Daily Archives: October 28, 2019

At times, it seems as though virtual reality is to the layman what Dippin Dots is to the frozen treat industry: constantly billed as the next big thing, but rarely spotted outside trade shows and carnivals.

But the leaders in the immersive technology field are working on it. Next week, theyll descend on Vancouver for the VR/AR Global Summit for a chance to network, gather information about the latest advancements and, most importantly, share ideas and collaborate on new ways to apply the emerging technologies.

The conference and expo, which takes place Nov. 1-2 at Parq Vancouver, is supported by the biggest names in tech, such as Microsoft and Amazon, and will feature keynote addresses, panels and workshops with more than 1,000 representatives from dozens of major technology companies.

Its a way to bring together the solution providers and the companies that are looking to buy those types of technologies bridge the gap and help them connect, said Nathan Pettyjohn, founder and president of the VR/AR Association, a global community that serves as a conduit between industries, companies and universities to help move the immersive technologies forward.

Pettyjohn, who will speak at the summit next week, pushed back at the notion that virtual reality has yet to make a real impact on modern life.

Depending upon the analysts you look at, by around 2023, most of them estimate between a $100- and $120-billion industry across augmented reality and virtual reality, and across consumers and entertainment, he said. Theres quite a large ecosystem thats growing.

Pettyjohns optimism is borne out by a spike in venture capital funding. Much of that money is pouring into Vancouver, now the second-largest VR/AR ecosystem in the world after Silicon Valley.

Three years ago, Vancouver was home to around 15 immersive technology companies. Now there are more than 230, from major publishers like Electronic Arts (EA), Microsoft and Nintendo, to startups like Etro Construction, which aims to implement new technologies in the construction industry and has been growing rapidly since its inception in 2015.

Even celebrities see a cant-miss money-making opportunity. Virtual reality gaming company Sandbox VR, which just expanded to Canada by opening a location in Richmond, announced $11 million in funding from some big names in Silicon Valley and the entertainment industry, including Justin Timberlake and Katy Perry, actors Will Smith and Orlando Bloom, and former Disney president Michael Ovitz.

Sandbox works with VR and full-body, motion capture technology for customers to become superheroes, space cowboys and physics-defying fighters. The company describes the experience as the closest thing to the holodeck that exists.

We believe that VR is finally ready to take off as a mass-market phenomenon in malls, where it can be optimized for a social experience, said David Sacks, co-founder and general partner at San Franciscos Craft Ventures. We chose the Sandbox team because of their background in game design; their VR experiences have a level of interactivity with both the VR world and other players that we couldnt find elsewhere. We believe that Sandbox VR is poised to become the first VR experience for millions of consumers around the world.

The funding brings the total investment capital raised by Sandbox to $83 million this year, which will facilitate the companys expansive rollout with one of 16 locations opening throughout North America every other month in cities such as New York, Austin, Tex., San Diego and Chicago.

Employee Eric Lui inside virtual reality gaming room at Sandbox VR in Richmond, BC, October 27, 2019.Arlen Redekop / PNG

Within a few years there will be a branded virtual reality chain in many of North Americas largest cities.

But if youd rather pretend you went somewhere as opposed to actually going somewhere, home VR technology is becoming more affordable for the average consumer as well.

Were starting to see the prices of virtual reality headsets drop to get to a point where, for just a few hundred dollars, the average person can attain a really good-quality VR headset now, Pettyjohn said.

And its not just gaming.

Youve got training, youve got the education market which is using this, and even health care has been finding some really interesting uses, Pettyjohn said.

Health-care professionals are using VR in everything from pediatric surgery to physical therapy. Meanwhile, multinationals like Honeywell, which produces everything from tower fans to aerospace systems, has begun using immersive augmented reality headset displays to guide workers through production assemblies or to teach them to perform complicated servicing tasks in real-time.

They found an improvement when training new workers passively with traditional reading and watching videos and over three months (trainees) retained about 20 per cent of the knowledge, he said. Then they tried augmented reality training and they found knowledge retention went up to about 80 per cent.

For anyone wondering when these immersive technologies will really begin to affect our lives, have you ever used a Snapchat filter? That beard of bees is a form of augmented reality. And the Pokemon Go craze is an AR experience the blending of interactive digital elements, such as monsters, you can actually capture into a real-world environment.

Pokemon Go was the proof that this industry has real legs. In May 2018 it was estimated that the game grossed $104 million in monthly revenue and had 147 million monthly active players, making it the most far-reaching AR gaming experience to date.

Its actually opened the eyes to many people who probably dont realize theyre using augmented reality, and its leveraging the hundreds-of-millions of mobile devices that are already in peoples hands, Pettyjohn said. Apple or Android phones are giving me the ability to detect where a floor is, where a wall is, where tabletops are. Combined with that, I can use geolocation latitude and longitude co-ordinates and plop a Pokemon monster right in front of me. Its a great way in which people have gotten exposed to this technology.

And this is just the beginning, Pettyjohn said. As industry pros gather and exchange ideas, new ways to use the burgeoning technology are emerging daily.

Its only going to get better-and-better, he said.

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Virtual reality is booming, and Vancouver is leading the way - Vancouver Sun

The Louvre has unveiled its definitive exhibition this week on polymath Leonardo da Vinci, master of the Italian Renaissance, to mark the quincentennial of his death in 1519.

Its a monumental exhibition, involving an upgrade on an old classic, a painting that has yet to show up and a last-minute appearance by a drawing thought too fragile to travel.

The Mona Lisa in the Louvre has struggled to stand out in the "selfie" generation

The Louvre already houses five paintings by da Vinci but this new retrospective gathers over 160 of his sketches and paintings in one placea world firstafter ten years of research and planning by curators at the Louvre. Artwork has been borrowed from the Vatican, several Italian museums and the British museum in London. As Vogue reported, the Louvre is the worlds most visited museum, da Vinci is one of its most renowned painters and this new retrospective will examine the place of painting and its influence in the work of Da Vinci, who made the "science of painting" as he called it, the instrument of his art.

It has been an ongoing problem for the Louvre as to how to elevate the worlds most famous painting above the jostling crowds and long-waiting times to see the small 30-inch-high painting as 80% of visitors are there especially for her. The New York Times reported on the solution: a new virtual reality tour aboard a Leonardo-designed glider to offer an intimate portrait into the woman, the wife of an Italian silk merchant, and her life in Florence.

An advertising campaign for the new Da Vinci exhibition on the Louvre's neighbour, the Muse des ... [+] Arts Dcoratifs, which is helping to pay for the Muse des Arts restoration

It is thought that Leonardo painted Salvator Mundishowing Jesus in Renaissance dressin 1500, but the painting has been the stuff of art world legend. The painting was originally thought to be by a pupil of Leonardos, and was later upgraded to the painter Boltraffio, when it was promptly sold at auction in 1958 for 45 in London.

Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci ahead of its sale at Christie's New York on November 15, 2017.

The Guardian reported that it was only after it was sold for $1,175 in 2005 at a New Orleans auction house that it was upgraded to a Leonardo. Many people still doubt the authenticity of the painting but the Louvre apparently does not. However, no one in the art world is sure of where it currently is. As one of only 20 known paintings by Leonardo, and the only one in private hands, it has changed owners various times through (possibly) the English royal family and a Russian oligarch. Since its sale for a staggering $450 million in 2017 it is rumoured to be hanging on the super yacht of Saudi Arabias Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, accused of being involved in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. It is unlikely to make an appearance.

Leonardo's piece "Vitruvian Man" presented in 2015 in Milan.

Leonardos sketch of the proportions of the human body, drawn in Milan around 1490, symbolises the golden ratio found in nature. Leonardo used this mathematical ratio in much of his work, whether it was in designing architectural buildings with stairs resembling snail shells or drawing the Mona Lisa with an ideal distance between her eyes and the bottom of her chin.

An Italian group, Italia Nostra, had appealed to the courts to stop the drawings journey to the Louvre because they said it was too fragile to travel or be displayed under intense lighting. They said that it should only be displayed every six years and for a short period of time, so if it went to Paris, then it would have to be put away for ten years afterwards. However, a last-minute appeal allowed the sketch to travel to the Louvre, as reported in the New York Times, to be shown for two months.

Over 260,000 tickets have already been sold (it is the first time that the Louvre has demanded tickets be bought in advance) and the exhibition runs until February 24, 2020.

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Leonardo Da Vinci Exhibition At The Louvre: Fragility, Virtual Reality, And A Missing Painting - Forbes

PULASKI, Va. (WDBJ) - Residents at the Pulaski Health and Rehabilitation Center got the chance to escape without having to leave their rooms. Next Level VR, a virtual reality company coming to downtown Pulaski, gave them VR sets to try out. VR is a computer-generated simulation of reality.

"It took me back to a happy place, and we all need that," Stephanie Whittaker, a resident at Pulaski Health and Rehabilitation Center, said.

She was overcome with emotion when she got to try out virtual reality Saturday for the first time.

"I felt so safe and in my own element in that," she said.

It's been 17 years since Whittaker saw a dolphin.

"My ex-husband was a scuba diver instructor," she said.

But Next Level VR reconnected her with her favorite animal.

"It was beautiful, absolutely beautiful," Whittaker said.

"We get to come here and work, make somebody's day, let them have a day outside of the building, but at the same time they don't have to leave, they get to be in the comfort of their own bed or their own chair, whatever they like to do, and we can take them all over the world," Ian Turbyfill, a Managing Member and Partner with Next Level VR, said.

Students from The Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, known as VCOM, in Blacksburg, volunteered to help bring these residents an escape.

"It's nice to get out here on the weekend and experience something that motivates you and drives you to help patients in the future," Craig Johnson, a military student at VCOM, said.

Helping patients like Whittaker.

"Especially with anxiety, I started having anxiety attacks when I came here, brand new, really scary, and that would help tremendously," Whittaker said about VR.

Next Level VR folks plans to bring their virtual reality sets back to Pulaski Health and Rehab again next month.

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Pulaski Health and Rehab residents try out Virtual Reality - WDBJ7

Dementia is a cruel disease, robbing people of their short-term memories and then progressively taking more and more of their cognitive function over time. Often, patients with dementia become confused, disoriented, maybe even combative or afraid as their ability to understand and connect with the world around them declines.

Alzheimers disease and other dementias can cause lots of emotional and psychiatric issues depression and agitation, says Brian Geyser, APRN-BC, MSN, chief clinical officer, at Inspr, a senior living facility in Manhattan.

Although hope abounds that a cure for dementia will eventually be discovered, for the time being, therapies for the disease tend to be more palliative than curative. One treatment that many caregivers have found to be helpful is reminiscence therapy, and virtual reality (VR) technology is helping make this an event more effective treatment.

Reminiscence therapy is a treatment that uses all the senses sight, touch, taste, smell and sound to help individuals with dementia remember events, people and places from their past lives, the Elder Care Alliance, a California-based network of senior care communities, reports. As part of the therapy, care partners may use objects in various activities to help individuals with recall of memories.

Its in that recall of long-ago memories that residents can often find a comforting connection to their former selves. Geyser says that neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers disease, Lewy Body Dementia and Parkinsons disease typically affect short-term memory first. They attack the hippocampus, which is responsible for processing short-term memories. Someone with Alzheimers might not remember what they had for breakfast or that they saw the doctor a week ago, but they will remember in more detail aspects of where they went to school for university or elementary school. Theyll talk in detail about earlier times and that often brings them happiness to do, whereas thinking about more recent memories causes anxiety and frustration because they cant access those memories any longer.

Often, reminiscence therapy can be accomplished by looking at old photographs or eating foods that remind a person of their childhood or young adulthood. Smells or music that connect them to a previous and happy time of life can be very beneficial in stimulating a positive response. As you sit with someone and go through a photo album, they may be filled with joy and happiness. That feeling of joy can help them sit calmly and quality for an hour or more. Its usually a very pleasant experience for them to do that, Geyser says. And the effects can last for hours after. For someone whos experiencing agitation and anxiety, one way to pull them out of that is to reminisce with them.

Photo albums are great, but as VR technology becomes more sophisticated and cheaper to implement, some long-term care facilities are finding high-tech ways of reminding residents of younger days to help them feel calmer and more at peace with their current situation. When virtual reality came along, it seemed like a natural way to improve reminiscence therapy, Geyser says.

Today, some long-term care facilities are investing in VR headsets and systems that can provide a more immersive reminiscence therapy experience for residents. The results have been extraordinary for some patients, Geyser says.

For example, we have a resident whos originally from Sweden. She was a PhD and psychology professor, and shes in middle-stage dementia. She has a hard time expressing herself verbally and gets locked up in her brain. She cant get the words out. So we thought to try the VR reminiscence therapy to bring her back to her hometown and the university where she taught. The team used Google earth and street maps technology to model her university and hometown and virtually bring her home.

The response was incredibly rewarding for her caregivers, Geyser says. She lit up with joy. She was smiling and pointing at the images. She started talking in her native language as she was touring us through the building. She relayed details for graduation ceremonies she attended and the whole experience unlocked a flurry of happy memories that made her feel more at ease. It was just really powerful to watch that 45 minutes of her remembering her earlier days, Geyser says.

The 360-degree view that VR can offer may spark even more memories than a simple photo album, because its more immersive and sort of tricks the senses into thinking youre back in an old, familiar place. What it shows us that the memories of the distance past are shrouded, but theyre still locked in there. These images unlock those memories that are sort of stuck back there in the recesses of the mind, Geyser says.

As VR technology continues to evolve, the price drops, making it a more accessible therapy for long-term care facilities to implement. Geyser says several companies offer VR reminiscence therapy packages for long-term care facilities at a reasonable prices.

You can tailor the programming options to individual residents or create shared travel and reminiscence experiences for residents. Have several residents traveled to the same place in the past and would enjoy feeling as if they are going back there? With relatively little effort, you can create a VR experience for them that feels like a group tour.

As VR technology continues to improve, along with our understanding of dementia, look for VR reminiscence therapy to become a more widespread and powerful way of providing a welcome respite for people with cognitive decline.

Elaine K. Howley is a freelance journalist for various publications. An award-winning writer specializing in health, fitness, sports and history, her work has appeared in numerous print and online publications, including U.S. News,AARP.org, espnW, SWIMMER magazine and Atlas Obscura. Shes also a world-record holding marathon swimmer with a passion for animals and beer. Contact her via her website:elainekhowley.com.

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Virtual Reality and Reminiscence Therapy - i Advance Senior Care

A Calgary entrepreneur says hes devised a solution to the age old problem of, You need experience to get a job, but you cant get experience until you have a job.

Jose Azares created a virtual reality training system, dubbed NIDUM (Latin for nest), which allows prospective employees to train for a job before they head to their first interview with the company.

The owner of the restaurant chain, ReGrub, Azares originally designed the software to make his businesss hiring practices more inclusive.

Nowadays when they go for an interview, employers or people in general are skeptical, because of the extra accommodation, the extra training, they have to provide, he said.

So what this is doing is basically taking the training out of the store and into a box and giving the people the chance to train even before they come to the interview.

Azares tested his on-boarding software at his ReGrub Restaurants, but is now marketing it to other companies, and employment agencies.

So NIDUM is creating partnerships with the different (employment) agencies we have in the city, so whenever we bring a new business into the platform we upload the modules for that business, he said.

And the (employment) agencies have access to all those module, so if they have an individual who wants to work for a specific business then they go to the library and say OK, I want to train with this company before I go for an interview.

Calgary Alternative Employment Services career consultant Ashton Bennet says many employers want a more inclusive workplace but often struggle with how to achieve it.

There are over 300 recognized disabilities and those all look a little bit different on every individual, she said,

So the concept of accommodating each disability and what that looks like can be a little daunting for employers who have never done that before.

She says aside from the training, NIDUM shows employers that job seekers are committed.

It is really useful to show initiative, said Bennet.

It is another sign of employability, that they have gone through the module and they are ready to take on the position.

Azares says the advanced training also helps employers save money.

Our data shows that employees who use our VR training modules show up for work 40 to 60 per cent trained. They require much less supervision and quickly become a valuable member of the team, he said.

With NIDUM, employers can see how people interact with the module, so they can determine if the new hire is going to be committed and reliable.

NIDUM held its official launch event Monday at cSPACE King Edward.

Azares has several hiring agencies ready to help staff train using NIDUM. He is currently recruiting industries in the restaurant and service sector in his first push toward more inclusive workplaces.

Link:

Virtual reality trainer gives on-the-job experience before the first interview - CTV News

NEW YORK, Oct. 28, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ --According to recent studies, one of the biggest strengths of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) is their ability to give students real world immersive experiences that could make learning both more memorable and more meaningful. But can virtual reality improve a dyslexic child's reading experience?

Based on case studies from numerous users and extensive classroom sessions both instructing children and observing their experiences of learning through VR, the principals of the Lyfta digital platform have concluded that education content presented in a Virtual Reality format is more intuitive and memorable for learners.

In a new interview with C.M. Rubin, Founder of CMRubinWorld, Educators Serdar Ferit and Katri Merilinen report that teachers found "children are able to construct factual connections above their normal level when learning about phenomena in a contextualised environment." Lyfta is conducting academic research in collaboration with two Finnish universities to understand the full potential of VR for dyslexic children. "The preliminary results show that a purposefully designed VR environment can significantly improve dyslexic children's reading experience."

Read the full article here

Lyfta is a subscription based digital platform where teachers and pupils can access immersive storyworlds and curriculum-based lesson and assembly plans. Lyfta's theme-based learning experiences are used to teach Literacy, PSHE, Global Citizenship and Art, as well as fostering values and skills such as empathy, self-direction and critical thinking.

CMRubinWorld's award-winning series, The Global Search for Education, brings together distinguished thought leaders in education and innovation from around the world to explore the key learning issues faced by most nations. The series has become a highly visible platform for global discourse on 21st century learning, offering a diverse range of innovative ideas which are presented by the series founder, C. M. Rubin, together with the world's leading thinkers.

For more information on CMRubinWorld

Follow @CMRubinWorld on Twitter

Contact Information:

David Wine

David(at)cmrubinworld(dot)com

SOURCE CMRubinWorld

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Virtual Reality (VR) May Provide More Effective Approach to Teaching Children with Dyslexia - Benzinga

The creative use of mobile and wearable health information and sensing technologiesalso known as mHealthmay have the potential to reduce the cost of healthcare and improve wellbeing in numerous ways.

OxfordVR, a team based at Oxford University who are looking at the evidence behind immersive technology for mental health, have turned their attention to the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). They are doing this in collaboration with the McPin Foundation, which puts the lived experience of people affected by mental health problems at the heart of research methods. I have OCD and I was keen to be involved with the development of this intervention, so I was pleased to become a member of the associated Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP).

People with obsessive compulsive disorder experience obsessive and persistent thoughts. This can lead them to carry out compulsive actions such as repeatedly washing their hands or checking that they turned the oven off, in order to relieve anxieties. People with OCD may feel compelled to perform these tasks over and over again until they feel they have got it right. This can be incredibly stressful, not to say psychologically and emotionally painful, and can interfere with everyday life.

Mental pain is as real as physical pain and it needs to be treated effectively. It is thought that the anxiety reduction that follows from obeying the compulsions maintains the OCD cycle by reinforcing the benefit that yielding to ones obsessive thoughts and feelings makes things better. The NICE Guidelines for the treatment of OCD recommends Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) including Exposure Response Prevention (ERP), a therapy that encourages people to face their fears and let obsessive thoughts occur without putting them right or neutralising them with compulsions.

Currently people with OCD are usually referred to Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services to receive these psychological therapies. However there may be long waiting lists to be seen by a therapist and the CBT-based ERP therapy offered involves directly resisting OCD urges which can exact a huge emotional and psychological cost. In contrast the VR OCD therapy under development doesnt require a human therapist. Psychological advice and guidance is embedded into the virtual reality. Not being reliant on a human resource could promote accessibility to the therapy, allowing people to receive effective treatment sooner and at less financial cost, as it is anticipated that the VR headsets will cost significantly less than normal sessions with a psychologist.

It is currently unknown whether technologies such as virtual reality (VR) can help people with OCD. This is what the team at Oxford are trying to develop and research. Using the VR technology involves wearing a light headset and exploring a computer simulated environment. The software embeds a virtual psychotherapist or virtual coach whose role is to guide users through whatever thoughts, feelings, and responses they have to any triggers of OCD anxiety and behaviour they encounter in the virtual world. The advantage of using a virtual environment to experience, negotiate and challenge compulsions is that it allows the user to imagine taking the risk without taking a risk.

The current project aims to develop the virtual therapy to the point at which its efficacy can be tested in a small pilot study. If this is successful it could lead to a full randomised controlled trial. A key aim of the project is for it to enable people to try to challenge and reduce their compulsions in a safe artificial environment. By testing out and strengthening their ability to resist their anxieties and fears in the virtual world, it is hoped that they will be able to apply their experiential learning to the real world.

Initially the virtual therapy will be developed with a focus on treating compulsive checking behaviour. However the ambition is to extend it to tackle other aspects of OCD such as fear of contamination and obsessive tidiness.

McPin will ensure that the people with lived experience of OCD in the Lived Experience Advisory Panel are heard during the VR design process, as well as supporting them to advise and shape the rest of the project. This will involve suggesting and giving feedback on the content of the VR environment and the scenarios which the user will negotiate in receiving the therapy. Our contributions will also influence the design of the virtual coach; how she interacts with the user and her script; advice she offers. Our views on suitable therapy tasks or homework to practice outside of VR sessions will also be sought. The purpose of these tasks will be to help the user translate their VR learning into real world practice.

It is a very powerful experience to work alongside fellow OCD patients and use our lived psychological pain to inform and shape the development of a technology which will hopefully help reduce the suffering of others. The technology experienced and discussed is to me as inspiring as it exciting as a potentially new intervention for OCD. As a patient and a scientist I am torn between regret that I am not permanently a part of this exciting field of research, and awe and gratitude for those academics and clinicians who are working so hard to develop digital means to help service users.

Sarah Markham is an academic mathematician and patient representative currently pursuing a second PhD in theoretical computer science. Sheis amember of the BMJ Patient Advisory Panel.Twitter: @DrSMarkham

Competing interests: None declared.

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Sarah Markham: Can virtual reality help patients with OCD? - The BMJ - The BMJ