Metaverse Health
Addiction, research, health in a virtual world
Stories from the Vault
Body image and virtual worlds
In the past week, the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research released its second issue, and one article that caught my eye from a health viewpoint is a research paper titled: Ugly Duckling by Day, Super Model by Night: The Influence of Body Image on the Use of Virtual Worlds The intent of the study was [...]
Key resource for health and Second Life
Health researchers working in Second Life will know of Maged Kamel Boulos’ site: Web 2.0 and the 3D Web (Virtual Worlds and Second Life®). It’s not the prettiest site on the planet but it’s an absolute treasure trove of links to areas in Second Life with a health and education focus. There’s also plenty of [...]
Medico-legal aspects of virtual worlds and health
The Economist has an interesting article on the use of Second Life in training people around virtual consent. It’s an area where a virtual world has strengths (the ability to recreate a real-world situation) without some of the downfalls (lack of clinical complexity due to technological limitations). Another aspect that has struck me over the [...]
Serious games: health games research, amputees and avatar perception
Over the past few weeks, there’s been a spike in mainstream media interest around virtual environments and health. I thought it’d be worth showcasing three notable stories / issues that you may not be aware of. Amputee Support A press release from ADL Company Inc. and Virtual Ability, Inc. touts the launch of a project [...]
PhD: let the marathon begin
This post will be of little interest to most people but for the few that may be, here we go. This week I formally commenced my PhD candidature. It’s been a hell of a ride already getting orientated (a half-day series of sessions on the University and its approach to higher degree students). I’ll be [...]
Stepping into Health Conference
I ran across the following promo this week: “Stepping into Health” becomes Third in Popular “Stepping into Virtual Worlds” Series Using virtual worlds to promote health and healthcare is the topic of the next installment of the popular “Stepping into Virtual Worlds” conference series, to be offered October 7th, 2008 in Second Life. Hundreds of [...]
World AIDS Day in Second Life
There’s another new health project in development in Second Life – Karuna. It’s The focus is ‘HIV / AIDS education, outreach and support’ and it’s scheduled for launch on December 1st, World AIDS Day. Partners in the project include AIDS.gov and the University of North Carolina Center for AIDS research, Community Outreach, Dissemination, and Education [...]
DREAMS event and Telehealth article
Two snippets I’ve run across this week: 1. An interesting Second Life event: The annual DREAMS Community Health, Education and Art Fair will be held from February the 15th through the 28th. This will be the 5th year for the fair at Dreams. Each year the Dreams Community Fair is provided as an outreach program [...]
Journal of Virtual Worlds Research: 3D Virtual Worlds for Health and Healthcare
The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research continues to go from strength to strength, and the current edition is devoted to health and virtual worlds. I’ll be writing about some of the specific pieces in coming weeks, but you’ll see the full table of contents below: Table of Contents Editor’s Corner Musings on the State of [...]
Interview: Andrew Campbell – Director of Prometheus Research Team, University of Sydney
Over the past couple of years I’ve had the opportunity to chat with Andrew Campbell on a couple of occasions. As Director of the Prometheus Research Team, Andrew is heavily involved in the area of mental health and technology. I’ve always been struck by Andrew’s objective view of gaming and virtual worlds, which he rightly [...]
A Survey of Health-Related Activities on Second Life
The latest issue of the Journal of Medical Internet Research has an article on Second Life and its uses in a health context. The Canadian researchers surveyed 68 health presences in Second Life and came to the following conclusion: We found a wide range of health-related activities on Second Life, and a diverse group of [...]
Virtual Ability Island
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 [...]