Ethical Considerations of Using VR in Mental Health Training

Mental health students, who are still undergoing training, might find it challenging to visualise and fully understand what their patients experience. For this reason, the authors created a virtual reality simulator which mimics the symptoms of a person suffering from schizophrenia at a virtual workplace. The simulation is managed by an artificial intelligence system which asks the user to attempt simple tasks, while simultaneously facing both visual and auditory hallucinations. The AI also adapts the storyline and character behaviour dynamically to increase the immersiveness of the experience. A pilot study was carried out, and the initial results were very encouraging. In fact, the absolute majority of the users stated that the simulation has helped increase their understanding of schizophrenia. In this chapter, the authors evaluate this experiment but from a different perspective. They focus mainly on the use of emerging technologies such as AI and VR and discuss the ethical considerations of their use within the field of mental health.

Virtual Reality Simulator for Training on Surgery Ergonomics Skills

This work focuses on ergonomics skills based on Virtual Reality (VR) training simulator for spine surgery. The proposed system used the Head Mounted Display (HMD) device for monitoring and data collection. The aim of the project was to provide a training approach for residents that would enable them to acquire the proper ergonomic skills needed while performing spine surgery. A VR training simulator has been designed and implemented to measure two ergonomic skills required that need to be maintained during any surgery. The two components were neck’s angle and table’s height. The experiments showed that the users are usually focused on their work and tend to pay less attention to their body’s position and movements. This can result in a wrong ergonomics setup, which leads to musculoskeletal pain. Thus, the users (residents) need to be trained to have good ergonomics positions. The proposed system measured this using a specific metric that collected head positions, angles, elbow height, and other parameters. The designed model was a VR simulator for neurosurgical education in particular; however, it might be good for some other similar surgeries. The study concluded that incorporating simulations into residents’ training and simulated surgeries can strengthen the surgeons’ skills and outcomes. As a result, both residents and expert surgeons can benefit from the use of the developed model.

Development of an Augmented Reality Concept for Icebreaker Assistance and Convoy Operations

A vessel convoy is a complex and high-risk operation completed during icebreaking operations in the Arctic. Icebreaker navigators need to continuously communicate with their crew while monitoring information such as speed, heading, and distance between vessels in the convoy. This paper presents an augmented reality user interface concept, which aims to support navigators by improving oversight and safety during convoy operations. The concept demonstrates how augmented reality can help to realize a situated user interface that adapts to user’s physical and operational contexts. The concept was developed through a human-centered design process and tested through a virtual reality simulator in a usability study involving seven mariners. The results suggest that augmented reality has the potential to improve the safety of convoy operations by integrating distributed information with heads-up access to operation-critical information. However, the user interface concept is still novel, and further work is needed to develop the concept and safely integrate augmented reality into maritime operations.