Rosa Maria Esteves Moreira da Costa

The acceptance of virtual reality devices for cognitive rehabilitation: a report of positive results with schizophrenia

This study presents a process of virtual environment development supported by a cognitive model that is specific to cognitive deficits of diverse disorders or traumatic brain injury, and evaluates the acceptance of computer devices by a group of schizophrenic patients. The subjects that participated in this experiment accepted to work with computers and immersive glasses and demonstrated a high level of interest in the proposed tasks. No problems of illness have been observed. This experiment indicated that further research projects must be carried out to verify the value of virtual reality technology for cognitive rehabilitation of psychiatric patients. The results of the current study represent a small but necessary step in the realization of that potential.

Modeling an Educational Multi-Agent System in MaSE

The growing complexity of modern systems is demanding more and more time from software designers and developers. The challenge of constructing complex systems is complicated by the geographic distribution of the systems. An agent oriented paradigm reinforces the software flexibility and the agents social possibilities, taking space as a solution in software engineering. The idea of independent and autonomous entities capable of relating in the search of the system goals originated the multi-agent systems, where at least two agents are capable of interaction. Such systems possess great applicability in different knowledge areas, as for example, in Education. This work defines an Education Multi-Agent System, which is a learning education environment with multi-agents. The system aims at helping the teaching process on a specific topic. The system agents were modeled using the MaSE (Multi-Agent System Engineering) method.

Employing Multi-agents in 3-D Game for Cognitive Stimulation

Multi-agents are increasingly gaining the attention of researchers and developers of virtual games. The agents can control the user performance, adapting the interface and automatically changing the difficulty level of tasks. The objective of this paper is to describe the development of a game that combines the technologies of Virtual Reality and Multi-Agent. This system aims at improving the cognitive functions in patients with neuropsychiatric disorders. The integration of different technologies, the development methodology and the test procedures are described throughout the paper.

The virtual reality challenges in the health care area: a panoramic view

This paper presents a general view of computational applications in the health area, highlighting the use of Virtual Reality technology resources in Brazil and other countries. From this initial survey, suggestions for improvements in this area were presented along with the relevant research needed to make these improvements and overcome the current obstacles.

Developing an Educational Medical Game Using AgilePASSI Multi-agent Methodology

Games applied to health education have emerged as a motivational improvement in learning and clinical performance of students from the health care area. Currently, there are several agent oriented methodologies that support the multi-agent systems development. However none are specific to the domain of medical and health education. Agent-oriented development of medical educational games must have special features such working with a multidisciplinary team, have a high degree of user involvement and allow a mutuality of game requirements. Within this context, this paper presents the development of MEDEDUC, an educational systems technology applying agile development through the AGILE-PASSI methodology. This game, which has five levels of difficulty, allows the student to study pulmonology answering questions that explore multimedia presentations. The results of this study stressed the advantages of the agile development methodology game that combines medical theory and multi-agent.

The UFRJ-UERJ Group: Interdisciplinary Virtual Reality Experiments in Neuropsychiatry

This paper describes the research lines of an interdisciplinary group composed by two government universities in Rio de Janeiro. The first research line, a Virtual Environment for testing the acceptance of Virtual Reality equipment by schizophrenia patients, has stimulated a growing interest in this area in the country and abroad. The second research line, in progress now, develops a virtual environment to improve the learning abilities of children with Attention-Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Another study is related to the use of Virtual Reality in the cognitive treatment of common city phobias, beginning with the reproduction of some tunnels of our city to treatment of claustrophobic patients. The last of the research lines in progress in this group develops a virtual square for stimulating autistic patients.

Integrating multi-agents in a 3D serious game aimed at cognitive stimulation

Therapies for cognitive stimulation must be developed when some of the cognitive functions are not working properly. In many applications there is a strong dependence on therapists intervention to control the patients navigation in the environment and to change the difficulty level of a task. In general, these interventions, cause distractions, reducing the level of user immersion in the activities. As an alternative, the inclusion of intelligent agents can help to alleviate this problem by reducing the need of therapist involvement. This paper presents a serious game that combines the technologies of Virtual Reality and Multi-Agent Systems designed to improve the cognitive functions in patients with neuropsychiatric disorders. The integration of different technologies and the modelling methodology are described and open new software development perspectives for 3D environments construction.

ATDV: an image transforming system

Some macular pathology produces degeneration, which causes a perception loss in specific areas of the visual field. In this case, people visualize “blind spots” that hide part of the images captured by the impaired eye. The goal of this paper is to present an image distortion system that explores the Virtual Reality technology potential. To implement it we developed a system that is able to obtain the data generated by the visual field exam, and decode it. A camera captured the real images and the Convex Hull algorithm and Isoperimetric Mapping were used to identify the spots limits generating a divergent distortion in the images situated inside of the blind spot. The modified images can be visualized in a Virtual Reality head mounted display with eye tracking. This system offers opportunities to people with this visual problem to get a general perception of the covered area, reducing the visual loss.

ARVET AND SAPTEPT: A Virtual Environment and a System Supported by Fuzzy Logic in Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for PTSD Patients

This paper describes two systems that explore Virtual Reality technology and Fuzzy Logic to support and to control the assessment of people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder during the Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy.

Exploring intelligent agents in three-dimensional games for cognitive stimulation

Abstract Despite much research effort addressing the development of environments for virtual rehabilitation processes, few of them consider a modeling step before the system implementation. Our previous experience in developing virtual environments for stimulating cognitive functions stresses the necessity of adopting some software engineering practices. System modeling opens new possibilities to extend or integrate the system with other applications. The objective of this paper is to introduce some technical aspects related to modeling and implementing a multi-agent game for training memory and attention. We explore the integration of multi-agent model methodologies and present initial results of an experiment made with two specific languages for building three-dimensional virtual environments.