Diane Gromala

A rapid evidence assessment of immersive virtual reality as an adjunct therapy in acute pain management in clinical practice.

Objectives:Immersive virtual reality (IVR) therapy has been explored as an adjunct therapy for the management of acute pain among children and adults for several conditions. Therapeutic approaches have traditionally involved medication and physiotherapy but such approaches are limited over time by their cost and side effects. This review seeks to critically evaluate the evidence for and against IVR as an adjunctive therapy for acute clinical pain applications. Methods:A rapid evidence assessment (REA) strategy was used. CINAHL, Medline, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore Digital Library, and the Cochrane Library databases were screened in from December 2012 to March 2013 to identify studies exploring IVR therapies as an intervention to assist in the management of pain. Main outcome measures were for acute pain and functional impairment. Results:Seventeen research studies were included in total including 5 RCTs, 6 randomized crossover studies, 2 case series studies, and 4 single-patient case studies. This included a total of 337 patients. Of these studies only 4 had a low risk of bias. There was strong overall evidence for immediate and short-term pain reduction, whereas moderate evidence was found for short-term effects on physical function. Little evidence exists for longer-term benefits. IVR was not associated with any serious adverse events. Discussion:This review found moderate evidence for the reduction of pain and functional impairment after IVR in patients with acute pain. Further high-quality studies are required for the conclusive judgment of its effectiveness in acute pain, to establish potential benefits for chronic pain, and for safety.

Living with pain, staying in touch: exploring the communication needs of older adults with chronic pain

For older adults with chronic pain, maintaining social ties can be difficult. Both chronic pain and social isolation compound each other and are associated with poor health outcomes. Our research explores how technology can be used to facilitate communication and support for older adults with chronic pain. We report on preliminary results of field research with 20 participants and deployment of a digital communicating picture frame prototype. We found that chronic pain introduces unique barriers to synchronous contact and that our prototype seemed to fit the needs of these individuals by supporting meaningful asynchronous communication with the possibility for adjustable reciprocity.

Immersion in Cardboard VR Compared to a Traditional Head-Mounted Display

This paper describes a study that aims at finding the difference in levels of immersion between a Cardboard VR and a traditional Head-mounted Display (HMD)—the Oculus Rift DK2. Three groups of participants—the experimental group for Cardboard VR, and two control groups for Oculus Rift and a Desktop display—played Cryoblast in the same experimental setups for this study. Jennett et al.’s Immersive Experience Questionnaire was used to measure immersion for all the groups. The results indicate that the Cardboard VR, despite its simplicity and small screen size, is capable of providing an acceptable level of immersion compared to Oculus Rift’s larger screen size. Since ‘immersion’ plays an important role in VR pain distraction, knowing the level of immersion for Cardboard VR may help determine its potential as an accessible VR device for chronic pain self-management.

The Meatbook: tangible and visceral interaction

The Meatbook, an interactive art installation, explores the use of a novel tangible interface to provoke a visceral response in the viewer. The Meatbook presents the symbiosis of the mechanical and the organic as it simultaneously juxtaposes the conflicting materiality of these media. Sensors, motors and other mechanics are used to animate the meat, generating movements specifically designed to produce visceral, even cathartic responses from the user. By simultaneously generating revulsion and fascination, the user undergoes an embodied experience in which the alien and the familiar come together in the form of a book.

A Field Study: Evaluating Gamification Approaches for Promoting Physical Activity with Motivational Models of Behavior Changes

Wearable trackers and mobile applications can facilitate self-reflection of doing physical activity. The gamification process incorporates game design elements with persuasive systems in order to encourage more physical activity. However, few gamification strategies have been rigorously evaluated; these investigations showed that using the same gamification mechanism to promote physical activity could have contradictory effects. Therefore, I developed FitPet, a virtual pet-keeping mobile game for encouraging activity. I evaluated its effectiveness, and compared it with the goal-setting and social community strategies in a six-week field study. The findings revealed social interaction were the most effective intervention. Contrary to prior research, goal-setting was not perceived as an effective way to provide motivation compared to social interaction overall. Although FitPet was not able to promote significantly higher activity, participants showed great interests in this approach and provided design insights for future research: implementing social components and more challenging gameplay.

Beyond Data: Abstract Motionscapes as Affective Visualization

Motionscapes—the compositions of visual forms in motion—have often been used for the evocation of affects in recent interactive artifacts and environments. While the motionscape aesthetic can be informed by art theory and history, previous empirical work investigating the affective affordances of motionscapes brings new perspectives to the design language of motionscapes. The authors argue that motionscapes that are commonly employed in artistic contexts can be appropriated for the design space of human-computer interaction (HCI) as a rich modality for affective visualization. The authors propose an initial set of principles and guidelines for evoking affect through motionscapes in interactive and immersive environments.

Making space for time in time-lapse photography

This paper presents a visualization technique that transforms regular time-lapse footage into composite images, accentuating periodic and long-term events. Traditional time-lapse techniques convey only an accelerated view of the local passage of time, making them most appropriate for studying events coincident in time. Our approach provides a controlled means of trading in the spatial resolution of the output image to gain temporal expressiveness. The input material is sampled – not necessarily linearly – and combined to produce summary visualization of events. Long-term trends, as well as periodic events, become apparent using this technique, making it an effective aid for educational settings (e.g., demonstrating how seasonal phenomena unfold), summarization tasks, and browsing and searching large stores of time-lapse video. We demonstrate this visualization technique on a data set captured over a four month period.

The Design of an Immersive Mobile Virtual Reality Serious Game in Cardboard Head-Mounted Display for Pain Management

Researchers have proved immersive Virtual Reality (VR) to be an effective method and non-pharmacological analgesic for distracting acute pain and chronic pain, and for reducing anxiety levels. VR has been developed and deployed in pain management contexts in medical settings for dental and medical procedures, as well to manage cancer and burn pain. Often, what patients are distracted by can typically be described as immersive VR games. Although this is promising, and although the cost of VR has dramatically fallen in the past few years, most VR systems are still comparatively expensive in terms of accessibility for patients in their everyday contexts, such as at home or at work. For most patients — especially chronic pain patients — it is important that pain-related VR is accessible when it is needed, or “just” needed. However, the so-called Cardboard VR is affordable enough for everyday use. It provides a low-cost stereoscopic display that patients attached to smartphones. Therefore, a mobile VR game has been designed, developed and tested for this purpose. This paper describes the game design and game mechanics of Cryoblast, a mobile VR game for self-managing pain. We introduce the design of the gameplay and pain metaphors, and believe it will inspire more mobile VR games for healthcare.

Virtual Reality and Mobius Floe: Cognitive Distraction as Non-Pharmacological Analgesic for Pain Management

This paper outlines the intentions and current design behind the production of Mobius Floe, an immersive virtual reality game catered to acute and chronic pain patients. Researchers have shown that immersive virtual reality (VR) can serve as a non-pharmacological analgesic by inducing cognitive distraction in acute pain patients [Hoffman 2000]. Mobius Floe experiments with virtual reality as well as auditory immersion, a more experimental approach to cognitive distraction for pain relief; the results will be tested by acute as well as chronic pain patients to determine if chronic sufferers can benefit from similar VR practices as their acute counterparts. Mobius Floe’s game design is informed by contemporary game design theory and cognitive psychology in order to improve its distractive properties.

Body Image and Body Schema: Interaction Design for and through Embodied Cognition

The interdisciplinary literature on body image/body schema (BIBS), which is within the larger realm of embodied cognition, can provide HCI practitioners and theorists new ideas of and approaches to human perception and experience. In very brief terms, body image consists of perceptions, attitudes and beliefs pertaining to one’s own body, whereas body schema is a system of sensory-motor capabilities that function, usually without awareness or the necessity of perceptual monitoring. The dynamic relationality and plasticity of BIBS open up different avenues for interaction design. An overview of six main ideas deriving from BIBS literature are enumerated, followed by a discussion of projects designed for chronic pain patients that demonstrate how these ideas can be adopted in interaction design processes as a perspective or attitude rather than a mere application of traditional methods. Through bridging HCI and BIBS theories and research, we can develop a holistic framework in which we design for and through embodied cognition.