Monthly Archives: July 2021

As the COVID-19 pandemic still looming large over the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, technological innovations are promising to bring spectators and athletes closer to the action.

Using advanced virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), this year's event will be the first Games with its own COVID-inspired Olympic Virtual Series.

In one event, pro cyclists competed from around the world on exercise bikes from the comfort of their own homes.

On-site at the Games, a team from NTT Docomo, one of Japan's major network providers, is helping spectators get an upgraded experience.

"At a normal swimming event, spectators are very much engrossed in the action, but if you want to check out player records or other stats, you have to look up at a display on a wall," said Noriyuki Furuno who is leading the NTT Docomo team.

Going back and forth between the pool and the display, as would be the case during a normal swimming competition, is now a thing of the past. Thanks to the new speed and low latency that 5G offers, spectators at swimming venues can wear a special augmented reality or AR headset.

While keeping their eyes on the action, they can see who is in what lane, lap times and if a swimmer is close to breaking a world record.

These in-person experiences depend on cutting-edge transmission technology end-to-end. That will take some work, but Docomo's experience designer Akiji Tanaka said there are interesting applications ahead.

"In the future, we could send competition data directly to another pool set up in another location - replicating the swimmers in the pool and all the data that comes with it via those glasses and casting it over the empty pool," said Tanaka.

"I think spectators will be able to watch and participate in sports happening very far away without being bound by their physical location".

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Tokyo 2020: Virtual reality and augmented reality bringing spectators closer to the action - Euronews

After recently opening one cell therapy plant and breaking ground on another in Massachusetts, Takeda is pivoting westward to beef upproduction in California.

The Japanese drugmaker is injecting $126 million into its Thousand Oaks facility to boost manufacturing and support new product lines, Pacific Coast Business Times first reported. Takeda wasjoined by the citys mayor, Claudia Bill-de la Pea, for a groundbreaking event on Thursday, July 22.

The outlaywill be used to grow Takeda's portfolio of treatments and boost capacity "to manufacture additional products for the rare disease community," Stephen Hatke, Takeda's Thousand Oaks site head, said in a YouTube video about the expansion. The company didn't name the specific products it plans to make there.

As for the expansion itself, Takeda will build a new 15,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at the site and expand an existing 14,000-square-feet of production space. Takeda has been knocking around the Thousand Oaks area since 1996, the Business Times said.

RELATED:With Takhzyro durability data, Takeda tries to fend off BioCryst's hereditary angioedema challenger Orladeyo

The company pinpointed Thousand Oaks for its expansion based on capability, staffingas well as the local community and the things we could bring to the area,Hatke, told the news outlet.

The sites workforce currently stands 550-strong. Takeda plansto boost its headcount in Thousand Oaks, though nothing is certain, Hatke said, as quotedby the Business Times.

The manufacturing chief pointed to some of the cutting-edge technology Takeda will roll out at the upgraded facility, such as automation and robotics, plusvirtual reality equipment and training.

RELATED:With cost cuts and asset sales largely wrapped, Takeda gears up for growth: CEO

In Massachusetts, where the bulk of Takedas U.S. operations are based since the Shire buyout, the Japanese pharma has been swiftly ramping up its cell therapy ambitions. In September, the company cut the ribbon on a new 24,000-square-foot R&D manufacturing center in Boston, which it said at the time would handle clinical development for three ongoing pipeline programs and two other prospects pegged to enter clinical development by the end of 2021.

Earlier this year, the company revealed it had broken ground on a 38,000-square-foot commercial cell therapy plant in Lexington, Massachusetts, which is about 10 miles from downtown Boston. Takeda says the new $84 million plant will be used to make cell therapies for cancers and other diseases. That site will also tap robotics and virtual reality training, which Takeda says should help operators learn in a virtual environment before they enter the real facility.

Continued here:

Takeda lays out $126M to tap robotics, virtual reality and more at California production site - FiercePharma

Yale researchers have developed an immersive, virtual reality video game that helps teens learn about the dangers of e-cigarettes and practice strategies for refusing them.

E-cigarette use among youth is on the risethey are the most popular smoking product used by middle and high school students in the U.S. Approximately half of teenagers between 14-18 years old have tried an e-cigarette at least once, while about 10% of teens vape regularly. However, many teens are unaware of the long-lasting effects nicotine can have on a developing brain. Furthermore, 90% of adults who smoke combustible cigarettes started before turning 18, an ominous sign that teenagers now vaping might also vape or smoke well into adulthood.

When teenagers think of vaping, they think of JUUL, says Veronica Weser, PhD, associate research scientist in the play4REAL XR Lab in the Department of Pediatrics and lead researcher. They dont make the connection to nicotine and the harmful, addictive nature that e-cigarettes actually present.

Armed with five large suitcases filled with 30 virtual reality headsets, the researchers teamed up with three middle schools in Milford, Connecticut. All 285 students enrolled in the study took a pre-test designed to better understand the participants knowledge and perceptions of various indicators of e-cigarette prevention, including knowledge and harm perceptions of e-cigarettes and nicotine addiction, as well as social perceptions of vaping. In the control group, the students continued with their regular health courses. Meanwhile, students in the experimental group spent up to two hours over two to three sessions playing the researchers game. The researchers followed the students for 6 months, conducting assessments of the students e-cigarette knowledge after 3 and 6 months.

The virtual reality game, called Invite Only VR: A Vaping Prevention Game, transports students into a simulated high school world where they are in the ninth grade. Surrounded by a small group of nerdy friends, players have a goal of befriending the popular senior in their health class and getting invited to his exclusive party. Along the way, gamers experience peer pressure from classmates about trying e-cigarettes and learn alongside their virtual friends about the dangers of their use. Through voice recognition technology, the game also prompts students to practice navigating peer pressure situations involving vaping. By encouraging teens to use their own voices in simulated situations, the researchers hoped they would become better prepared to face real world scenarios.

As the game progresses, you learn more and more strategies to refuse e-cigarettes while still preserving your coolness and dignity as a high school student so that you can secure this invitation to the party, says Weser. Its really all about social interactions regarding e-cigarettes.

To assess whether participants retained information from the game, researchers administered another survey immediately after the teens finished playing. They would then repeat the assessment both three and six months later. The researchers found that the teens that played the game increased their knowledge regarding e-cigarettes compared with the control group. They were more likely to have a greater understanding of e-cigarettes, nicotine addiction and the harmfulness of vaping.

There was also a significant change in the experimental groups social perceptions of e-cigarette usestudents in this group were more likely to perceive vaping as less cool. All of these factors are important indicators of prevention of future e-cigarette use. These improvements in knowledge and perception persisted even six months after the teens experienced the virtual reality simulation.

Furthermore, participants reported a satisfactory gameplay experience and nearly 80% finished the game. The high satisfaction ratings and low dropout rate indicate that overall students enjoyed the game, which may have contributed to its success.

The researchers published their findings in Addictive Behaviors.

We think these findings are really exciting because two hours playing a video game can affect you six months down the road, says Weser.

Weser says the Milford school district was extremely pleased with the program, and after the study ended, the researchers gifted 30 virtual reality headsets to each of the participating middle schools. As an incentive for good behavior, students can now earn a VR pass to play the game during their free period.

We felt it was really important as researchers that we didnt just come in, collect data, and leave, says principal investigator and senior author Kimberly Hieftje, PhD, MS, assistant professor of pediatrics and director of the play4REAL XR Lab.

The long-term goal of the game is to keep kids from trying vaping and change the perception that all of their peers are doing it. Middle school is an especially important time to implement this program. Because the percentage of kids who have tried vaping jumps from 5.7% in middle school to 50.1% in high school, the program can provide essential tools to teens before they transition between schools.

Our goal is to focus on preventionto get to teens before they become addicted to nicotine, says Hieftje.

The game is now played on the Oculus Go virtual reality headset. Looking forward, the team hopes to adapt the game to the newer Oculus Quest headset, which offers a greater freedom of movement and could provide a more engaging and immersive experience. The researchers also plan to expand the program to cover marijuana vaping prevention, another rising concern among teens.

More information about the play4REAL XR Lab can be found here. Invite Only VR was made possible through collaboration with PreviewLabs.

Other contributors to the study include Lindsay Duncan, Brandon Sands, Andrew Schartmann, Bernard Franois and Sandra Jacobo.

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Virtual Reality Game Is an Effective Tool for Vaping Prevention Among Teens - Yale School of Medicine

MONTREAL -- When billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos took an all-civilian crew to space, it woke the inner astronaut in many dreamers.

Now, a Montreal team wants to make that dream a reality.

A virtual reality, that is.

Our goal is to bring space to audiences, said Felix Lajeunesse, creative director of Felix and Paul Studios, one of the teams behind THE INFINITE a virtual reality experience that allows viewers to explore the International Space Station (ISS).

The studio worked with NASA to develop virtual reality cameras that could function in zero gravity.

In 2019, they sent the tech to the ISS, where Quebec-born astronaut David Saint-Jacques would operate, as well as other space workers.

We would work in synergy with them from earth to space, said Lajeunesse.

Sometimes the astronauts would even take creative liberties, he said, such as filming shots of their own initiative.

The result is a day in the life of an astronaut with all its pleasures and challenges.

While details of the production are under wraps, those who saw the show said it was out of this world.

Theres one place where they play football, one attendee told CTV News. I ducked because I didnt want to get hit with the football. It was very, very interesting

Some described it almost a religious experience, adding they may never see the world the same.

We have a beautiful planet, and we have to take care of it, honestly, another viewer said.

Space is the ultimate mystery, you know, its the quest of our origins, said Lajeunesse. Its about understanding our place in the universe.

Obviously, we will become an interplanetary species at some point in the future.

Until then, he says the goal is to give those who arent billionaires a chance to see whats out there.

You can catch THE INFINITE at the Arsenal contemporary art centre in Saint-Henri until November 7.

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Virtual reality show brings Montrealers aboard the International Space Station - CTV News Montreal

Could virtual reality tools be effective in helping patients unlearn their chronic pain? Professor Christopher Eccleston from the University of Baths Centre of Pain Research tells us how digital therapeutics are shaping the future of pain management.

A digital software developed by Finnish drugmaker Orion is aiming to address chronic pain conditions using virtual reality (VR) devices that provide an immersive gamified therapeutic treatment program.

The therapy uses a VR headset to guide people with chronic pain through a series of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) exercises that are designed to help them overcome the fear of movement also known as Kinesiophobia, and then re-engage in an active life. The modules are presented in a gamified, personalised mode that can be tailored to the patients needs.

Orion developed the software in close collaboration with Professor Christopher Eccleston, a pain specialist from the University of Bath, and technology group Healthware.

There were a number of people at Orion who had an interest in digital therapeutics, but also an understanding that future solutions to chronic pain are not going to be just delivered by pharmacology, Eccleston tells pharmaphorum.

As you start to think more about chronic pain, you realise that chronic pain is really about function and disability; its less about altering the sensation of pain and more about altering behaviour.

After developing the technology, the team ran a feasibility study for six-months to determine its response and tolerability. Due to encouraging results, a pilot study was opened to the public last year in Helsinki, Finland.

The prospective, randomised, double-blind, 3-arm parallel group compared the digital therapy for pain with a control group and an open standard care arm over 6-8 weeks. Patients were provided with the devices at home and received technical support remotely.

Theres such an unmet need for chronic pain management that people came forward really quickly to join the trial, says Eccleston.

I think rehabilitation in chronic pain has been overdue a major change. There is absolutely no reason why we should still be doing it in a rather old-fashioned Victorian way of visiting a specialists office. It needs to be taken outside the clinical setting and into the home; it needs to be made active!

As you start to think more about chronic pain, you realise that chronic pain is really about function and disability; its less about altering the sensation of pain and more about altering behaviour

Clinical trial success

In June, Orion announced the clinical trial results showing the software had a statistically significant benefit overplacebo and standard care interventions for fear of movement, patient clinical global impression of change and quality of life in adult patients with chronic low back pain.

Results from the VIRPI study in patients with chronic pain showed that the TSK score (Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia assessing fear of movement) was significantly reduced at the end-of-intervention.

According to Eccleston, the results highlight the potential for digital therapeutics to expand treatment options.

What digital therapeutics will be really very good at is improving access to treatments that people wouldnt necessarily have access to otherwise, he says. Unfortunately, the healthcare system is often dependent on the skills and expertise of individual practitioners delivering treatment. With automated, remote technology such as this we can provide solutions in a home environment, tailored to individual needs.

As patients received positive results in the trial without specialist intervention, there is an opportunity to scale the treatment up. Patients will also benefit from having a sense of control over their treatment.

Were interested in people being active and engaging with the world, moving in that world, and getting involved with what matters to the, says Eccleston.

There are so many aspects to virtual reality that are useful in pain management: principally, it allows immersion far beyond what is possible by instruction, it creates emotionally rich teachable experiences that take time to do face to face, and it is portable The remote technologies enable people to try things out safely and for their behaviour to be modified in a way they wouldnt necessarily be able to achieve in the real world.

Following the announcement of its pilot study results, Orion is looking for partners to further develop and commercialise the software. And as digital solutions become more widespread in healthcare due to COVID-19, Eccleston is optimistic the therapy is here to stay.

I think we are seeing a rapid reappraisal of the way we organise healthcare in long-term conditions. The pandemic has been an accelerator and created much needed disruption in the way in which we think about delivery of healthcare. Im excited to see what the future holds! If we get this right we can put evidence based interventions into the hand of the many not just the few.

About the interviewee

Professor Christopher Eccleston directs the activities of the University of Baths Centre for Pain Research. His research interests include evidence based pain management, self-management of chronic illnesses, assistive rehabilitative technology, and attentional mechanisms of analgesia.

Link:

Virtual reality therapy: The future of chronic pain management? - - pharmaphorum

Virbela builds virtual spaces to recreate the office experience in a simulated space for workers in all time zones.

Virbela runs its daily operations in a virtual office that includes common areas, meeting rooms, offices and avatars that represent employees.

Image: Virbela

The key to success with the new hybrid work plans is experimenting, according to HR experts. Managers should be willing to drop policies that don't work and try something new, particularly when there are some people working in-person and some working remotely. That could include building a virtual office in the cloud.

The Virbela team of 180 people "drinks its own champagne," according to CEO and founder Alex Howland, by operating 100% in the virtual world. There are offices, small meeting rooms, a big auditorium, a rooftop space and a speakeasy in the Virbela virtual offices. The team works in offices over six floors and the company keeps one floor open to the public.

"Anyone can download this software and come into the open campus and visit us in our office," Howland said.

Howland said Virbela employees use the platform in a variety of ways.

"Some team members sit in their virtual offices so people can walk in, and some people may close their door," he said. "We try to build in opportunities for more social interaction as well so it's not just work."

During Pride month in June, Virbela hired a drag queen to host a trivia night in the speakeasy.

SEE: PwC finds that virtual reality is the best place to practice difficult conversations(TechRepublic)

Companies are starting to pay more attention to the employee experience. Creating one place that remote and in-person employees can both use could reduce the risk of creating a second-class experience for remote workers. Howland said a virtual environment also can help companies with offices in multiple locations create a hub that is accessible to all employees.

"With that approach, everyone is on the same level playing field and everyone has just as much access to leadership," he said.

Working in a virtual office avoids the fatigue associated with back-to-back video conferences, according to Howland.

"There's a little bit of cognitive load when you try anything new but your brain adapts," he said.

In 2012, the company's initial focus was management training for graduate students. Howland has a doctorate in behavioral and organizational psychology. Once he realized virtual training can be as effective as in-person education, he expanded the focus of the platform.

He said that the company has added about 300 new customers since the pandemic started and that there has been significant international interest as well.

The biggest barriers to more widespread adoption of VR in the workplace are the idea that the technology is just for gaming and the fear that it's hard to implement, according to Scott Likens, an emerging tech leader at PwC.

"Once we force our executives into it, they have a light bulb moment," he said.

Likens sees two paths for virtual reality at work: Training that is completely virtual that can be done from home and a more collaborative experience that involves several people and physical as well as virtual elements.

One example of that mixed approach is a conference or live event with in-person attendees as well as a 360-degree camera or other elements that could extend the reality of being in the room for people who are watching online.

"We're not quite there yet, we really only have the purely simulated world," he said. "The augmented world is still nascent."

eXp Realty was one of Virbela's first customers and has been fully remote since the company was founded in 2009. The residential real estate company has no physical offices. Instead the company operates in a "cloud-based campus," doing everything from recruiting agents to holding board meetings in a virtual office built by Virbela. Currently the company has almost 60,000 agents in 17 countries.

Jason Gesing, eXp Realty's CEO, said learning to use eXp World is a bit like learning to ski.

"You take four or five runs through campus, and suddenly you're moving with ease, purpose and a newfound sense of freedom and belonging without having to worry about anyone stealing your lunch out of the refrigerator," he said.

Gesing said hallway and lunchroom conversations are just as much a part of the virtual world as they are in the physical office.

"Keeping your microphone open when in public spaces is key in the virtual world so you can strike up a conversation with other avatars (i.e. colleagues) in the space that you may recognize," he said.

SEE: VR training expands to make collaborative education relevant to all workers(TechRepublic)

The ability to sit across a virtual table and actually feel as if you're in the same room as colleagues or peers is unique to Virbela, according to Gesing.

"With other platforms and video conferencing solutions, it's easy to be distracted by the camera, to remember smiling, to sit up straight, and lots of great ideas and thoughts get lost in the process," he said.

Gesing said that hosting its annual company summits in Virbela's virtual setting allowed agents to attend from around the world, reconnect with colleagues, walk the virtual trade show floor, and attend sessions.

"We continue to have birthday parties, concerts, speedboat races and baby showers in eXp World, in addition to the nearly 100 hours of live training sessions," he said.

Gesing said his company has used the virtual office setting to avoid staffing redundancies across geographies, build a strong culture, and revamp the compensation landscape of the real estate industry.

Virbela has a web version of its software that works in a browser. The other option is to download the Virbela software for a more immersive experience.

"Most of our customers use our off-the-shelf starter campus and they put their own branding everywhere so it feels like their space," Howland said.

Virbela's front end is on the Unity platform, the GUI is in a web layer and the backend is in Java Script. Howard said he has hired a lot of people from the gaming industry who want to do something more impactful in building community.

Likens of PwC said that VR companies should build more analytical capabilities into the platforms to get a better understanding of what design elements work best to encourage collaboration.

"You really want to know who connected and talked and understand the patterns of movement in the environment," he said. "Designing the environment is hard and just rebuilding the settings we had in the real world might not be best."

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One company's virtual reality approach could end the debate over working from home vs. at the office - TechRepublic