The Tulane University football program experienced an incredible turnaround season in 2022. One of the programs that contributed to the team’s success was a new, unconventional initiative to strengthen players’ mental game by practicing in virtual worlds using virtual reality…
Tag: Virtual Reality
Virtual reality game to objectively detect ADHD
A virtual reality game offers an objective assessment of attention deficit disorders and may lead to an improved therapeutic approach
Bringing the field to students with ‘Virtual Field Geology’
The Virtual Field Geology project has many goals: to make geology field experiences accessible to more people; to document geological field sites that may be at risk from erosion or development, to offer virtual “dry run” experiences and to allow scientific collaborators to do virtual visits to a field site together. While the pandemic brought new urgency to the project, its developers believe it’s part of a “new normal” for geology research and education.
IU researcher creates virtual reality experiences to aid substance use disorder recovery
Researchers are combining psychological principles with innovative virtual reality technology to create a new immersive therapy for people with substance use disorders.
Smelling in VR environment possible with new gaming technology
An odor machine, so-called olfactometer, makes it possible to smell in VR environments. First up is a “wine tasting game” where the user smells wine in a virtual wine cellar and gets points if the guess on aromas in each wine is correct.

Houston Methodist enters the metaverse with launch of new MITIEverse™ app
Exploring the heart from the inside out is now possible with a new app from Houston Methodist.
Researchers explore how people adapt to cybersickness from virtual reality
Initial results from an Iowa State study indicate cybersickness symptoms from virtual reality improve with just three 20-minute sessions over a week, but a higher percentage of women and people who are prone to motion sickness have a harder time adapting.

When in doubt never fear, Al is here
Partial-observation mazes in virtual reality have been used to find that they can decode from brain activity the subjects’ abilities to predict their positions and scenes within the maze, as well as the degree of confidence in their predictions. Brain activity is measured via functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, while subjects are engaged in a VR maze game. Despite having no knowledge of the final destination, subjects appear to be able to use their predictions and map memory to help estimate their positions in the maze and choose the right way to proceed.
JMIR Medical Education | Digital Teaching in Medical Education: Literature Review
These JMIR Medical Education authors used a bibliometric approach to unveil and evaluate the scientific literature on digital teaching research in medical education, demonstrating recurring research topics, productive authors, research organizations, countries, and journals.

Wake Forest University School of Medicine Collaborating with Physicians in Ecuador on Virtual Reality Radiology Project
Neuroradiologists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have begun a pilot study testing the use of virtual reality (VR) systems to remotely read MRIs and other medical images.
“The wonderful thing about this is that it’s a collaborative environment with people who can look at medical images at the same time, regardless of where they are in the world,” Burdette said. “We are able to interpret images in incredible detail while communicating with the referring clinicians who are seeing the same images in real time, which is just not possible in a traditional reading room in the hospital.”
Which companies could become Maestros of the Metaverse?
A new study by world leaders in patent data has revealed the companies that are poised to become the “Maestros of the Metaverse”, conducting the most innovations to underpin the 3D virtual reality space of the near future.
3D virtual reality models improve ‘trifecta’ outcomes of prostate cancer surgery
Providing surgeons with 3D virtual reality (VR) models for surgical planning can help to achieve the critical “trifecta” outcomes of prostate cancer surgery: controlling the cancer while maintaining patient’s sexual function and urinary continence, suggests a study in The Journal of Urology®, an Official Journal of the American Urological Association (AUA). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
VR-Integrated Rehab for Cancer Patients Shows Potential in Research Review
Oncology researchers using Virtual Reality (VR) in the treatment of cancer patients have published a review of the existing literature regarding the application of this technology for the rehabilitation of cancer survivors.

Link between recognizing our voice and feeling in control
New study on our connection to our voice contributes to better understanding of auditory hallucinations and could improve VR experiences.

Supernumerary Virtual Robotic Arms Can Feel Like Part of Our Body
Research teams at the University of Tokyo, Keio University and Toyohashi University of Technology in Japan have developed a virtual robotic limb system which can be operated by users’ feet in a virtual environment as extra, or supernumerary, limbs.
Virtual reality gives humans a turtle’s-eye view of wildlife
A virtual reality simulation designed by a University of Oregon professor could help spur people to environmental action. Participants in Project Shell don a virtual reality headset and take on the body of a loggerhead sea turtle, sporting flippers instead of arms. During a 15-minute immersive experience, they journey from a hatchling to an adult turtle, dodging hazards like ships and wayward fishing gear.
Training Virtually Can Reduce Psychosocial Stress and Anxiety
Previous research has described how virtual training produces acute cognitive and neural benefits. Building on those results, a new study suggests that a similar virtual training can also reduce psychosocial stress and anxiety.

Designers find better solutions with computer assistance, but sacrifice creative touch
A computer-guided approach to design can propose more solutions and balance out human inexperience and design fixation.
New class explores learning in the metaverse
Students and faculty members discover some of the possibilities for the future of education through the University of Miami’s first course conducted in virtual reality.

Over the lips, through the gums, look out gamers, here it comes — or so it seems
Lips are famously sensual but, together with the gums and tongue, they are also surprisingly sensitive, second only to the fingertips in nerve density.
Virtual Reality Could be the Answer to Worker Shortages at Poultry Plants
The Georgia Tech Research Institute’s (GTRI) Agricultural Technology Research Program (ATRP) is incorporating automation solutions, specifically virtual reality (VR), into poultry processing to boost efficiency and enhance worker safety.
Immersive VR: empowering kids to survive in fire, flood, and war
When you live in the driest State in the driest country in the world, bushfires are an unfortunate, and all-too-regular part of life. Learning how to survive such emergencies is important for all people, but especially for our youngest citizens
Community Health Pioneer McNeal Receives AACN Award
Gloria McNeal, of National University, will receive the 2022 AACN Pioneering Spirit Award in recognition of her efforts to bring healthcare directly to those most in need and introduce telehealth and remote monitoring to critical care.
The effects of embodying wildlife in virtual reality on conservation behaviors
AbstractEfforts to mitigate environmental threats are often inversely related to the magnitude of casualty, human or otherwise. This “compassion fade” can be explained, in part, by differential processing of large- versus small-scale threats: it is difficult to form empathic connections…
A Game Changer: Virtual Reality Reduces Pain and Anxiety in Children
For nearly two decades, Jeffrey I. Gold, PhD, an investigator at The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, has been investigating the use of virtual reality (VR) as a technique to help children undergoing painful medical procedures. His research shows that the technology can have powerful effects. VR works so well that Children’s Hospital Los Angeles now offers it routinely for blood draws.
Bringing the jury to the crime scene via a 3D headset
A new study published by the University of South Australia provides overwhelming evidence in favour of using virtual reality in the courtroom, effectively dropping jurors right in the middle of a car accident or murder scene.
Team awarded $2M NSF grant to teach virtual explorers about permafrost and Arctic climate change
The team, led by PI Deborah Huntzinger and co-PIs Michelle Mack and Victor Leshyk of Northern Arizona University, will create Polar Explorer, a tool that uses virtual reality to transport students to the Arctic.
Research News Tip Sheet: Story Ideas from Johns Hopkins Medicine
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Johns Hopkins Medicine Media Relations is focused on disseminating current, accurate and useful information to the public via the media. As part of that effort, we are distributing our “COVID-19 Tip Sheet: Story Ideas from Johns Hopkins” every other Wednesday.
Virtual Reality as Pain Relief: Reducing Dressing Change Pain in Pediatric Burn Patients
Prior studies have investigated alternative approaches to pain reduction in burn injury patients that focus on distraction, such as music, hypnosis, toys, and virtual reality (VR). In a study published today in JAMA Network Open, Henry Xiang, MD, MPH, PhD, MBA, and his research team reported the use of smartphone-based VR games during dressing changes in pediatric patients with burn injuries.
Health and Socializing: Why People Use Mixed-Reality Sports Tech
New technologies allow users to do things like race their real bikes against other real people in a virtual world, and a new study outlines what motivates people to use these online platforms. The findings offer insights for future iterations of these technologies – and how to market them.

Beyond Zoom: Virtual reality classrooms
Cristina Lopes, UCI Chancellor’s Professor of informatics, sits in a courtyard waiting as her students slowly trickle into class. In front of them is a series of large objects: the topic of today’s lecture. Lopes reaches out and touches a yellow cylinder floating in front of her, and the object is instantly replaced with a complex line of code.
Flinders Ranges virtual tourists to be ‘teleported’ into the deep past for World Heritage bid
Sir David Attenborough has named it one of his favourite places on Earth, and the world will soon see why via an immersive virtual tour of the iconic Flinders Ranges.

Virtual reality warps your sense of time
Grayson Mullen was playing a virtual reality game at a friend’s house when, suddenly, he noticed that something very strange was happening.

Building a mobile, virtual reality classroom
The J. Willard Marriott Library, in partnership with Teaching and Learning Technologies (TLT) and the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Utah, have designed and built the U’s first off-site virtual reality (VR) biology laboratory for student use.
Exercise caution after working out in virtual reality
Virtual ‘exergaming’ has become a popular way to exercise – especially among younger people – since the release of virtual reality (VR) fitness games on consoles such as Nintendo and Playstation.
But while VR is undoubtedly raising fitness games to a whole new level, researchers at the University of South Australia are cautioning players about the potential side effects of VR, particularly in the first hour after playing.
Immersive virtual reality boosts the effectiveness of spinal cord stimulation for chronic pain
For patients receiving spinal cord stimulation (SCS) for chronic pain, integration with an immersive virtual reality (VR) system – allowing patients to see as well as feel the effects of electrical stimulation on a virtual image of their own body – can enhance the pain-relieving effectiveness of SCS, reports a study in PAIN®, the official publication of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

Aged care residents experience a different kind of reality
Cutting-edge technology is normally associated with youth, but a group of aged care residents in Adelaide are learning how useful (and how much fun) virtual reality can be.

Delivering Sound to People Where They Want It for VR, AR
What if a commercial audio speaker could function like an autozoom projector does for light, and you could deliver the sound people want where they want it? Chinmay Rajguru, from the University of Sussex, will discuss his research team’s work creating a sound projector that can deliver spatial sound at a distance by forming a beam of audible sound at the 179th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Dec. 7-10.
Earphone tracks facial expressions, even with a face mask
Cornell University researchers have invented an earphone that can continuously track full facial expressions by observing the contour of the cheeks – and can then translate expressions into emojis or silent speech commands.
Hidden secrets written in stone:
It’s one of the best-known geological heritage sites around the world, filled with fossils and glacial secrets. Now, thanks to virtual reality technology, the ice-age past of Hallett Cove Conservation Park is revealed in a new, gamified VR experience – Beyond the Ice – and is launched this week as part of National Science Week.

NYC shoppers 4 times more likely to frequent stores adhering to social distance guidelines
New York City residents are four times more likely to choose a store where shoppers respect 6 feet of distancing than one where no one is social distancing, according to a Cornell University experiment using 3D simulation.
3D hand-sensing wristband signals future of wearable tech
In a potential breakthrough in wearable sensing technology, researchers from Cornell University and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have designed a wrist-mounted device that continuously tracks the entire human hand in 3D.

More than 3,000 neutrino scientists gather online for Neutrino 2020
A dash of virtual reality helps replicate the serendipitous interactions of an in-person conference when participants are scattered across the globe.

Springer named director of UA Little Rock Emerging Analytics Center
Dr. Jan P. Springer, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, has been named the new director of the George W. Donaghey Emerging Analytics Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.The Emerging Analytics Center (EAC) is a research center that is home to an energetic group of researchers, faculty, and students performing innovative research and development in technology, infrastructure, and applications for virtual and augmented realities, immersive visualization, interactive technologies, as well as cybersecurity and the Internet of Things.
$2.3 Million Grant Will Support Development of Virtual Operating Room Team Training
A new $2.3 million grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health will support a research effort led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to develop a virtual operating room team training.
Augmented reality helps teens tackle anxiety, head on
World first research that will test the ability of augmented reality to improve the delivery of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as a treatment for symptoms of childhood anxiety among kids with asthma.
Harness artificial intelligence and take control your health
Sedentary behaviours, poor sleep and questionable food choices are major contributors of chronic disease, including diabetes, anxiety, heart disease and many cancers. But what if we could prevent these through the power of smart technologies?

Georgia Tech Professor Uses Virtual Reality to Move Major Conference Online
For the first time in its 26-year history, the IEEE VR conference will meet in an all-virtual environment, a change prompted by the need to support social distancing recommendations related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Virtual Reality Shows Promise for Early Detection of MS Balance Problems
Researchers used a virtual reality system to trick subjects into thinking they were falling as they walked on a treadmill, finding clear differences in reactions between people with multiple sclerosis and people without. These differences were not evident without the “falling” illusion.

Physiotherapy could be done at home using Virtual Reality
Current Physiotherapy techniques require patients to complete exercises at home, which doesn’t include much guidance