽  
Distal Radial Fracture ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Radial Fracture ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Treatment Plans ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background: Rehabilitation is a stressful and exhausting procedure that includes number of exercises and activities that patients have to perform for a long period of time. Regrettably, patients often become annoyed, irritated, and lack motivation and feel discouraged which makes rehabilitation less efficient. Virtual Reality have been extensively utilized for implementing treatment plans to make the process more exciting, stimulating and empowering for patients. Within this work, we propose to use of head wearing device name oculus for patient’s wrist rehabilitation after distal radius fracture (DRF). Methodology: In the study 40 DRF patients will be enrolled. One group will receive conventional therapy and the other group will receive immersive virtual reality as well as conventional therapy for 6 weeks. Pain, ROM, dexterity and grip strength will be evaluated using to standard technique.Discussion: The goal of this Interventional study is to examine the impact of immersive virtual reality after DRF. This research will help in identifying rapid and long term effects of virtual reality in DRF patients. The study findings would help prospective patients with DRF, which may include a newly designed method of rehabilitation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document