Category Archives: Virtual Reality

Another part of the keynote was a scripted conversation between Metas vice president of metaverse, Vishal Shah, and his boss, chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth. After touting the variety of virtual environments people have created in Horizon Worlds, Shah rhapsodized about how great it will be when people can wander in via the web. The experience, he says, takes their ability to connect people to another level. But since your web browser and phone dont provide an immersive VR display, its the same levelonly youre experiencing it in steerage, while Quest-equipped users travel in first class. Boz hinted at why Meta would want to invite people to that second-class experience: We cant give everyone an immersive experience, he said, But it'll be a while before there are enough headsets out there.

Whether or not thats the right approach, its one that some VR startups have come around to. As hard as it is to give up a fully immersive VR experience, the audiences arent there yet. One company, Mesmerise, has invested deeply in avoiding the compromises of a hybrid experience. The perfect scenario is everyone in VR, says CEO Andrew Hawken. Everyone giving their undivided attentionyoure all in it together. But even Hawken admits that too many people think that donning headsets isnt worth it, and Mesmerise is working on a 2-D interface. The experience is compromised, but we dont want to exclude people, he says.

Another VR startup, Spatial, made that decision a while ago. We thought the computer of the future would be a pair of glasses, says CEO Anand Agarawala. His company first built for Microsofts HoloLens, and then for Quest headsets, but Spatial never saw its worlds populated with crowds of users. People were reluctant to put on a headset, Agarawala says. Even when people owned the hardware, when it was time for a meeting, some wouldnt have it handy, and others were frustrated by setting it up. It was so much easier to just do a meeting in Zoom or Teams. So Agarawala created a non-VR means to access his virtual worlds and workspaces. Its not immersive, but people can log on in five seconds. Now, he says, 80 percent of his customers use the web or mobile. Those people dont feel bad that theyre not getting an immersive experiencebecause theyre in the majority.

Could it be that the metaverse doesnt require VR after all? For now, even with headsets, the current technology leaves some people coldapparently including people paid to work on VR at Meta itself. Recent internal memos written by Shah and leaked to the Verge admit that Horizon Worlds is plagued with quality gaps and performance issues. And Meta is having difficulty getting its own engineers to meet in VR, despite orders from above that they must do so. The simple truth is, if we dont love it, how can we expect our users to love it?, Shah wrote. Maybe theyll love the web version more.

More:

What If the Metaverse Is Better Without Virtual Reality? - WIRED

New Solution Combines XRHealth Software and HTC's VIVE Flow Glasses for Patients Undergoing Procedures like Chemotherapy, Surgery, MRIs, Insulin Shots, Giving Birth, Burn Trauma, and More

BOSTON, Oct. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --XRHealth,the leading healthcare metaverse platform, andHTCVIVE,the global leader in premium virtual reality (VR),announced today a new distraction therapy virtual reality platform to improve the patient experience during painful or anxiety provoking medical procedures. The new solution combines XRHealth software with HTC's VIVE Flow glasses and is designed to distract patients and alleviate pain and anxiety while undergoing challenging medical procedures like chemotherapy, surgery, MRIs, and receiving insulin or the painful process of giving birth, burn trauma, and many others.

Virtual reality distraction therapy transports the patient to a virtual world and guides them through meditation and other exercises that imbue the patient with skills to minimize pain and anxiety. Just recently PLOS One published a XRHealth platform study based on clinical trials that demonstrated that virtual reality therapy may serve as an effective adjunct to anesthesia for surgical procedures. The trials were conducted with XRHealth' s immersive virtual reality software and done by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center physicians. In the study, distracting the patient's mind from the procedure with virtual reality therapy, without compromising on the patient experience, proved to be successful and reduced the risk of over sedation.

"Distraction therapy enables the patient to have a positive experience during painful medical procedures without being over sedated with extraneous medication that sometimes creates a longer recovery process," says Eran Orr, Chief Executive Officer of XRHealth. "The immersive and virtual environment removes patients from the pain of the current experience and transports them into a digital world that provides comfort and relief."

The VIVE Flow form factor offers lightweight portability providing comfort and ease for patients to use the glasses during multiple types of medical procedures. The XRHealth software enables treating clinicians to view what patients are experiencing and communicate with them without breaking the digital immersive experience. The distraction therapy solution provides seamless patient set up and easy integration with hospitals and clinics.

"VIVE Flow was designed to be comfortable and lightweight, which lets the hardware fade into the background so people can fully immerse in the magic of VR," said Cher Wang, Co-Founder and Chairwoman at HTC. "Paired with XR Health's groundbreaking platform, we're on the cusp of a new era of effective and convenient VR treatments that offer support for patients to manage pain, anxiety, and more."

The XRHealth software is FDA and CE registered and is used in hospitals worldwide including at Sheba Medical Center, the VA St. Louis Healthcare System, and many more. Clinicians can control, see, and receive real-time data updates while patients are using the software so that users can be monitored at all times during procedures.

About XRHealth

XRHealth is revolutionizing healthcare, bringing patient care into the Metaverse. The company operates state-of-the-art therapeutic care Virtual Rooms, utilizing proprietary FDA and CE registered medical Extended Reality (XR) technology (virtual and augmented reality). XRHealth integrates immersive XR technology, licensed clinicians, and advanced data analytics on one platform, providing a comprehensive therapeutic care solution for patients to receive treatment from the comfort of their home.The company offers a variety of patent-pending solutions from rehabilitation services to cognitive assessment and training to pain management. XRHealth works with several world-renowned U.S. healthcare providers, hospitals, and rehabilitation centers. Founded in 2016, XRHealth is headquartered inBoston, Massachusettsand its R&D center is located inTel-Aviv, Israel. For more information, visithttps://www.xr.health/.

AboutHTC

HTCVIVE is the premier virtual reality (VR) platform and ecosystem that creates true-to-life VR experiences for businesses and consumers. The VIVE ecosystem is built around premium VR hardware, software, and content. The VIVE business encompasses best-in-classXRhardware; VIVEPORT platform and app store; VIVE Enterprise Solutions for business customers; VIVE X, a US$100M VR business accelerator; and VIVE ARTS for cultural initiatives. For more information, please visitwww.vive.com.

CONTACT:DeeDee Rudenstein,[emailprotected],(267) 521-9654

SOURCE XRHealth

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XRHealth and HTC Introduce The First Distraction Therapy Virtual Reality Platform to Improve Patient Experience During Painful or Anxiety Provoking...

Pittsburgh, PA -- Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) Acting Secretary George Little was joined by Anna Hollis, executive director of Amachi Pittsburgh to announce an innovative virtual reality (VR) pilot program that leverages technology and community partnerships to promote healthy relationships and egagment between incarcerated parents and their children.

The first of its kind collaboration between the DOC and Wrap Technologies builds on the existing InsideOut Dads and Parenting Inside Out programs, which are designed to improve communication skills, facilitate the showing and handling of feelings, and introduce effective discipline techniques. With the introduction of VR immersion, participants learn and practice healthy parenting skills in a 360-degree environment. Each VR interaction is guided by a lesson plan and managed by DOC staff, who have the ability to adapt and customize the situations in real time.

"The overwhelming majority of incarcerated parents will return to their families and communities at the conclusion of their prison sentence, and the DOC is committed to setting them up for success," said Acting Secretary Little. "Practice makes perfect, and we hope role playing with the assistance of virtual avatars will help parents and children see beyond facility walls and build stronger families and safer communities."

Children do not have to travel to a DOC facility to participate. Community providers Amachi Pittsburgh and Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) in Philadelphia facilitate the virtual reality visits for participating children and offer support services to their families.

"Our team is thrilled to partner with the PA Department of Corrections and Wrap to provide VR experiences for our youth and parents," said Anna Hollis, executive director of Amachi Pittsburgh. "VR is a new, innovative way for us to pique interest, attract new participants and spark learning, creativity and imagination."

"In our work with incarcerated individuals, we know that it is extremely important to have family support, including engagement with children," said Laurie A. Corbin, PHMC managing director for community engagement. "We hope the parent and child will have a fun and educational experience which will provide them with happy memories despite their physical separation from each other."

Researchers from the Pennsylvania State University have been tapped as the evaluators for the pilot program.

"We are excited to work alongside the DOC and community partners to evaluate this new and innovative program. We hope the results will illuminate more ways for incarcerated parents and their children to enjoy learning together," said Sara Brennen with the Penn State Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center and the Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy in the College of Education.

Complete funding for the VR initiative comes from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Programs. The InsideOut Dads program is available at each of the DOC's male facilities. The VR component has been introduced at SCI Phoenix, SCI Fayette, and SCI Frackville. VR is also available at SCI Muncy, a female facility, building on a similar Parenting Inside Out program.

Incarcerated parents must be housed in general population, be within three years of their minimum date, and not be convicted of crimes involving children to be eligible to participate in the VR experiences.

For more information on the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and the InsideOut Dads and Parenting Inside Out programs, visit cor.pa.gov.

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Department of Corrections Introduces Virtual Reality Technology to Augment Programming for Incarcerated Parents and Their Children - Pennsylvania...

Arden Bendler Browning conquers virtual reality, Luve More LC + Thinkers Makers Society, and opportunity

Three notable events rounded up for your consideration! A short Q&A and video by Roberta talking with Arden Bendler Browning about her show and virtual reality piece at Bridgette Mayer Gallery; plus a great-sounding event at Thinkers Makers Society collaborating with Luve More LC to present Jeff Rivers' art; and Scribe Video's Young Mediamakers Fund is open for applications to college students and student-age filmmakers -- applications due Oct. 31.

Arden Bendler Browning talks virtual reality and painting

I stopped in at Bridgette Mayer Gallery last week to check out the paintings by Arden Bendler Browning. [the show is up til this Saturday, Oct. 22.] Im a fan of her abstracted landscape works with their shakingly joyful, celebratory ambiance and rich color palette, so to my surprise, Arden was in the gallery. We had a chat about her virtual reality piece created in conjunction with her paintings and that let you step inside the paintings in real virtual space. Happily for me and others who decline the VR headset, the painter has made a video of the VR environment an astounding piece of video in itself which captures the Alice in Wonderland wow of her paintings by breaking them apart and re-assembling them mark by mark. Even without the headset, the video gave a pretty good sense of walking in and amongst the marks and colors. I asked Arden about working in VR and working in paint, and here is some of what she said:

ARTBLOG: Tell me about how you make the virtual reality

ARDEN BENDLER BROWNING: Ok, so I use photographs of the paintings, which I then import into the virtual space and I use the image as a background from which to draw into the space using 3D virtual painting marks. Arden points out a painting that appears in the background of the VR, and on top of that are the virtual marks that shes drawn in the virtual space. You can walk through them (with the headset on). So, the painting is always started looking generally at photos or video of an actual space, but it then gets compressed or flattened to become a painting (2D). The virtual reality is allowing me to turn the paintings back into an experiential space again. And when you have the headset on you can walk through all the marks and then you are part of the painting.

In this particular piece Ive included some animation. There are five different scenes that use five different paintings in the show. Each one starts out as a flattened image of itself that grows upward from the floor. Its almost like a pop-up book where it just grows around you. And it will gradually float back down again and you can trigger another scene, based on another painting.

ARTBLOG: The colors [in the video] are digital colors, right, rather than real world colors. How do you like working in the digital space just for the color alone? Youre a very big colorist.

ARDEN: When I started working with the VR I realized its hard for me because Im a painter, im not a programmer, Im really not a digital artist. I tried to figure out ways that I could combine the two to allow different things to happen in this space, like the movement and the scale that I could never do unless I was painting an entire room and having different materials. I actually will color match according to all the different nuances in the painting. And thats really whats allowed me then to have this seamless way of having the different marks, like theyre growing out of the painting.

I feel like if I were just staring with a digital palette and not looking at the images of the paintings I dont feel that my color choices would be nearly as complex, because with paint Im just seeing what happens, and the colors develop from the transparencies of the different colors on top of each other. You cant really do that with digital marks. There isnt that transparency. You cant have a color gradually blend into another. You can do amazing things like with volume, shadows that can show you how the form is existing in 3 dimensional space. But, yeah, theyre different ways to work. And I like that difference, too! Its interesting to let them play off of each other.

Luve More LC + Thinkers Makers Society collaboration

RUNNING under THE MOONLIGHT, work by Jeff RiversThinker Makers Society, 320 Race StreetOpening November 4, 2022, 7pmClosing party November 19, 7pm

From Austin Rivers of Luve More LC (a local production company).

Thinkers Makers Society is a black-owned gallery and event space in Old City. The gallery has been established since 2021. Luve More LC has partnered with Thinker Makers Society to produce a 2 week exhibition in support of the rising career of local visual artist, Jeff Rivers. RUNNING under THE MOONLIGHT, is the debut solo exhibition of Philadelphia-based visual artist, Jeff Rivers. This exhibition is a visual narrative of the life journey from birth to addiction. Using the black male as the narrative subject, Jeff takes the viewer through the rise and fall of the human condition in a series of large scale paintings and accompanying photographs and prints. You see the subject through birth, adolescent struggles and their search for warmth and community. The figures in this exhibition are sourced from the artists first hand witnessing of Philadelphias vagrant and addict population. The works in this exhibition are placed in conversation with the acclaimed film Moonlight. This juxtaposition between the story of an alienated, black youths journey towards self-realization mirrors the narrative displayed by the paintings. RUNNING under THE MOONLIGHT places the viewer in an empathetic space to perceive and understand the desires and failures that drive our quest for community acceptance.

Scribe Video Philadelphia Student Mediamaker Fund Deadline Oct. 31From the announcement:

Im excited to share with you that Scribes Philadelphia Student Mediamaker Fund is now accepting applications from collegiate age mediamakers. The deadline is October 31, 2022. Information and Application here.

The Philadelphia Student Mediamaker Fund provides grants up to $500 to undergraduate students and up to $1,500 to graduate students who are creating a digital video, audio or film project. We are now also accepting applications from student aged filmmakers affiliated with a training program.

The Philadelphia Student Mediamaker Fund is administered by Scribe Video Center. Evaluation of proposals and selection of grant recipients is made collectively by members of media arts organizations and local colleges and universities in the Philadelphia area who are involved in media making, educating and supporting local artists, as well as by individual members of the independent film and digital media community.

Support for the Philadelphia Mediamaker Fund is provided by the Independence Public Media Foundation.

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Arden Bendler Browning conquers virtual reality, Luve More LC + Thinkers Makers Society, and opportunity - theartblog.org

Augmented reality, virtual reality, extended reality, mixed reality ...

Sometimes it seems like milk is the only thing that is Realanymore.

Virtual reality (VR) is a range of technologies that can be as simple as a smart phone in a paperboard holder to a full motion aircraft simulator. In general, it is a computer-generated 3D environment that closely simulates the real world. Most commonly, it is a headset that blanks the outside world. Hand controls or gloves are used to manipulate objects in the virtual world.

Augmented reality (AR), sometimes called extended or mixed reality, uses technology to provide additional information, often on top of physical reality. This may be instructions displayed on a smartphone. More advanced systems may project images onto a package assembly station to show proper sequence.

Both have many uses and opportunities in packaging. Lets look at how.

Currently, VR has two main applications in packaging: Training and design.

Packaging machines and lines are normally designed on 2D paper drawings. 3D CAD systems allow more realism. Neither is as good as getting hands on the actual machines. That cant happen until the line is built, at which point it is usually too late to make adjustments.

TNA Solutions uses VR to simulate food processing and packaging equipment, as well as complete plants. A user with a headset and hand controllers can walk through the line virtually climbing ladders, interacting with HMIs, opening and closing doors. This allows them to catch mistakes and identify improvements. This is much cheaper than doing it after the line has been built.

For a company like TNA that builds machinery in multiple plants, it is the only way to see the entire line prior to final installation. Both are much cheaper at this stage than after the line is built. Multiple users can interact with each other from multiple locations around the world.

Training is a giant opportunity for VR. Preparing a juice filling machine must be done in a prescribed, consistent manner every time. Videos, instructors, and paper documents can leave somewhat to be desired. Training on the machine itself can waste valuable production time.

Mixed reality technology can give you a visual indication if an action has been done properly, such as during packaging equipment installation or changeover.

VR simulates the process in the headset. The trainee manipulates the process, and the software can tell them if they have done it correctly or not.

A drawback of VR is that developing the simulations can be time consuming and expensive. As it becomes more popular and better cameras and software are developed, this will be less of an issue.

AR has been used for years before people recognized it as AR. One application places machine information such as operating instructions, wiring diagrams, and part lists on the company intranet. The technician or operator scans a quick-response (QR) code on the machine with a tablet or smartphone, and everything they could need pops right up. (Tip for OEMs: Put QR codes on your components linking to catalog data sheets.)

Image courtesy of John R. Henry, Changeover.com

Author John R. Henry tries out the realwear remote setup at an industry tradeshow.

Juggling a tablet while working with a machine is difficult. Realwear and other companies offer handsfree solutions. These combine a display for viewing video or documents, camera for capturing pictures and video, and a microphone/earpiece for communication. The tech scans the QR code, and uses voice commands to get to the desired page. If help is needed or a part needs to be ordered, a voice command initiates a video chat with tech support.

Light Guide Systems projects images that can be used to aid in assembly of medical kits and other products. A projector is mounted above the assembly station, as each part is added, the operator touches a virtual button to project the next one.

Another use is guiding dis- and re-assembly during machine changeover.

Help Lightening allows remote support to see what the onsite tech sees. But it goes further. Support can interact over video to show exactly what the tech needs to do. Help Lightening calls this hands in since it allows a much more intimate level of support than a plain video call.

Good employees are hard to find and train. As machines and processes get more complex, even the best may find themselves overwhelmed. Increased employee turnover prevents the accumulation of experience as in the past.

Virtual reality allows faster, deeper training of new employees. Augmented reality reduces the need to carry information around in ones head. Ease of access via AR means that it is more likely to be used than when the info requires a walk back to the shop for an instruction book.

Better information always means better maintenance and operation.

Link:

How Virtual or Augmented Reality Can Help Your Packaging Line - Packaging Digest

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The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of things about everyday life but for UC Santa Cruz Baskin School of Engineering alumni Aviv Elor, Ash Robbins and Michael Powell, its presented an opportunity: to bring physical therapy to telehealth.

Their company, Immergo Labs, is a virtual reality telehealth platform that allows physical therapy patients to continue their treatment from anywhere with internet connectivity. With the technology, now intended for a trial run in January, patients who have achieved a certain level of recovery in person can dial in to sessions with their physical therapists from the comfort of their living rooms making continuing treatment easier and more equitable, the creators say.

Its a novel idea that sits at the nexus of two emerging industries: telehealth, which due to a pandemic-related boom could soon be worth upward of $250 billion in the United States alone; and virtual reality, long the tech industrys proverbial whats next? The team, comprised of Elor, Robbins and Powell plus four regular technical advisors and two interns, plans to release the platform by the end of next year, and is now conducting a small trial with a select group of physical therapists throughout the U.S. Theyve raised about $411,000 through a combination of grants and an ongoing StartEngine investment crowdfunding campaign.

The first inklings of their concept came when Powell and his two business partners were researching medical deserts at UCSC. In less-urban areas, medical specialists can be hard to find with physical therapists being particularly difficult.

There are a lot of areas in the country where its really difficult for anyone to get to a physical therapy clinic, Powell said. Its mainly because of distance, but it can also be because of disability too, right?

With Immergo VR, physical therapists are able to dial in to live exercise sessions with their patients where, using sensors and gyroscopic remotes, both patient and therapist are able to see almost exactly how each other is moving within a 3D environment. The platform records data points like the range of motion of a patients limbs which are useful for tracking their recovery over time.

The Immergo VR team.

(Via Immergo VR)

Elor, Robbins and Powell met while working in the engineering labs at UCSC. The three hail from different disciplines: Elor specializes in virtual reality and user experience, Robbins in artificial intelligence and biologically inspired robots and Powell in biomechanics.

And given the problem their company is trying to solve, its no coincidence that all three are athletes, and have all undergone some form of physical therapy at one point in their lives: Elor does judo, Robbins is a rock climber and Powell was once a gym trainer.

Currently, the team is fielding an early version of Immergo with eight physical therapists throughout the country, and will soon begin a user study involving 100 physical therapists with Houstons veterans affairs department. The team aims to release the platform by January to what it says is a large waitlist, followed by a full release by the end of 2023.

Sean Wells, one of the physical therapists participating in Immergos small user trial, said the platform has already been useful in tracking his patients progress especially when either he or they travel.

With a patient, what I can do is say, Hey, do your exercises in VR, and Ill monitor your progress until the next time we meet, Wells said. [Immergo] will give me all sorts of information: Is he getting stronger? Is his torque and range of motion getting better?

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Lookout: What problem are you trying to solve?

Michael Powell: Were a virtual reality telehealth platform for physical therapists, and the key part really is the telehealth. A big problem at physical therapy clinics are no-shows. Weve heard that 20-30% of patients a day dont show, and thats lost revenue for a clinic. So just by using telehealth, they increase their revenue, because people show up to telehealth appointments. Theyre much more convenient.

Also, a lot of patients have a hard time getting to a clinic two, three times a week; theres work, family, immobility, distance lots of reasons. But having a telehealth component that supplements some of the care increases accessibility.

The idea is that we arent trying to replace physical therapists or in-person care the idea is to help supplement it.

Lookout: Is that 20-30% figure new as in pandemic-related? Or is this a consistent pattern?

Powell: The way we heard about this phenomenon is that we received a NSF Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant, and through this process, we had to go through I-Corps and Beat-the-Odds bootcamps which are customer discovery bootcamps, meaning we had to do over 100 interviews for one program and 70 for the other. And basically we spent that time interviewing physical therapists, occupational therapists, insurance workers, policymakers anyone and everyone we could think of in this space to really understand what the big, shark-bite problems are. We werent trying to pitch virtual reality; we werent trying to pitch telehealth. It was just like, Whats going on? What do you guys need?

And it always came back to telehealth. Thats when we started to learn about no-shows, and those were the numbers we were hearing the most: between 20 and 30%, even as high as 50% for large clinics, which is crazy.

The first round of interviews we did was in the summer of 2020 right when everything was shutting down and obviously telehealth was a huge concern. And we knew that interviewing physical therapists at that time would be very different than what it might be like now. When we did the Beat-the-Odds bootcamp, that was like eight or nine months ago, when everything had opened back up. So the landscape we caught it at a huge shift, and then caught it as it was going back to normal.

But what the pandemic did for telehealth is it accelerated everything by five to 10 years. Thats what we kept hearing from physical therapists: That prior to COVID, no one no physical therapists or patients wanted telehealth. But now after being forced to do it, and realizing there are benefits to it, but that its just not good enough yet now that its out there PTs really want it.

Lookout: Whats Immergo like to use? What do you do in it?

Powell: So the idea is, a patient at home throws on a virtual reality headset, and a therapist throws on a virtual reality headset, and the patient and therapist meet in the same 3D, virtual room. They can walk around each other, see metrics for range of motion, joint torques and balance assessment.

The idea is, you can move around each other, see full-body movements, and [your PT] can correct your exercises; guide you through them. And what those exercises actually look like, that really depends on whether youve had surgery, or if its just aches and pains, or whatever it might be an old injury or something. Some components [of PT] are very hands-on with the manipulation, but as youre progressing through the phases of recovery, you should be becoming more independent, and thats when telehealth starts to make more sense.

Lookout: You guys worked on a game together, right?

Powell: Yeah, thats how we got started on this. Weve all gone through physical therapy ourselves, so we all know first-hand that adherence is a big issue. A common thing in physical therapy is that patients do well with their in-person sessions, when theyre meeting with their therapist and as soon as those in-person sessions stop, pretty much everyone stops doing their exercises. So we thought, Lets gamify the exercise and make it more fun, so people actually stay on top of them.

So when we did I-Core, we thought the problem we were trying to address was adherence but that wasnt. The issue was telehealth and connectedness. So it was a pivot from game experiences that give valuable metrics to live sessions that give these metrics.

Lookout: It sounds like the game portion is coming back in the form of the asynchronous feature youre adding.

Powell: Definitely. So its really cool, and the idea is that PTs can record themselves in the virtual reality environment doing the exercises, and record audio while theyre doing it. Like, Hey, heres your exercise program, I want you to do 10 reps of this, five reps of that. So when the patient opens it up on their end, they can see exactly what the therapist was doing, and they can record themselves doing it all and then send it back to them. The big plus here is that, if internet connection is limited, people can still do their exercises without having to be live.

And we do have a plan for continued care in the future. Recovery isnt, eight sessions and ultimately, magically, youre 100% better. Its a continuum. Like, you should be maintaining your exercises.

So the idea is, when a therapist feels like their patient is ready to be on their own, but they do need to continue their exercises, well have a continued care subscription that has these exercise games that will continue to log their data, and still keep them connected to their physical therapists.

Lookout: Whats your perspective on UCSC as a place where startups like Immergo can get off the ground? Its cool that you guys met there.

Powell: Yeah, its really cool. UCSC has had some spinouts, but its still relatively new at this compared to like Stanford or Berkeley, which are cranking out a lot of companies and have a lot of experience in this. I think UCSC is still trying to figure out how to encourage that same environment among their students to do research and then bring it out of the lab into the real world and have an impact. We really appreciate UCSCs support in that, and we have a lot of lab friends who are working on really great things, and it would be great if they can figure out ways to bring them out.

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A marriage of virtual reality and physical therapy: Immergo Labs emerges from its UCSC roots - Lookout Santa Cruz

Weve got people that get out and go walk along the beach, explained Erika Leno, one of the owners of ThriveCare Assisted Living in Littleton, where Robinson often volunteers.

Hes technologically savvy, she added, explaining that the process more complicated than just handing over a pair of VR goggles to someone.

He [Robinson] gets everything connected to the WiFi and he can navigate everything to find something that appeals to them. And hes their age, so to have a peer instead of someone much younger coming in to do something, they feel like theyre all on the same page, said Leno.

Leno said after Robinson gets people set up with the goggles, they can choose their own experience. Its amazing because someone is visiting a national park; someones at an Elvis concert; another is listening to Mozart and watching the conductor.

Leno said the virtual reality goggles make a huge difference for seniors who have trouble focusing on a task for more than a few minutes.

When you turn on music and [they hear] their favorite conductor weve got some residents who would be disengaged with any activities after five minutes but with this, theyre completely engaged for 20, 30, 40 minutes and its amazing to see.

Robinson owns two of the goggles, Barb Lutz owns two more and Riverpoint Senior Living owns another pair. They coordinate with requests to then go to a variety of different senior living homes. You can call Barb at 720-231-6248 to schedule an appointment to use the goggles.

For Robinson, it's about the fun.

Im retired!" he exclaimed. "Im having fun with these ladies, so I get joy out of seeing the response I get from different people its unbelievable.

And for him it's amazing to see the changes in the people he works with.

It makes my heart warm," he said. "I really enjoy it because why cant we give a little fun to someone else in life?"

Brian Willie is the content production manager at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can contact him at brianwillie@rmpbs.org.

Dana Knowles is a multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS and can be reached at danaknowles@rmpbs.org.

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Senior living residents explore the world through virtual reality - Rocky Mountain PBS

VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - PrecisionOS has announced a collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)to augment the Combined Orthopedic Residency Program (CORP) with immersive Virtual Reality (VR) training.

Faculty members of MGH/CORP will work with PrecisionOS over the next three years to jointly develop new VR foot/ankle and hand/wrist training, while using current PrecisionOS training modules to help residents further develop their surgical skills in other areas.

"As an alum of the MGH Shoulder Fellowship program, I could not be more excited about the role we will have in supporting the Combined Orthopedic Residency and its Fellowship programs," says Danny Goel, M.D., orthopedic surgeon, and CEO, PrecisionOS. "Our platform is being adopted by preeminent institutions all over the world because of our core focus on high quality and evidence-based immersive surgical education."

The immersive VR module developed with MGH/CORP faculty will incorporate applied complex surgical training, that will be available for use by a growing list of medical education programs using the PrecisionOS platform to amplify their surgical resident training programs across the globe.

"MGH is committed to the understanding of orthopaedic health while creating novel approaches to foot/ankle and hand/wrist education, technology and innovation. As such, we're looking forward to the power of the metaverse to help advance our educational priorities," states Mitchel Harris, M.D., Chief of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital.

About PrecisionOS

PrecisionOS is a leading provider of virtual reality surgical training for the medical industry. Societies, universities and medical device companies prefer PrecisionOS modules because they improve the transfer of knowledge and skills. Multiple, independent trials published in medical journals confirm that participants using the PrecisionOS platform become better, more confident surgeons. PrecisionOS has collaborative affiliations with more than 50 major medical institutions in the U.S. and Canada and the company's technology platform is being used in more than 55 countries globally. Learn more at http://www.precisionostech.com.

Media Contact: Kate Castelo: 1 (778) 991-9700, [emailprotected]

SOURCE PrecisionOS Technology

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Orthopedic Residency Program and PrecisionOS Team up For Exclusive 3-Year Collaboration: Virtual Reality Development and Curriculum Integration - PR...

Its fair to say the construction (AEC) industry represents perhaps one of the most significant markets for XR technology. Every aspect of extended reality has a unique part to play in AEC operations. While virtual reality allows for the development of virtual blueprints and project plans, augmented and mixed reality improve access to content on-site, and enhance collaboration.

Used correctly, the right XR technology can accelerate the development of a project, and allow for innovative new designs, created by a multitude of worldwide specialists. Whats more, these tools can also pave the way for safer operations in the AEC space.

Today, were looking a little more closely at the benefits of XR in the construction industry, by exploring some of the most innovative case studies published by market-leading vendors.

A leading general contractor within the Pacific Northwest, Sellen Construction was searching for a new way to help designers, engineers, contractors, and anyone else involved in a construction project collaborate on successful strategies. The company believed VR could be the perfect opportunity to reduce the time it takes for professionals to make decisions about projects, reduce lead times, and communicate end-results to clients.

After trying a multitude of different VR solutions, Sellen Construction turned to Varjo and their immersive virtual reality headsets. According to the company, the image quality was so crisp the users really felt as though they were standing in a different world.

Varjos technology, alongside integrations with Unity and Unreal Engine has allowed the construction leaders at Sellen to boost communication between teams, and enhance the development of amazing virtual reality mock-ups.

From single-family homes to luxurious villas and company headquarters, the Haas group has developed virtually every kind of building consumers can think of in prefabricated forms. Since its founding in 1972, the company has been rapidly growing, and now has around a thousand qualified employees working in locations around the world.

Unfortunately, many administrative processes implemented by the Haas group were restricted by old-fashioned technologies. Adjusting designs based on customer requests was a time-consuming and expensive process. The company decided they needed to update their technology as a result, and turned to Microsoft for assistance.

With the Microsoft ecosystem, and the HoloLens 2 headset, its easier to provide everyone with a comprehensive view of what a project will look like, and make rapid changes to designs. The Haas group can even offer virtual tours for buyers using Microsoft tools.

An architectural design firm operating in 18 offices around the globe, CannonDesign has always had their finger on the pulse of the technology landscape. However, the company began to suffer from severe issues surrounding collaboration and teamwork in recent years. Traditional strategies required employees to travel to different locations to connect with clients and colleagues.

Whats more, many specialists relied on elaborate physical mock-ups to showcase what a project might look like upon completion. The existing design process was proving to be too inefficient and expensive for the business, which led to the exploration of new means of creativity and collaboration through VIVE and NVIDIA.

With a custom enterprise-grade virtual reality solution, CannonDesign was able to introduce an environment where users could quickly validate design concepts through VR, host remote meetings where clients and designers could collaborate virtually, and share digital mock-ups.

One of the biggest challenges facing most AEC companies is the time it takes to correct design or installation issues once theyre recognised in the field. Rework costs the construction industry up to $65 billion a year in the United States alone. Fortunately, more contractors are beginning to embrace virtual design and construction methods as a solution.

DPR construction, one of the top 10 contractors in the ENR landscape, embraced technology from Unity, Microsoft HoloLens and VisualLive as a way of boosting project planning opportunities and collaboration across projects. The solution allows employees to experience BIM models virtually on the job-site, and identify issues before building begins.

The solution implemented by DPR Construction has allowed the company to reduce the amount of expense incurred by having to fix and correct problems after a project has already been implemented.

For contractors and clients in the AEC space, theres often a significant gap between the two-dimensional representations of models and plans created, and the finished result of a project. While virtual reality offers a fantastic option for some companies, others believe the real value is in augmented reality, thanks to its ability to connect the real and virtual landscapes.

VIM AEC, a company which specializes in making BIM files used by construction companies more accessible, joined forces with Magic Leap to create a new solution for AEC companies. Together, these companies have built a new solution to allow for VIM files to be viewed on Magic Leap devices, bringing content into the real world.

VIM AECs collaboration with Magic Leap has led to the development of an environment where anyone can view what a project will look like, overlayed on top of the existing physical environment, for a more immersive experience.

One of the earlier examples of a company in the AEC space embracing the potential of mixed reality comes from PCL Construction. This company aimed to turn the old-fashioned construction processes used by similar brands upside down with a push towards IoT technology, Microsoft cloud services, and the mixed reality environment of HoloLens.

Using data from Azure IoT sensors, advanced insights, and HoloLens tools, the company has discovered a new way to increase safety on the job site, enhance productivity, and develop new opportunities for boosting customer satisfaction.

The HoloLens headset offered by Microsoft allows PCL to plan and model residential interiors and other aspects of projects in advance. The technology has also become a valuable sales tool for the brand, allowing the company to provide behind-the-scenes insights into projects before they begin.

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6 Insightful Construction XR Cases to Read in 2022 - XR Today

Virtual reality in MMA.Photo by LFA

UFC and Meta's partnership began with a new project at a Legacy Fighting Alliance show Friday.

Virtual reality users could watch the show using multiple angles and seating positions.

Keep scrolling for three highlights from the event including one huge knockout and celebration.

Video footage has emerged from an MMA event Saturday that put virtual reality users into the thick of the fighting action.

Multiple angles and seating positions could be found for those who watched the Legacy Fighting Alliance 144 show Friday on Meta's Horizon Worlds.

Insider reported last week about UFC's new partnership with Meta, which came on the heels of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's attendance at an eerily exclusive MMA event earlier this month.

In a statement sent to Insider, UFC said its broadcast arm UFC Fight Pass will deliver live MMA events "in VR in Meta's Horizon Worlds an immersive social experience app available on the Meta Quest 2 headset."

The new headset, launched this month, retails at $1,499.99, according to the Meta website.

The project began Friday with the LFA 144 event in South Dakota, which was topped with a bantamweight title bout involving Muin Gafurov and Diego Silva.

One clip showed users what it's like walking to the arena:

Japanese fighter Yuma Horiuchi advanced his pro MMA record to nine wins (two knockouts, five submissions, and two decisions) against four losses with his third-round victory against Juan Puerta via rear-naked choke.

This is what that finish looked like through VR:

Arguably the best VR highlight to come from the night, though, came when Muin Gafurov finished Diego Silva with a spinning back kick to the body in the third round of their match.

If the knockout was not good enough, Gafurov's raucous celebration became something VR users would have experienced at point-blank range when the Tajikstan athlete mounted the fence.

Watch it here:

According to a UFC statement sent to Insider, the LFA 144 was not the only MMA event that will get Meta's VR treatment.

Story continues

The UFC's digital broadcast channel Fight Pass "plans to offer similar VR experiences around select combat sports events in the future," the statement said.

These shows can also be watched traditionally without VR headsets.

The UFC returns Saturday with a pay-per-view offering, UFC 280, at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.

Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev fight for the UFC lightweight championship in a main event that also sees Aljamain Sterling put his bantamweight belt on the line against T.J. Dillashaw.

Petr Yan fights Sean O'Malley earlier in a show that also sees Beneil Dariush fight Mateusz Gamrot.

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Video footage emerges from an MMA event that put virtual reality users into the thick of the fighting action - Yahoo News