ABSTRACT
The Department of Rehabilitation handles large numbers when it comes to processing cases of disability for employment. When it comes to caseworkers’ loads, cognitive disabilities dominate–mental health disorders, learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, ADHD, traumatic brain injury, PTSD and others. Using the power of technology of virtual reality, augmented reality and simulation engines, the DOR can reverse the tide in the numbers battle that case managers and workers deal with everyday. VR/ AR enables the DOR to dramatically reverse the tide of consumers; function optimally with reductions in funding; tackle the myriad issues of veterans with PTSD; be ahead of the new trends in TBI; and finally be at the forefront in innovation for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act.
THESIS
1) VR/ AR enables the DOR to dramatically reverse the tide of consumers;
2) function optimally with reductions in funding;
3) tackle the myriad issues of veterans with PTSD;
4) be ahead of the new trends in TBI;
5) and finally be at the forefront in innovation for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act.
One-on-one counseling time is a time-intensive and expesive process that can lead to burn out and sometimes even beauracratic inefficiencies in the VR field. However the utilization of virtual reality and game simulations can increase effectiveness and practice time of education and therapies exponentially. This paper explores the benefits and advantages of the central employment of sims and game modules over role-plays, examples of their successful implication and how to restructure job duties in VR counseling and even education for greater efficiency of expenditure.How much money is spent on counseling? How many hours? What variety of environments can be simulated? Does it need to be realistic? Does it feel the same as reality?
1) Current trends in VR
a. Science Fiction to Reality
X-Men comics feature a virtual reality training mechanism called the Danger Room. Star Trek: The Next Generation featured a holographic training deck. The Matrix featured a surgically installed brain plug for entering a computer system. Science fiction tales all acknowledge the need for education and rehabilitation to stay abreast of technological advancement.
b. The Grandfather of VE
c. The Research of Skip Rizzo and Therapeutic Applications
d. Major Tech Companies and the Demand for VR
2) The dynamics of VR for VR
a. Interactive Proxemics
b. Sense of Control
c. Tailoring for Consumers
d. The Role of the Administrator
3) Installations
a. Psychology/ Observation Office Installation
b. Inexpensive installations
c. Affordability of augmented training
“THESIS
1) VR/ AR enables the DOR to dramatically reverse the tide of consumers;
2) function optimally with reductions in funding;
3) tackle the myriad issues of veterans with PTSD;
4) be ahead of the new trends in TBI;
5) and finally be at the forefront in innovation for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act.”
Virtual reality interviewing
1) http://ict.usc.edu/prototypes/vita/
Christopher J. Wilson and Alessandro Soranzo, “The Use of Virtual Reality in Psychology: A Case Study in Visual Perception,” Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine, vol. 2015, Article ID 151702, 7 pages, 2015. doi:10.1155/2015/151702
http://psychiatry.duke.edu/divisions/general-psychiatry/virtual-reality-therapy-phobias
“Richmond, B. (2015). Virtual Reality Interview Training Helped Veterans with PTSD Get Job Offers. Motherboar.tv. Retrieved from
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/virtual-reality-interview-training-helped-veterans-with-ptsd-get-job-offers
“According to research just published in the journal Psychiatric Service, interviewing with a virtual director of human resources has proven to be extremely effective at helping users control their anxiety in a job interview.
Both PTSD and unemployment are problems for veterans, and either can exacerbate the other. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for male veterans of the most recent war in Iraq remained higher than the rate for male non-veterans in 2014. A study cited by The Economist stated that an estimated 12 percent of American veterans from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq suffer from PTSD.””
“Seventy participants, some of whom were veterans diagnosed with PTSD and some were civilians diagnosed with other mental illnesses, took a 10-hour training course on SIMmersion’s software. Each virtual interview took about 20 to 30 minutes to complete. Afterwards, participants could review transcripts of their virtual interview, which provide constructive feedback on how to better next time. Smith told me that participants usually completed about 15 trials during the intervention.””
“Being twice as likely to get a job offer would be remarkable enough, but, as Smith explained, when the data is controlled for two factors—cognition or memory and time since last full-time employment—trainees were actually nine-times more likely to get a job offer than the control group. The results were the same for job-seeking adults who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia: trainees were nine-times more likely to get job offers.””
“”I had thought that a big value of virtual reality might be that it’s cheaper than working face-to-face with a counselor or teacher, but Smith made some compelling points about the advantages of VR. He said that neuroscience has learned that sustainable behavioral learning takes repetitive practice. Virtual reality training gave individuals 10 to 20 interviews to work to establish their skills. Software has other advantages as well.
“For example, a service provider may not be able to change their personality and take on the characteristics of several different types of interviewers, whereas the virtual reality training has that characteristic,” he said. “One of the other advantages, I think, is that when you’re practicing a role play with a service provider you already know, there’s a level of comfort there. Whereas a job interview creates a more anxious environment where you’re going to be asked questions you may or may not be prepared for, and to some degree it’s a nerve-racking experience for anybody, let alone individuals who may already be prone to anxiety.” “””
“McGuire, P. (2014). Inside the Research Institute Battling PTSD with Virtual Reality. Motherboard.tv. Retrieved from
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/inside-the-clinic-battling-ptsd-with-virtual-reality”
“For many people in Canada, which boasts a small military, meeting an active soldier or a veteran during one’s average day can be rare, especially when media stereotypes tend to depict veterans as scattered or mentally ravaged. Because of that, I was pleased to meet Jody Mitic, a war hero who stepped on a landmine and lost both of his feet in Afghanistan, and who has become an outspoken advocate of soldiers’ mental health.
PTSD remains a massive, widespread problem facing veterans today, and one of the most confounding, troublesome aspects of treating it is the difficulty in predicting who it will afflict. For example, despite his injuries, Jody says he has not been affected by PTSD. “””
Effectiveness of VR as a VR theray for veterans.
“McGuire, P. (2014). Inside the Research Institute Battling PTSD with Virtual Reality. Motherboard.tv. Retrieved from
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/inside-the-clinic-battling-ptsd-with-virtual-reality”
“The focus of the LA Times piece, however, is Sgt. Warren’s treatment. After going through immersive VR therapy at Rizzo’s clinic, he now (while the word “cure” is a tough one to use here) feels like a much healthier man.
Video games and virtual reality have been a part of our lives for decades, but we’re clearly only scratching the surface of how they can help us become better human beings, and how they can help us heal. “The sad part of war is, of course, it sucks, but if you can pull anything good out of it, it’s that the urgency of war drives innovation,”” Rizzo told us. “”Soldiers are the test case, and when we move on to the next thing, it’ll be using this kind of technology with civilians. Making a difference for everybody.”
While we’re hoping that the technologies we saw at ICT will soon trickle down into militaries worldwide, there are clearly implications here for the entire planet. There’s surely a market for virtual therapists that can’t or won’t charge you by the hour; that kept your secrets safe from prying eyes (except for maybe the NSA, perhaps).”
Henderson, J. (2015). Grandfather Of VR: The Virtual Can Show The Beauty Of The Real. NPR.org, All Tech Considered. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/12/17/459839163/grandfather-of-vr-the-virtual-can-show-the-beauty-of-the-real
“He often gets called the “”grandfather of virtual reality””: he started with work on interfaces of fighter aircraft cockpits and now, at 72, he’s been at it for more than four decades — longer than the creator of Oculus Rift has been alive. And with his looks and demeanor, Furness would make a convincing Santa, only the kind who literally schools people in three kinds of engineering, aeronautics and astronautics at the University of Washington, and whose elves come with graduate degrees.
Like many observers, Furness agrees that VR is going to be a major tech theme for 2016. And as a founder of the Virtual World Society, he dreams that this technology could one day solve our deepest societal problems.”””
Delahoussaye, J. (2015). Virtual Games Try To Generate Real Empathy For Faraway Conflict. NPR.org, All Tech Considered. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/01/25/379417927/virtual-games-try-to-generate-real-empathy-for-faraway-conflict
“In America, we’re deeply involved in Syria, but we’re very disconnected about — what is that place?”” says Nonny de la Peña, head of Project Syria and a longtime journalist in print and film. “”Who are the people? Why do I care? Why are we there?””
Peña says the game helps people feel a little closer to Syrians in the middle of the civil war.
“”I sometimes call virtual reality an empathy generator,”” she says. “”It’s astonishing to me. People all of a sudden connect to the characters in a way that they don’t when they’ve read about it in the newspaper or watched it on TV.”” […] What Peña’s doing — using virtual reality in combination with reporting — is part of a wider landscape of video games being created to explore the news. And they’re called, appropriately enough, “”newsgames.””
“”There’s an argument to be made that games are perfect at getting at the systemic problems and challenges in the world,”” says Ian Bogost, a professor at Georgia Tech.”
Shahani, A. (2015). Getting ‘Physical’ And Emotional In Virtual Reality. NPR.org, All Tech Considered. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/06/01/411233592/getting-physical-and-emotional-in-virtual-reality
” The virtual world feels physical. I want to see if it’s intimate, if we feel close (as robots).
Over by a virtual ocean, the waves gently breaking, I ask if I can try a little experiment. Jones volunteers. I tell her: “”My fair warning is that it will require being a bit in your face.”” And by “”face,”” I mean robot face: no nose or lips.
Again, in real life we’re in different rooms miles away. I lean forward, so that my robot is right up against hers.
Jones doesn’t like it. She grunts a bit and compares it to a crowded subway car, with other bodies too close for comfort. “”It makes me want to back up a little bit, just because of that same subway impulse,”” she says.
To her boyfriend, who’s standing a few virtual feet away, it looks like our robot heads are touching.
“”I don’t really want to, but I feel a little bit jealous,”” Gordon admits. “”I already have this sensation like this body has Amy in it. And here’s someone right up, head snuggling.””
Jones doesn’t like that he feels that way so she backs up.”””
VR feels real and is effective.
Shahani, A. (2015). Getting ‘Physical’ And Emotional In Virtual Reality. NPR.org, All Tech Considered. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/06/01/411233592/getting-physical-and-emotional-in-virtual-reality
” The virtual world feels physical. I want to see if it’s intimate, if we feel close (as robots).
Over by a virtual ocean, the waves gently breaking, I ask if I can try a little experiment. Jones volunteers. I tell her: “”My fair warning is that it will require being a bit in your face.”” And by “”face,”” I mean robot face: no nose or lips.
Again, in real life we’re in different rooms miles away. I lean forward, so that my robot is right up against hers.
Jones doesn’t like it. She grunts a bit and compares it to a crowded subway car, with other bodies too close for comfort. “”It makes me want to back up a little bit, just because of that same subway impulse,”” she says.
To her boyfriend, who’s standing a few virtual feet away, it looks like our robot heads are touching.
“”I don’t really want to, but I feel a little bit jealous,”” Gordon admits. “”I already have this sensation like this body has Amy in it. And here’s someone right up, head snuggling.””
Jones doesn’t like that he feels that way so she backs up.”” […] Bailenson says only a handful of scientific experiments have studied how the human brain reacts when we feel this thing called “”social presence.””
He defines it as: “”This magic feeling where all of a sudden: Wow! I know that person is an actual living, breathing human being on the other end, and it feels real. It’s very difficult to quantify when it happens.””
Bailenson did a study 12 years ago that found real people “”flinch”” when a virtual avatar invades their personal space. In another study, researchers found that having a realistic face is not a major contributor to social presence. The mere presence of any face has a greater effect than making sure it’s granular like a photograph.
He says only a few thousand people on earth have experienced “”social presence”” — my couples and myself now among them. The technologists building this thing haven’t written the code of conduct.”””
VR technology can simulate realistic social interactions and ‘social presence’ ”
Workplace challenge and sound simulation.
Cognitive dynamic structures can easily be accomodated and their processes influenced by VR. By looking at the araes that cognitive assessments analzyze in patiens reporting cognitive disability, we can develop career development strategies and approahes in VR that accomodate and compliment the thought styles of the dsabilities.
” Neuropsychological assessment / Ronald M. Ruff and James C. Schraa — Questions that need to be answered”, Bolton, Brian, and Randall M. Parker, eds. Handbook of measurement and evaluation in rehabilitation. 4th ed. Austin, Tex.: Pro-Ed, Inc., ©2008.
attention and concentration, sustained attention, memory and learning, executive functioning, reason abstractly, arousal and alertness, selective attention; effort, resource allocation and speed of processing; concept formation; ideational fluency;
Development of a Data Management Tool for Investigating Multivariate Space and Free Will Experiences in Virtual Reality Jacquelyn Ford Morie, Kumar Iyer, Donat-Pierre Luigi, Josh Williams, Aimee Dozois, Albert “Skip” Rizzo University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) 13274 Fiji Way, Marina Del Rey CA 90292
“””For example, Phloem will be integrated into an ongoing clinical application project that is targeting the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in returning Iraq and Afghanistan military personnel (Rizzo et al., 2005). In this application, designed to deliver graduated exposure therapy within the context of VR scenarios that resemble combat-related settings (see Figure 4), clinicians have the capacity to deliver real time trigger stimuli while monitoring the ongoing physiological status of the client on the same interface. This integrated interface and data
capture approach is essential for giving the clinician the capacity to modulate client anxiety responses, as is essential to promote the therapeutic habituation that is desired within an exposure therapy format. ”
PTSD; Cognitive arousal