Виртуальная реальность как терапевтическая среда

[wayter]

Виртуальная реальность используется для психотерапевтической помощи солдатам, вернувшимся из Ирака.

Среда весьма реалистична и даже включает запахи.

What we do is put somebody in a virtual Iraq but at a level where initially there will be minimal anxiety," Rizzo said at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting.

"Say for example their trauma event was being blown up in a Humvee -- we might start them off just standing in the desert next to a Humvee.

"Gradually we would put them in the Humvee and have them start driving down a desert road. Eventually over the course of the therapy you introduce elements that increase the realism -- bombs going off, things blowing up.

"It's a gradual exposure to a realistic environment which you can't really do just through imagination."

Soldiers undergoing the treatment can be placed in a variety of situations -- either as the passenger, driver or gunner in an armored vehicle or as a soldier on a foot patrol walking through an Iraqi city.

"You could be walking down one street and a child will come up to greet you, you could be walking down another street and a car explodes," Rizzo said.

The virtual Iraq experience is designed to be completely immersive.

Fake aromas -- including gunpowder, burning smoke, diesel fuel, body odors, exotic spices and roast mutton -- are wafted under the patient's nose.

The boom of bombs is simulated by giant speakers placed under the patient's chair. "If you've ever stopped at a set of traffic lights and a kid has pulled up next to you playing rap music and you can feel your car shaking -- it's the same principle," Rizzo said.

The realism of the graphics has impressed patients, Rizzo said. "We've have had people ask us in certain situations 'Is that real or is that video?'," Rizzo said.

So far the 'Virtual Iraq' has been used in clinical trials at 10 locations across the United States, although only four soldiers have completed a course of the treatment.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070219/ts_alt_afp/usscienceitvirtual

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Мне эта тема интересна, и я писал о возможностях будущей искусственной реальности еще в доинтернетовскую эпоху:

http://www.sufism.ru/barzah/next04.htm (с параграфа 10.0)


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Не совсем по теме, но близко: виртуальная среда как обучающее пространство. Видеоигры улучшают навыки хирургов.

"Video games may be a practical teaching tool to help train surgeons," senior author Dr. James Rosser of Beth Israel said.

CHICAGO, Illinois (Reuters) -- Playing video games appears to help surgeons with skills that truly count: how well they operate using a precise technique, a study said Monday.

There was a strong correlation between video game skills and a surgeon's capabilities performing laparoscopic surgery in the study published in the February issue of Archives of Surgery.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/fun.games/02/19/surgery.games.reut/index.html