Research Roundup (#29)
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Welcome...
Welcome to the twenty-ninth-ever Research Roundup! A fortnightly catch-up on the latest developments in the field of XR research.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks, so let's not hang around.
The Fortnight in 3 (Sentences)
New research on technical innovations has explored whether machine learning and eye tracking could detect cognitive load across different VR locomotion techniques, whether electrical vestibular stimulation could boost spatial memory performance, and how real-time brain monitoring might enhance VR rehabilitation for MS patients.
More studies on health and wellbeing have examined whether altered visual feedback could reduce chronic lower back pain, whether VR experiences could improve elderly care residents' daily lives, and what effects extended VR might have on children's health and functioning.
And finally, research exploring empathy asked whether VR perspective-taking enhanced empathetic communication skills, whether VR experiences could boost empathy and altruistic behaviour through cognitive absorption, and whether virtual embodiment of disease symptoms promoted healthier behaviours as a form of empathy with the future self.
The Fortnight in 300 (words)
Last week I heard someone ask what the XR innovation was that no one was talking about. I didn't get a chance to answer but it is clearly vestibular stimulation! After suggestions back in February that a stimulation device could reduce cybersickness, we have the idea that noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation could also improve spatial memory. Researchers at the University of California applied weak randomly fluctuating currents behind the ears of their participants whilst they navigated in virtual reality. Those receiving the stimulation were better able to navigate to specific locations within the virtual world than those that didn’t. Whilst small scale, requiring replication etc. etc. it nevertheless adds to the potential benefits of such a technique. Stimulating the vestibular system may not have the same appeal as AI avatars, or being able to (finally) smell in VR, but it looks like it might have some legs.
It's not unusual to read about VR experiences improving the lives of elderly care residents, and it's one of those use cases that seems particularly worthwhile. It is fairly intuitive that virtual experiences which take residents outside the walls of their near-permanent homes is going to have some positive impacts on general health and wellbeing. However, hidden away in the most recent paper in this area was something of a gem. Not only did they document the expected changes to emotional wellbeing and physical activity, they also measured the residents social interactions immediately afterwards. Rather wonderfully, 83.6% of previously socially inactive residents were now engaging in conversations, initiated by the facilitators, recalling past experiences and general storytelling. The structure of the VR sessions had reconnected them with the real people around them, and that feels like a use case worth celebrating!
And finally, the idea of embodying someone else to changes attitudes and behaviours is not something new either. But what about embodying your future self? This time with the disease you are being warned to avoid by your doctor. Researchers in Taiwan looked at this with specific reference to macular degeneration. The participants were university students who experienced what a virtual environment would look like with the disease, on either a PC or in a headset. The researchers found that those who experienced it in VR were not only more risk aware but they also adopted more healthy behaviours by the two week follow-up. Not unlike Scrooge's encounter with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, perhaps VR can lead us all to question whether “..I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life!”.