First, you could see virtual reality. Then, you were able to hear and feel virtual reality.
Now, you can “smell” virtual reality?
Posted in virtual reality
In an astonishing breakthrough, patients left paralysed by severe spinal cord injuries have recovered the ability to move their legs after training with an exoskeleton linked to their brain – with one even able to walk using two crutches.
Scientists developed the Walk Again Project, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, thinking that they could enable paraplegics to move about using the exoskeleton controlled by their thoughts. But they were surprised to discover that during the training, the eight patients all started to regain the sense of touch and movement below the injury to their spine. It was previously thought that the nerves in seven of the patients’ spines had been completely severed.
But the researchers now believe that a few nerves survived and these were reactivated by the training, which may have rewired circuits in the brain. Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, they said: “While patient one was initially not even able to stand using braces when placed in an orthostatic posture, after 10 months of training the same patient became capable of walking using a walker, braces and the assistance of one therapist. “At this stage, this patient became capable of producing voluntary leg movements mimicking walking, while suspended overground.
Given the demands of the modern world, many people find solace and relaxation when they disconnect from their smart phones, computers and email. But what if you could improve your overall happiness simply by playing games on your phone? In a recent interview, tech entrepreneur and co-founder of Happify Ofer Leidner said gamification can make people “happier”, and that the development of technology that improves well-being is only just getting beginning.
It should be noted that not just any game on your phone can help one live a happier, healthier life. Instead, Happify and other comparable platforms use science-based games to drive behavior and to help people learn skills for generally improving their outlook on life. It’s still gaming and gamification, but gaming done with a meaningful purpose.
“After telling us a little bit about themselves, we recommend a certain track, which is a topic around which (Happify users) want to build those skills for greater emotional fitness. We then prescribe for them a set of activities and interventions that have been transformed into an interactive app,” Leidner said. “You can do them on your phone, when you’re commuting, or you can do it at night. What we’re doing, in terms of the measurement of improved outcome, is we’re actually measuring them based on scientific event reports.”
Leidner said that Happify and other apps like it aren’t inventing the science, but rather translating existing interventions, studies, and research; this data suggests that an overall happiness index is determined by one’s ability to experience positive emotions and overall life satisfaction. While that may seem like a nebulous target, he said there’s plenty of research to back it up.
In addition to the behavioral science aspect of gamification technology, Leidner also cites evidence of its efficacy in a neuroscientific approach. Seeing the notable changes in functional MRI brain scans as a result of gamification-driven behavior is what led him to make applications that could engage and benefit society on a grander scale.
Leidner acknowledges that happiness is a charged term that can mean many things to different people. But in a world with both objective and self-reported measurements, it’s what the user does with the feedback from those gaming measurements that will make the difference. “To give you a simple example, you will not be able to be happy if you’re sleep deprived. It doesn’t matter. Sleep deprivation is the number one technique to make you unhappy,” Leidner said. “I think the important thing is not just to measure, but what do you do with the measurements.”
Looking to the future, Leidner sees more gamification-driven applications and hardware on the horizon that will help people learn to live happier, healthier lives, including existing health applications like HealthKeep. Future app technologies will likely also collaborate with sensors in your body to help calibrate self-reported information (like mental state) with objective physical measurements, in turn improving recommended activities and better tailoring apps to enhance an individual user’s happiness and well-being.
Beyond that, Leidner also predicts that augmented and virtual reality will play a big role in improving people’s lives in the future. Such technologies, he said, will help people escape from their lives and emotions while helping them learn how to use more of their “mindfulness muscle”.
“There is a theme that says technology is not the way. If you want to live well and live happier lives, disconnect from technology, shut down your devices,” Leidner said. “We’re basically saying, ‘We’re not gonna’ shut down our devices. We’re just gonna’ turn the focus to apps and technology and services that help us create more meaningful lives. Augmented reality can play a very important role (in that) I think.” As with anything else, our new apps are a tool, one that can be used for ill or for good; eliminating this technology from our lives may not be realistic, but choosing how we use these technologies is within every free person’s realm of personal choice.
Nice.
Michael Hsu, CEO of SuperD, delivers a keynote speech on September 5, 2016 during the company’s products launch event held in Beijing. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)
Shenzhen-based technology company SuperD Technology recently hosted a conference in Beijing, announcing the launch of the world’s first full display handset — a smartphone that integrates 2D, 3D and virtual reality (VR) content display in one piece.
Dubbed the SuperD D1, the phone is recognized as the first of its kind to deploy the concept of a full display mobile phone that can seamlessly switch between 2D, 3D and VR modes.
Posted in robotics/AI, virtual reality
I’m developing the prototype of Telexistence Robot by using Virtual Reality and Robotics technology.
I cannot wait to see how we can use VR for obtaining additional insights on other central nervous system diseases and disorders such as MS, Dystonia, GBM, etc.
Medical applications for VR continue to spread. Just a few weeks ago I wrote about how Paraplegics can learn to walk again with help from Virtual Reality. Scientists from Tomsk Polytechnic University and the Siberian State Medical University, in Russia, believe that it could be the future of diagnosing neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.
Methods to diagnosis many of these conditions is accomplished by visual assessment in most parts of Russia. The brain scanning technology such as a CAT scan or MRI to confirm the diagnosis is only available in a handful of cities. The VR system being developed would be cheap and easy to roll out across the country.
Virtual Reality Balance Test.
A group of researchers at the University of Tokyo and their collaborators showed that using a virtual reality system to treat phantom limb pain by creating the illusion that patients are moving their absent limbs by will and having them repeat this exercise helped ease their perceived pain.