Addiction, research, health in a virtual world
A new working group looking at the psychology of immersive environments is about to launch in Second Life. The inaugural get-together is occurring Wednesday July 15th at 4pm SL time. Click here for the exact location.
One of the advantages of being a regular (daily) observer of virtual worlds news, is you get a fair idea of trends. One growth trend over recent months has been the interest in the health applications of virtual environments. One of the better pieces of media coverage is one by the Wall Street Journal. It’s [...]
Today I stumbled across this great bunch of photos on the National Geographic site, showing a range of advanced robotics projects underway (some of which I’ve covered here before, including the one pictured). Have a look through them all and you can see some of the superb simulation opportunities these robots will provide. Would love [...]
Virtual Ability is an island in Second Life devoted to individuals with disabilities or chronic health conditions. Initially funded by the USA’s National Library of Medicine, it now relies on individual contributions. It contains a number of discrete areas including training facilities for people with chronic health conditions. They even have their own orientation section [...]
Over at Terra Nova, Robert Bloomfield has written a very interesting post on research methods and virtual worlds. You can read it in full here. The quantitative vs qualitative debate is nothing new in research, but Bloomfield posits that the current momentum toward quantitative research poses some challenges for the other side of the coin.
As mentioned last month, I had the pleasure of attending a conference on e-health as well as an evening discussion on the formation of a Games for Health special interest group as part of HISA. Aside from the very exciting outcomes from both those events, which I’ll discuss further in the future, it forced me [...]
The past couple of weeks have seen some interesting articles in the mainstream media on virtual environments and health. The first is in the Jerusalem Post, showing the benefits for the vision impaired. You can view the full article here. The second appears in Information Week and covers the use of Second Life by Chicago [...]
Over on The Metaverse Journal, Feldspar Epstein wrote a three-part series in recent weeks on virtual addiction. I’ve conglomerated those three parts into one large post here. Are you a Virtual World Whore? Virtual Addiction, Part 1 Do you crave the fun, excitement, and pleasure of virtual worlds to the detriment of the rest of [...]
This story originally appeared over at The Metaverse Journal. Over the past few months or I’ve followed the efforts of Dale Linegar and Stefan Schutt in establishing what is now known as The Lab. Dedicated to providing support and skills to 10-16 year olds with Asperger’s Syndrome, The Lab is already showing some great results. [...]
Tech website TMCnet has a very useful overview of Vanderbilt University’s use of Second Life with their nursing students. For the seasoned observer there’s nothing particularly new but if you’re only starting to familiarise yourself with the area, it’s an excellent read. The article is useful in another way: it reinforces where health professionals are [...]
There’s not a lot to add to the great description provided by the creators: “Between Worlds: A Journey of Hope” is a machinima produced by Panacea Luminos of NY HealthScape (USA) filmed and edited by Aliceinthenet (UK) and written by Skylar Smythe (Canada). The inspirational piece is a story of cancer survival and accessing health [...]
The usually tabloid Second Life Herald have an interesting but short interview with a Dutch hypnotherapist who conducts therapy in Second Life. Of course, there’s nothing new about therapy in Second Life – our sister site The Metaverse Journal interviewed two counsellors back in March 2007 – you can read that interview here. If you [...]
I’ve gone on ad nauseam about the benefits of virtual environments in regard to communal support around health issues. In the physical world, one of the most powerful support campaigns of the past 25 years is the AIDS quilt. Thanks to a joint initiative between Startled Cat and Jokaydia, that sucess story has moved into [...]