Digital Care for the Physical Environment A UCL Project Proposal for Equator
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Transcript of Digital Care for the Physical Environment A UCL Project Proposal for Equator
Digital Care for the Physical EnvironmentDigital Care for the Physical EnvironmentA UCL Project Proposal for EquatorA UCL Project Proposal for Equator
Digital Care for the Physical EnvironmentDigital Care for the Physical EnvironmentA UCL Project Proposal for EquatorA UCL Project Proposal for Equator
Virtual Environments and Computer Graphics
Department of Computer ScienceUniversity College London
http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/research/vr
PeoplePeople Douglas Gourlay, RF Nick Dalton, RF (leaving) Vino Vinayagamoorthy, RF+PhD student Joel Jordan, (PhD student, Nov 2001) Anna Soobrati (PhD student, January 2002) Anthony Steed, UCL Equator project lead Celine Loscos, PI Mel Slater, PI The avatars
“Much of what therapists engage in with their clientsis the construction of artificial environments in whichpeople can learn to overcome their fears.”
Prof. Chris BrewinDepartment of Psychology, UCL
OutlineOutlineOutlineOutline1. Introduction: Background
2. Research Issues
3. Paranoid Ideation
4. Agoraphobia
5. The Way Ahead
1. Introduction1. Introduction
Use of avatars in psychotherapy applications– Social phobia + paranoid ideation
What is required to make these avatars believable?– Will a laughing avatar make you laugh?– A weeping avatar make you weep?
Examples…in public speaking phobia
Positive AudiencePositive Audience
Audience made eye contact and other movements
Negative AudienceNegative Audience Audience carried out many negative behaviours
Neutral AudienceNeutral Audience
Audience glanced and otherwise fidgeted No explicit positive or negative behaviour
Overall Results on FOPSOverall Results on FOPS
Evidence suggests that people do react to virtual audiences with appropriate affect
Next stage is to build the method in the context of a treatment programme– Two clients have already been seen (CAVE)
Fundamental research question remains: Why does it work?
Paranoid IdeationParanoid Ideation
This is the typical pattern of thinking displayed in cases of paranoia; it is characterised by suspiciousness and beliefs that one is being followed, plotted against, persecuted, etc.
Objective– To assess the extent to which paranoid thoughts could
be triggered in a VE– To help in understanding how this happens
Typical Debriefing CommentTypical Debriefing Comment
“It was really weird, because they were all definitely in on something and they were all trying to make me nervous. It was clear that they were trying to mock me, they kept on looking at me and when I looked back, they were uuhh… The guy with the suit was really weird because he kept smiling at me and it was quite sinister.”
“There were three people on the right – one with a suit, I think he was a business man working on his laptop…”
2. Research Issues2. Research Issues
Digital-physical interface– Synchronous or asynchronous
Digital city remains our technical focus:– Graphics and modelling issues– Properties that environments and activities must
have to maintain believability, presence, copresence
– ‘Effectiveness’
EffectivenessEffectiveness
Effectiveness – for what?Psychotherapy application
– Provides clear measures of effectiveness– Does the VE and activities within generate the
anxiety response that would have been generated in real life?
– Can be measured using standard psychological instruments developed over many years.
Levels of ResearchLevels of Research
Algorithmic and interface researchProperties for effectiveness within the given
domainHow can these systems be used to help
people in the real world, to generate treatment programs, self-help and support groups?
3. Agoraphobia3. Agoraphobia
include fears not only of open spaces but also of related aspects such as the presence of crowds and the difficulty of immediate easy escape to a safe place (usually home).
Plan to initially concentrate on this Operates within the ‘digital city’ broadly
defined (shops, transport, streets)
IssuesIssues
Agoraphobia – problem with people going out– Initial systems PC based for home use
Starting point – study of patients and therapists– Ethnomethodology? Focus groups?– Identify commonalities
IssuesIssues
Create a parameterised environment– Individuals learn to control aspects of
environment that are particularly important to them (eg, darkness, crowd density, location of exits)
Relapse – panic attacks in vivo– Hand-held display devices to reestablish calm
and control – PDAs, digital toys?
The user can trigger • the number of people surrounding• degree of interaction (egocentric/exocentric)• weather• lighting conditions
A virtual experience within a village• on a flat PC screen• in 3D with stereo glasses• in a 3D immersive environment
IssuesIssues
Physiological feedback– Anxiety measured and relayed to local PDA
and to central monitoring system – use of wearable devices?
Self-help and mass counselling– Use home-based PCs to support shared VEs
where people can meet together – especially in anxiety producing environments
IssuesIssues
Recall of something that calms the users– Pictures of environment that makes them feel
safe (within a digital environment or on a hand-held display)
– Adapted for each individual
Safe environment behind them– e.g. white wall
IssuesIssues
Using the environments as a lab to study perceptual distortions that often accompany anxiety states
Work on social phobia and paranoid ideation would continue– Strong crossover between the various types of
application and the underlying technology needed to support them
4. The Way Ahead4. The Way Ahead
Provides a strong applications focus for our group, with the necessity for underlying research in our specialities
Continued meeting with colleagues from psychology to map out a 6month – 3 year programme in the Equator context.
End-goal has clear benefit to wider society.