Welcome to the world of the unreal
We are only just starting to see the many applications of virtual reality, reports Ged Cann.
It’s being used to prepare new mothers for a toddler, in therapy for war veterans, and to provide training for highrisk jobs, but some researchers say the potential of virtual reality is only going to increase. Others are not so sure.
It is a technology in its infancy, but as equipment gets cheaper and the simulations more tailored, enthusiasts predict deeper levels of immersion will continue to unlock new uses.
Professor Holger Regenbrecht works in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) group at Otago University and among other projects builds simulations designed to target phobias.
His creations include a sequence of shrinking rooms intended for the treatment of claustrophobics, as well as a bridge over a steep drop designed to help acrophobics – those with a fear of heights.
The point of these simulations is not to terrify clients, but to immerse them in situations they fear while maintaining a risk-free environment. The goal is desensitisation – making the client more comfortable by showing them there is nothing to fear.
Regenbrecht is not a clinician, he never meets the patients. It is his goal to make the simulations as realistic as possible.
‘‘I have seen people crawling on the floor. Even I, who created the whole simulation, hesitated to step into that virtual hole. It’s a very strong illusion.’’
One of the HCI’s key research areas is in stress resilience training, with a particular focus on post-natal preparedness.
Regenbrecht says it was common for new mothers to find the demands of raising children overpowering. That’s why the team created a virtual home to prepare them.
‘‘They experience things like a crying baby, the postman ringing, the telephone ringing.’’
The simulations even provide a virtual mother-in-law and fights between neighbours to prepare parents for many eventualities.
‘‘The therapist can control that environment and the number of stressors released to that person,’’ Regenbrecht says. Mike Porter is a director of Skilltree, a training institute focusing on digital art and world creation.
Porter says creating virtual and augmented reality for training purposes is nothing new.
‘‘Previously at Microsoft we were working on a forklift simulation for Walmart, because they were losing about $5 million a year at their distribution centres due to accidents.’’
Whether it was working around heavy machinery, at heights, or around natural hazards, he said VR provided training experiences without the consequences workers faced on the job. Director of Medical Virtual Reality at the University of Southern California, Skip Rizzo, is currently in New Zealand as a William Evans Visiting Fellow.
A large part of his work in the US focuses on the treatment of war veterans. In pilot studies his team initially adapted a video game, Full Spectrum Warrior, and then created 14 simulations mirroring scenes common among posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) sufferers.
This might be a firefight in a market, or the detonation of a road-side bomb while travelling in a Humvee.
Rizzo’s team can systematically recreate events, gradually bringing simulations closer to the traumatic memories of the client.
He says these kind of exposure therapies would traditionally involve a client re-imagining their trauma and narrating it.
The more time the client is exposed to the fear without anything negative happening, the more desensitised they become.
‘‘What the VR adds to the mix is when you are relying on solely