{"id":265161,"date":"2021-06-02T21:44:10","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T18:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/can-virtual-reality-help-seniors-study-hopes-to-find-out\/"},"modified":"2021-06-02T21:44:10","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T18:44:10","slug":"can-virtual-reality-help-seniors-study-hopes-to-find-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/can-virtual-reality-help-seniors-study-hopes-to-find-out\/","title":{"rendered":"#Can virtual reality help seniors? Study hopes to find out"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Can virtual reality help seniors? Study hopes to find out<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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POMPANO BEACH, Fla.\u2014 Terry Colli and three other residents of the John Knox Village senior community got a trip<\/a> via computer to the International Space Station in the kickoff to a Stanford University study on whether virtual reality can improve the emotional well-being of older people.<\/p>\n

Donning 1-pound headsets with video and sound, the four could imagine floating weightless with astronauts and get a 360-degree tour of the station. In other programs, residents can take virtual visits to Paris, Venice, Egypt or elsewhere around the globe; attend a car rally, skydive or go on a hike.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel great. It is amazing. It is like you are really there,\u201d said Colli, 73 and a former spokesman for the Canadian embassy in Washington.<\/p>\n

Stanford\u2019s Virtual Human Interaction Lab will be working with John Knox\u2019s 1,200 residents, who will have ready access to the equipment under the supervision of staff members. The goal is to see whether virtual reality can improve their mood, strengthen their relationships with staff and make them more receptive to technology<\/a>. Other senior communities in the United States and elsewhere will soon be added by the California university.<\/p>\n

\"Residents
Residents of John Knox Village wear goggles as they participate in a virtual reality study, Tuesday, June 1, 2021, in Pompano Beach, Fla.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Virtual reality works by making what the person sees and hears track with what they are doing. In a VR trip to Paris, for example, a participant might turn to the left and see the Eiffel Tower with a musician playing in the foreground and then turn right and find two people conversing. If the participant moves toward one, that sound increases while the other diminishes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a fair amount of previously published research by academic labs around the world that shows VR, when administered properly, can help reduce anxiety, improve mood and reduce pain,\u201d said Jeremy Bailenson, the Stanford lab\u2019s founding director. \u201cThis particular study is focused on how using VR might reduce the residents\u2019 feelings of isolation from the outside world \u2014 all the more important after the isolation we all faced during the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

During Tuesday\u2019s demonstration at the suburban Fort Lauderdale community, Colli, Anne Selby, 77; Mark Levey, 64; and Hugh Root, 92, moved their heads from left to right and up and down as they got individual tours of the space station.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really felt like you were traveling \u2014 and not alone either. In some of the video, there are people,\u201d said Levey, a former federal government worker.<\/p>\n

\"Resident
Stanford\u2019s Virtual Human Interaction Lab has been working with John Knox\u2019s 1,200 residents, who will have ready access to the equipment under the supervision of staff members.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Selby, an artist, said that she felt a bit nauseated as she moved through the space station because it was so realistic, but that she was able to cope by taking deep breaths.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of my age, I was right in the middle of it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Root, a retired insurance salesman, was blunt: \u201cIt blows my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Brickler, CEO of MyndVR, the Dallas company that provided the equipment, said volunteers will be screened to assure they are mentally suitable for using virtual reality and each attendant has an abort button if the person becomes overwhelmed by the experience. John Knox\u2019s residents include people and couples who live alone, in assisted living and with full-time nursing.<\/p>\n

\"Gloria
Gloria Gantes adjusts the goggles of resident, Mark Levey. <\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAs we age, we feel there is a disconnect sometimes that can happ<\/a>en when there is a lack of mobility,\u201d Brickler said. \u201cWe can\u2019t travel as much as we want, we can\u2019t connect with nature as much as we want, can\u2019t have connections with animals. All sorts of connections get lost and our four walls start shrinking in. What we have tried to do is create a platform where we can bring the world back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monica McAfee, John Knox\u2019s chief marketing and innovation officer, said the community\u2019s administrators believe VR helps residents \u2014 it\u2019s been used on a limited basis there for three years \u2014 but Stanford\u2019s study \u201cwill provide the empirical data.\u201d For example, she said, they want to know if VR can help residents with dementia who suffer from \u201csundowning\u201d \u2014 severe mood downswings that begin at dusk.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this a way to redirect them to enjoy something?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Northern Ohio University associate philosophy professor Erica Neely, who studies the ethics of technology, said it\u2019s important that Stanford is getting fully informed consent, screening participants and making sure they aren\u2019t using VR alone, especially at first. She is not involved in the study.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely don\u2019t want anyone to get stuck in the experience if they become distressed and can\u2019t figure out how to turn it off,\u201d she said. \u201cThe fact that there is a companion\/caretaker who can go with (the participant) is utter genius. \u2026 The idea of \u2018Well, we don\u2019t necessarily have people with diminished capacities wandering around by themselves through physical space \u2014 maybe we can do the same for virtual space\u2019 was a really good one.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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“#Can virtual reality help seniors? Study hopes to find out” POMPANO BEACH, Fla.\u2014 Terry Colli and three other residents of the John Knox Village senior community got a trip via computer to the International Space Station in the kickoff to a Stanford University study on whether virtual reality can improve the emotional well-being of older…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":265162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/seniors-virtual-reality-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[108053,73248,6642,71302,67907,70365,4965,17813],"class_list":["post-265161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-6-2-21","tag-elderly-care","tag-florida","tag-international-space-station","tag-science","tag-senior-citizens","tag-technology","tag-virtual-reality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}