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.