Daily Archives: August 22, 2021

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That changed last year in the pandemic. As people lived more of their lives digitally, they started buying more VR headsets. VR hardware sales shot up, led by Facebooks Oculus Quest 2, a headset that was introduced last fall, according to the research firm IDC. To build on the momentum, Facebook on Thursday introduced a virtual-reality service called Horizon Workrooms. The product, which is free for Quest 2 owners to download, offers a virtual meeting room where people using the headsets can gather as if they were at an in-person work meeting. The participants join with a customizable cartoon avatar of themselves. Interactive virtual white boards line the walls so that people can write and draw things as in a physical conference room. The product is another step toward what Facebook sees as the ultimate form of social connection for its 3.5 billion users. One way or another, I think were going to live in a mixed-reality future, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive, said at a media round table that was conducted this week in virtual reality using Workrooms.

At the event, the avatars of Zuckerberg and roughly a dozen Facebook employees, reporters and technical support staff assembled in what looked like an open and well-lit virtual conference room. Zuckerbergs avatar sported a long-sleeve Henley shirt in a dark Facebook blue. (My avatar had a checkered red flannel shirt.) Since Workrooms show participants only as floating torsos seated around a wooden desk, no one worried about picking out a pair of pants. Facebook was early to virtual reality. In 2014, it paid $2 billion to buy the headset start-up Oculus VR. At the time, Zuckerberg promised that the technology would enable you to experience the impossible. The deal jump-started a wave of acquisitions and funding in virtual reality. Investment in VR start-ups swelled, while companies like HTC and Sony also promised VR headsets for the masses. Microsoft developed the HoloLens, which were hologram-projecting glasses.

But the hype fizzled fast. The first generation of most VR hardware including Facebooks Oculus Rift was expensive. Almost all of the headsets required users to be tethered to a personal computer. There were no obvious killer apps to attract people to the devices. Worse still, some people got nauseated after using the products. The next generation of VR headsets focused on lowering costs. Samsungs Gear VR, Google Cardboard and Google Daydream all asked consumers to strap on goggles and drop in their smartphones to use as VR screens. Those efforts also failed, because smartphones were not powerful enough to deliver an immersive virtual reality experience.

To adjust, some companies began pitching virtual reality not for the masses but for narrower fields. Magic Leap, a start-up that promoted itself as the next big thing in augmented reality computing, shifted to selling VR devices to businesses. Microsoft has gone in a similar direction, with a particular focus on military contracts, though it has said it is absolutely still working toward a mainstream consumer product. Technology that gives you this sense of presence is like the holy grail of social experiences, and what I think a company like ours was designed to do over time, Zuckerberg said.

The writer is a journalist with NYT2021

The New York Times

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Facebook's new bet on virtual reality: Conference rooms - DTNEXT

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) Going virtual is a term that weve used a lot lately, and nearly every company, agency, and school has incorporated virtual as a means to keep things moving. Northeast Wisconsin Technical College has introduced virtual reality into its nursing program. We started looking at virtual options last March and April when COVID really hit and everything had to shut down, says Simulation Coordinator Mitch Luker.

A $2.5M grant from the Department of Education is helping make this new technology possible. We really find the value in it, as we are facing a few different issues being the COVID pandemic, explains Luker. The pandemic affected medical facilities and the clinical portion of the nursing program. The problem becomes losing our clinical sites because our hospitals and long-term care facilities werent able to let us come, Luker adds.

The Green Bay Police Department incorporated virtual reality into their training program for sworn personnel a while ago, provided through Axon. It is a de-escalation scenario tool. Its more advanced and interactive in the sense that the trainer has an idea of whats going on and gives the trainer the idea or the option to intervene/modify the scenario, explains Lieutenant Rick Belanger.

Local Departments like Green Bay are looking to expand and update their training programs to adjust to the current climate of the areas they serve. Axon, which provides virtual reality and body-worn cameras, is reportedly in the process of upgrading the Green Bay software. One of the biggest things in my career is de-escalation. You take the mental health component and the ability for an Officer to show up to the scene, says Belanger.

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NWTC using virtual reality in nursing program - WeAreGreenBay.com

Reimagining Mental Health Care Via the Neurological Power of Virtual Reality

While the physical toll of COVID-19 dominates headlines, the pandemics impact on global mental health is an underreported, ticking time bomb that providers and insurers will be defusing for years to come. Anxiety rates have tripled since 2019; so too have depression diagnoses. Mental health professionals are stretched thinner than ER-workers, but there is no vaccine that they can inject into arms to slow the spread of COVID-related mental illness. Something has to change. As the Delta variant exacerbates uncertainty around physical presence, and employers struggle to welcome back workers who must transition their professional and personal lives to the latest version of normal, our health care system would be acting neglectfully in believing the status quo can handle:

Where Is the Solution?

Crises give rise to innovation. They create moments where mindsets open to new ways of solving critical problems. Unlikely teams form and new ideas are born. At BehaVR, we have created a way to utilize virtual reality, known by most as a transformative gaming technology, to transform how mental health care is delivered. By bringing together foremost thinkers in digital health, neuroscience, bio-pharma, health systems, public health, and academia, we are harnessing the unique neurological power of VR to supplement and scale mental health delivery. In June of 2021 research published in Nature Neuroscience described how VR can impact the brain on a deep level, impacting theta rhythms responsible for memories and emotions, helping to sharpen cognition and learn faster. Scientific breakthroughs like this, layered on to a body of research growing every day, will enable us to help millions build short-term coping skills and long-term resiliency.

We can deliver quality care to more people at lower cost via VR programs that work via neuroplasticity in the brain to lay down new neural pathways that transform how we respond to triggers, stressors and trauma. In BehaVRs programs, we are transported into an immersive environment where we are engaged with learning and therapeutic experiences that lead us out of the chronic activation of our stress response and toward finding new ways to manage our stress, anxiety and fear.

BehaVR is Creating Life-Changing Care Experiences with the Power to Reach Everyone

What does treatment look like in this new therapeutic realm? At the core of each BehaVR program is the SAFE protocol (Stress, Anxiety, and Fear Extinction). Users step into a world where their attention is captured and the brains four learning centers are activated. Here, they have the opportunity to engage, anywhere, anytime, in an evidence-based platform where they can learn to build their lifelong coping skills.

A few examples of how were bringing this vision to life:

We are just scratching the surface of the potential applications of VR by giving millions of people the agency to improve their mental health long-term, inexpensively and conveniently, while also creating new ways of accessing and experiencing mental health care that empowers and educates people in a capacity limited system. We hope youll come along with us on this journey and not accept the status quo. We can now do better, together.

About the Author

Aaron Gani is the founder and CEO of BehaVR, LLC, creating digital therapeutics for behavioral health through the unmatched neurological power of Virtual Reality. Gani has been creating applications and experiences with technology throughout his career in healthcare and financial services, up to and including serving as Chief Technology Officer of Humana, a Fortune 50 managed care organization.

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Reimagining Mental Health Care Via the Neurological Power of Virtual Reality - FierceHealthcare

Dallas Tech Guru launches eBook to define new age of learning

DENTON, Texas, Aug. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The COVID-19 pandemic has created a new need for virtual learning. CEO of From the Future, Mike Christian, has written an educational eBook about the solutions and benefits that Virtual Reality can provide to students and educators. Christian goes into detail about the potential impact of immersive learning from the digitization of formal approaches to education, such as learning by doing, to gifting students and instructors with virtual superpowers.

How Virtual Reality Will Revolutionize Training and Education

The How Virtual Reality Will Revolutionize Training and Education eBook is available now. To request your free copy and learn more about VR, visit http://www.FTFVR.com.

How Virtual Reality Will Revolutionize Training and Education was written from a futurist's perspective. Christian draws on decades of experience creating virtual worlds and developing VR applications for training, therapy, and rehabilitation to clearly communicate the potential of this new medium. You will not only learn how VR will enhance training and education but also how it might hold the key to developing heightened intelligence.

"It takes quite a while, and quite a lot of iterations to create a mental model when you are trying to learn," says author and CEO Mike Christian. "In virtual reality, all of that is done for you. Education that takes weeks could take days, education that takes days could take hours, or even minutes."

According to Pew Research Center, the amount of individuals that were working from home before the COVID-19 outbreak was approximately 20%. That metric is now at 70%, with 36% of them reporting that they are choosing to not return to their place of work. This ever evolving environment around employment is just one example of why this eBook has become an invaluable tool.

About From The Future

From the Future creates custom, next generation VR applications with unlimited possibilities for sales, training, education, therapy, and more. FTF is a leader in developing highly engaging and interactive virtual reality software, and has been creating virtual environments for decades. Their latest experience is the DRIVE (Distributed Real-time Interactive Virtual Environment) platform and the Hololab Training system designed to deliver revolutionary efficiency and effectiveness in learning.

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Contact:

Justin Mullin Vice President, Business Development 844.777/3748 ex. 777 Jmullin@FTFvr.com

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Virtual Reality to Revolutionize Remote Education and Training - Yahoo Finance

A tech company on the edge of Coventry is planning to open its own virtual reality venues after supplying international entertainment giants for more than 15 years.

If plans come to fruition it would enable people to experience safaris, alien invasions and dinosaurs in virtual worlds - and more besides.

Meriden-based Hollywood Gaming has become a market leader in providing effects using its hardware and software solutions working with the likes of Hasbro, Paramount Pictures, Sony and EA on games distributed by Sega Amusements to arcades and family entertainment centres around the world.

READ MORE: Fire crews to remain at Prologis Park fire for 'a number of days'

The business is led by directors Malcolm Barnes and Mark Evans and employs a handful of people who help make experiences come to life.

Now, after being supported by the University of Warwick Science Parks Business Ready programme, the company is developing a new area of the business, Immersive Hollywood, where it will open venues of its own and provide unique multi-sensory visitor experiences.

Business Ready is a programme that delivers support to expanding businesses and is managed by the business support team at the University of Warwick Science Park.

It is funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Warwickshire County Council as part of the CW Business: Start, Grow & Scale Programme.

The company, which was founded in 2005, is currently mapping out that expansion and will look to raise around 800,000 in investment to get that side of the business off the ground and is already scoping locations where it could open its own venue experiences.

Hollywood Gaming is working with a team of scriptwriters to help create the narratives for the new experiences, which Malcolm forecasts will cost around 30 per person to play.

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The experiences currently being mapped out are a safari, alien invasion and dinosaur world.

Each would use the same physical props but, by tailoring the virtual reality and other 4D elements such as smells, motion and wind, every experience would be different despite taking place in the same place.

Malcolm said: We believe that our experience and skills in this area give us a great platform to create our own venues and our own experiences.

The plan would be to make them interchangeable so you could have a horror game running for one group of visitors and then change that to be something children friendly using the same props but with a different narrative and different reality experiences.

As well as extended reality, our games will be brought to life with props and also tapping into other senses such as touch and smell, which is what helps to set them apart from ordinary virtual reality experiences.

This kind of experience is normally reserved for major cities like London but we want to bring it to the masses both through location and through our price points, which make them much more accessible for people.

It wont just be a 30-minute experience, the story will start before visitors have even arrived and will offer a great day out for family and friends.

The company has plans to expand into strategic locations in the UK before expanding to Europe and North America.

Gaynor Matthews, a Business Ready adviser, has been working with Hollywood Gaming on how to position itself within the marketplace and better explain what it does to different groups whether thats business to business or business to consumer for its new venues.

Gaynor has been really helpful, said Malcolm. We approached Business Ready in around August of 2020 and as well as supporting us around the way we can market ourselves, she has been a really big support from a business mentorship point of view.

I am big believer in tapping into other peoples knowledge and specialist skills and Gaynor has been great at introducing us to other mentors for support, which has helped to move us onto this stage.

We are grateful for the help weve received from Business Ready in getting us this far and cant wait to launch our first venue.

Gaynor said: We are delighted to have supported the team at Hollywood Gaming as it embarks on its expansion.

Business Ready is here to help companies which are ready to grow and take that next step. Hollywood Gaming is a great example of that.

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Gaming company on edge of Coventry reveals exciting plans for virtual reality venues - Coventry Live

One of the most popular new innovations weve seen in recent years has been virtual reality (VR) technology.

While many might associate virtual reality with games or leisure activities, a growing field of research suggests it can be an incredibly valuable tool in dealing with a range of mental health issues.

After completing a PhD and focusing on the long-term effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), clinical neuroscientist and ex-soldier Dr Tia Cummins felt that there could be a far better way to help people suffering from these types of debilitating conditions by using technology.

This led Dr Cummins and her co-founder, developer Pete Martin, to set up Flintworks, a platform that uses virtual reality-based exposure therapy to assist psychologists with the clinical treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

For the past 20 years, theres been a lot of research on the use of virtual reality for exposure therapy because you can fully immerse somebody into an environment that you wouldnt usually be able to put them in, she said.

Whether thats phobia-related issues or even if you were to put them into a virtual room filled with spiders, thats not something that a psychologist can generally organise.

What were doing is building VR software that will allow a clinical psychologist to simulate the trauma that their client has gone through in this immersive 3D world.

For example, a client will be sitting in the office with a psychologist, theyll be talking through the parts of the trauma that theyre comfortable to talk through and the psychologist will be sitting with an app and theyll be able to drag and drop different objects into this virtual world so that the client whos got the headset on can slowly re-experience their trauma.

Dr Cummins unique blend of military and scientific expertise paired with Martins 20 years of experience in digital product design, and specialism in emergent technologies, such as VR, position the pair well to take advantage of this market.

In fact, Dr Cummins says that Flintworks also has the capacity to go beyond simply creating a virtual environment and can be interactive.

We also pair the product with wearables whats known as biofeedback, so the psychologist is able to see someones heart rate variability, and judge their level of discomfort, she says.

If somebodys got the headset on and they are going through quite a traumatic event, their heart rate variability would change and the software that were building allows the psychologist to see that and then pair down the digital representation if the clients getting too stressed out.

Treatments using virtual reality represent a huge leap forward in the industry, but it is not without its challenges.

We are working with quite a conservative field so the field of medicine naturally doesnt want to cause any more harm, says Dr Cummins.

I think trying to make sure that weve got something thats not overly disruptive because if its disruptive psychologists will just say no.

Also it needs to be something that doesnt look like its replacing anyones jobs. As soon as you sort of say theres technology involved, people can sort of go, Oh, my God. A machines going to replace me. And thats definitely not what were doing, weve really tried to push the whole idea that this is a companion tool, this is the same way a psychologist might have a notebook and pen.

Given this type of treatment is very new and using the pre-seed investment Flintworks recently secured from VC firm Antler, Dr Cummins believes Flintworks is well positioned to become an industry leader.

Because we fit within the field of digital therapeutics, which is a fairly new concept, I would say that by 2026 we will be the leader in digital therapeutics, which means that well be the go-to for mental health practitioners when they want to use technology to help their patients, she says.

For now that will be virtual reality, within a couple of years well have other products on the go as well so I would like us to be the trusted source that can be used to make clinical mental healthcare a lot more effective.

Startup Daily is the official media partner of Antler in Australia.

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This neuroscientist and ex-soldier's startup uses virtual reality to treat PTSD and other mental health conditions - Startup Daily

19 August 2021, 14:02

In a virtual reality experience far, far away... a Star Wars mash-up masterpiece is born.

Take one John Williams-loving pianist, add the Star Wars soundtrack, six costume changes and a camera that films it all in glorious 360-degree virtual reality and what do you get?

A spine-tingling, immersive performance as epic as George Lucas legendary space opera itself.

Watch as Chris The Pianist soars between Williams most iconic Star Wars compositions, including the triumphant main theme, the foreboding Imperial March, Princess Leias Theme and even the chipper Cantina Band.

And the best part is, you can experience it all in interactive, 360-degree virtual reality. The force is strong with this virtuoso.

Read more: Darth Vader gatecrashes a classical concert, stays for Imperial March

During the medley, which is titled The Piano Awakens, Chris takes on the guise of a Jedi, Sith Lord, stormtrooper, and everyones favourite smuggler and scoundrel, Han Solo.

As the viewer, we get to experience the entire performance from whichever angle we fancy. We recommend rotating the video to catch a glimpse of other Star Wars characters.

Read more: Orchestra interrupts Prokofiev with Imperial March in hilarious prank on conductor

Wow! Really made me feel like I was Yoda sitting on the piano overseeing Lukes training! one person commented on the YouTube video.

But if youd rather watch the medley without the virtual reality aspect, Chris has uploaded that version too.

Chris writes in the video description: To fight off the empire, Luke must use his force powers to manipulate the evil eye of the camera that captures the whole of the piano.

We must all help subscribe to fight off the evil empire!

The performance was first uploaded in 2015, and has amassed over 80,000 views since.

Much talent, you have. Watch this video again, we shall.

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A Star Wars piano medley meets 360-degree virtual reality, and the force is strong - Classic FM