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slaw
New Participant
February 11, 2014

Academic Research and Ideas for Developers

Hello all!

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place to post, but I am a Canadian student currently doing her Master's in counselling. I will be researching the use of the Rift in nursing home settings! I'm currently looking at a few demos that don't require much movement for immersion such as the Tuscany demo, Deep Shangri-La demo, and RedFrame. I would love any suggestions on different demos that may be suitable for the elderly.

There's already some research with regards to the use of VR and its ability to provide mental health care to people with post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenics, Parkinson's Disease patients, and burn victims. My hypothesis is that VR can be used in a more generalized way, so I will explore quality of life in nursing homes.

I'll be honest. I haven't really lurked much on these forums so I'm not sure of the etiquette or whether there will be much interest. Please let me know if you think there are better places to post!

Slaw

    8 replies

    drash
    Inspiring
    February 11, 2014
    If it's mellow experiences with minimal movement/interaction you're looking for, here are some others:


    • Blocked In

    • Yosemite Spyglass

    • Rift Space Station

    • Virtual Pavilion

    • Blue Marble

    • Sci-Fi Corridor

    • Fantasy Night (for the men, but check intensity of the slowly rotating background)

    • Hoasca VR (fairly trippy, but very easy on the senses I believe)

    • Iceland

    • Void1 / Cosmic Ice


    Slightly more moving around involved / higher intensity, but no sudden scares:

    • Simplified Tuscany / Seaside Demo

    • Proton Pulse (an actual game using headtracking, but the gameplay might be intense for elderly folks?)

    • Shiny (same comment as Proton Pulse, but you could leave this on endless mode just to enjoy the environment)

    • Greebles (no moving involved, but the music isn't mellow)

    • Oasis

    • Light in the Night (I put this in the more intense category because it does involve extreme neck movements to look at fireworks)

    • The Room (I put this in the more intense category because it has some slightly disturbing themes and annoying insects)

    • Museum of the Future

    • perhaps other real-estate/architectural visualizations by ArchVirtual

    • perhaps Cartoon World


    If you have trouble locating any of these, feel free to ask.
    Titans of Space PLUS for Quest is now available on DrashVR.com
    MikeArms24
    Up and Coming
    February 12, 2014
    Drash forgot one, Titans of Space is awesome for just kicking back in awe (and learning). It may get a little "scary" though, depending on one's comfortability with space.
    Riftmax Theater 4D Multiplayer VR Cinema! http://www.riftmax.com - Latest DK2-ready version 0.415(11/27/2014)
    slawAuthor
    New Participant
    February 12, 2014
    Thank you, folks, for some great suggestions! I'll be looking into them. The region where I'm from is quite conservative, but I also don't know many old folk's personality to know what kinds of experiences they're into. Predominantly, I am looking to trigger a sense of presence with little interactivity, so I will be looking through the first list you sent me!

    I had put my parents in some of the demo options listed, and especially with pod simulations like Titans of Space, it made my parents feel sick. I think it may have been the pod's dynamic range of movements (backward, forward, sideways...) that done them in.
    Researcher in psychotherapy and counseling.
    drash
    Inspiring
    February 12, 2014
    "slaw" wrote:
    I had put my parents in some of the demo options listed, and especially with pod simulations like Titans of Space, it made my parents feel sick. I think it may have been the pod's dynamic range of movements (backward, forward, sideways...) that done them in.


    That's great to know, and I'm very sorry to hear about making your parents sick!
    Titans of Space PLUS for Quest is now available on DrashVR.com
    slawAuthor
    New Participant
    February 12, 2014
    "drash" wrote:
    "slaw" wrote:
    I had put my parents in some of the demo options listed, and especially with pod simulations like Titans of Space, it made my parents feel sick. I think it may have been the pod's dynamic range of movements (backward, forward, sideways...) that done them in.


    That's great to know, and I'm very sorry to hear about making your parents sick!


    There are a lot of people who are not accustomed to these kinds of experiences yet, but with the accessibility of these technologies comes tolerance for the new experiences. I'm still getting sick from a lot of the experiences, but it's a matter of exposure and as I spend more time in the rift, my brain will get a grip on it.

    For near future endeavors, I'm interested in working with developers to create therapeutic experiences in the virtual world. Does this community find any attraction in this idea?
    Researcher in psychotherapy and counseling.
    slawAuthor
    New Participant
    February 12, 2014
    "drash" wrote:
    "slaw" wrote:
    I had put my parents in some of the demo options listed, and especially with pod simulations like Titans of Space, it made my parents feel sick. I think it may have been the pod's dynamic range of movements (backward, forward, sideways...) that done them in.


    That's great to know, and I'm very sorry to hear about making your parents sick!


    By the way, your demo is BRILLIANT!!!! I had a friend that wanted to cry while he was in it because the experience was so spectacular. You/you guys were really able to capture the scale of the universe and how amazing it is to be alive right now.
    Researcher in psychotherapy and counseling.
    saviornt
    Up and Coming
    February 12, 2014
    For this type of experience, I would aim for something similiar to just sitting on a chair that's on a beach, for example. No character movement = no motion sickness.

    The biggest hurdle would be to communicate to the patients to see what they want to see before they pass away, and then let them experience that. (If they want to experience skydiving, well.. there's an app for that! :o )

    It will have to be completely customized per patient, and what they want to experience. And please don't let them play, "Don't let go". ;)
    Current WIPs using Unreal Engine 4: Agrona - Tales of an Era : Medieval Fantasy MORPG
    slawAuthor
    New Participant
    February 13, 2014
    "saviornt" wrote:
    For this type of experience, I would aim for something similiar to just sitting on a chair that's on a beach, for example. No character movement = no motion sickness.

    The biggest hurdle would be to communicate to the patients to see what they want to see before they pass away, and then let them experience that. (If they want to experience skydiving, well.. there's an app for that! :o )

    It will have to be completely customized per patient, and what they want to experience. And please don't let them play, "Don't let go". ;)


    Exactly! I'm still quite new to the community, so I'm not quite sure what's out there. drash provided some great suggestions and I'm still looking through them but that's exactly what I'm looking for, is a motionless experience.

    I hesitate to ask the residents what they would like to experience as part of my research as it would create too many confounds and problems around control in the experiment would ruin its validity. If this research becomes anything more though, I'll be looking at doing just as you suggest! What a powerful experience it would be.

    I just took a look at "don't let go" and holy poop. lol
    Researcher in psychotherapy and counseling.
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