August 5, 2024 by Cynthia McCormick Hibbert, Northeastern University Stairway to Heaven virtual reality program uses biofeedback from breath sensors to encourage users to pass stone markers and complete a mindfulness journey in a beautiful natural setting. Credit: Northeastern UniversityPine trees blow in the wind and sunlight glitters on the sea in a virtual reality...
by Stanford University Medical Center Credit: Journal of Psychiatric Research (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2023.08.002Many people who dream of an organized, uncluttered home à la Marie Kondo find it hard to decide what to keep and what to let go. But for those with hoarding disorder—a mental condition estimated to affect 2.5% of the U.S. population—the reluctance to...
By Rich Haridy September 20, 2021 Using principles of exposure therapy, an app allows users to encounter virtual spiders to help overcome their fearsUniversity of Basel, MCNVIEW 1 IMAGES A new smartphone app developed by researchers at the University of Basel is using augmented reality to help reduce a person’s fear of spiders. In a...
Effective communication is very important to people. Humans are social animals and we need to be able to communicate our needs and problems. However, some people are facing acquired communication disorders that are significantly hindering their lives. Now researchers from the University of Queensland say that Virtual Reality (VR) technology could aid therapy helping people with communication...
October 1, 2019 by Kyle Melnick According to an article published last week to the journal of Soft Robotics, scientists based out of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland, have developed a skin-like material that, when worn over a users’ body, simulates a far more realistic sense of touch than that of...
Health and wellness touch each of us differently. This is one person’s story. If you had told me a year ago that my favorite relaxing activity would involve strapping a computer to my head to immerse myself in a virtual world, I never would’ve believed you. Virtual reality (VR) may be an up-and-coming technology, but...
New research shows how immersive technology can help patients treat recurring nightmare syndrome. In the US, between 1/2 and 2/3 of children and up to 15% of adults have frequent nightmares. This has serious clinical effects for sufferers, including not only distress, but chronic loss of sleep and generalized anxiety. And yet, access to effective...
An Australian company, House with No Steps, debuts a VR prototype to better train disability support workers on how to handle potentially dangerous situations. In an industry with insurmountable variables, such as disability support, VR can provide endless opportunities for training. “Virtual reality is a powerful tool,” says Andrew Richardson, CEO of House with No Steps Group. “We want to harness it...
East Hanover, NJ – May 4, 2018 – Kessler Foundation, a leader in rehabilitation research, has partnered with Virtualware Group, an international leader in immersive and interactive technologies, to create a virtual reality (VR) based treatment for spatial neglect, the most common spatial deficit after stroke. The treatment called VR-SRT System, which will be under direction of Peii Chen, PhD, and Denise Krch, PhD, is...
Dr. Brennan M. Spiegel and his research team at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have been experimenting with virtual reality (VR) for years. I had a fruitful and very exciting correspondence with him about moments of immersion, virtual pharmacies or how to travel to Iceland without leaving your hospital bed. Read on! VR is an area of...
