Virtual reality 'could help treat vertigo'

People with the condition suffer from dizziness and nausea and often cite places with repetitive visual patterns, such as supermarkets, as the trigger.

A team of psychologists is working to develop virtual environments to help with diagnosis and rehabilitation.

The scientists believe the approach has "real potential".

Dr Georgina Powell, of the School of Psychology, said: "We don't know very much about what causes visual vertigo at the moment.

"There also are not many effective rehabilitation therapies available, so the aim of our project is to try and understand those two things."

She said vertigo can be extremely debilitating, adding: "It can mean that a patient can't leave their house because they feel so sick and nauseous every time they walk around in their visual environment.

"They can't work, they just can't function."

The team said one of the most striking observations they had made about sufferers was the variation between what sparks their symptoms.

"All the patients are very different and some environments might trigger symptoms for some patients whilst other environments might trigger symptoms for others," Dr Powell said.

"So by using virtual reality (VR) we can have vast flexibility over the different types of environments that we can show to patients and we can find out what their individual triggers might be and then tailor specific rehabilitation therapies."

'We have a bucket ready'

Visual vertigo is often referred to as "supermarket syndrome" because large shops, with their cluttered shelves and repetitive aisles, can act as a catalyst to attacks.

"Other environments include walking by the side of a river, where you have motion one side of you but not on the other," Dr Powell said.

"Generally they can only handle so much of the virtual reality images at one time - we have a bucket ready," She added.

"But we give them lots of breaks and lots of water and monitor how they are feeling."

Source: BBC

Sony, HTC seek to expand use of virtual reality beyond video games

Consumer electronics giants Sony and HTC are looking to diversify their virtual reality, or VR, business beyond video games and into sectors such as cinema and medicine.

Sony Interactive Entertainment's initial virtual reality focus was on video games because that sector provided an excellent market for the technology, Yasuo Takahashi, director of the company's hardware global product strategy & management department, told EFE here Thursday.

Takahashi said the games occur in real time and provide the user a sense of immersion, although he added that there is a much broader scope for the employment of virtual reality.

The Japanese company, which is participating through Sept. 18 in the Tokyo Game Show - one of the world's largest video game fairs - is working to bring its VR technology to fields such as cinema, giving viewers a much more real sense of what it is like, for example, to be on a battlefield or in outer space, Takahashi said.

Sony, which did not reveal further details, is currently focused on its Playstation VR, a virtual reality gaming headset that is due to hit the market in October.

For its part, Taiwanese company HTC, which released its own virtual reality head-mounted gaming display earlier this year, also shares the same vision of diversifying VR technology.

Virtual reality is not exclusively for games, the head of HTC's Japanese division, Hiroshi Tamano, told EFE, adding that the technology is rapidly spreading to other industries.

Tamano, who was also present on the first day (reserved for the press) of the four-day fair, said builders and developers were already using virtual reality to simulate apartment floorings, facades and interiors.

It used to be necessary to build a showroom on the first floor, but with VR the fifth, 20th and even 50th floor of a building can be simulated, he said.

The automobile industry is also benefitting from virtual reality, with companies such as Audi using it to design their cars and even allow customers to configure their own dream vehicles, the executive added.

Moreover, virtual reality is assisting neurologists, who have used VR technology in scanners to create images of patients' brains and gain insight into how to proceed with their operations, Tamano said.

Source: EFE

Paranoia 'reduced with virtual reality'

The Oxford team estimate that around 1-2% of the population have severe paranoia at some point in their lives, typically associated with a mental health disorder such as schizophrenia.
Patients have such a strong sense of mistrust that they avoid contact with people and may rarely leave home.
The study was small and the patients had just one half-hour session of virtual reality with no long-term follow-up. However, Prof Freeman said the results were "exceptionally good".
He added: "I think this a glimpse into the future of mental healthcare. There is a revolution underway in virtual reality with many headsets becoming available.
"As these become more affordable we will see them used not just in clinical settings, but in people's homes."

Toby Brabham, aged 45, was diagnosed with schizophrenia more than 20 years ago, and has experienced severe paranoia.

He told me: "I used to experience persecutory voices - they would be having a go at me.

I would avoid going out and when I did it was with my head down so I avoided eye contact. It was very isolating."

Toby is now being successfully treated, and agreed to test out the virtual reality system for the BBC.

'Exciting to see'

Afterwards he said: "If I go on a Tube train or lift now I will certainly remember the virtual reality experience and I think it will be helpful in reducing any feelings of anxiety that I may have."

Dr Kathryn Adcock, head of neurosciences and mental health at the Medical Research Council, said:
"Virtual reality is proving extremely effective in the assessment and treatment of mental health problems.

"This study shows the potential of its application to a major psychiatric problem."

Brian Dow, at the charity Rethink Mental Illness, said: "It's exciting to see cutting-edge technology used innovatively to treat what can be an extremely frightening and disruptive symptom for some people experiencing mental illness. "

Source: BBC

Facebook's VR firm Oculus offers shipping refund

The first headsets were due to have arrived with customers on 28 March, but many are still waiting.

The firm has blamed an "unexpected component shortage" and says customers should receive updated news on their orders by 12 April.

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey said he had no further information to share.

Mr Luckey was responding to a thread on Reddit, the world's largest community forum, which appealed directly to him.

"Don't shunt blame to other people, this is my call," he wrote.

"I am not going to wax poetic about this, since I have done so in the past, but bottom-line: I won't give in-depth updates on any situation without knowing it is solid, true, and finalised.

"Until I can do so, the best I can do is remind people that I will get them information as quickly as I can."

Mr Luckey personally delivered the first Rift headset to a customer in Alaska last week. He posted a video of the handover on Facebook.

Rival VR headset the HTC Vive is set to ship on 5 April.

Source: BBC