Exploring Human Perception Through Virtual Reality: The Phantom Touch Illusion

Virtual reality (VR) is proving to be more than just a tool for gaming and entertainment; it’s becoming a valuable asset in scientific research and medicine. Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, have delved into human perception using VR and uncovered a fascinating phenomenon they describe as a “phantom touch illusion.” Led by Dr. Artur Pilacinski and Professor Christian Klaes from the Department of Neurotechnology, the study sheds light on the intricacies of how our brains interpret virtual interactions with our bodies.

Published in the journal Scientific Reports in September 2023, the study involved subjects interacting with their own bodies using virtual objects in VR scenarios. Surprisingly, the participants reported experiencing a tingling sensation at the exact spot where the virtual object made contact, despite there being no physical interaction. Pilacinski explains, “People in virtual reality sometimes have the feeling that they are touching things, although they are actually only encountering virtual objects.”

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Navigating the Boundaries: AR and VR Contact Lenses Reshape Reality

In the ever-evolving landscape of technology, the line dividing reality from virtuality is progressively blurring. The emergence of augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) contact lenses serves as a testament to this convergence, ushering in a potential revolution that promises to reshape our daily existence in ways previously unimaginable.

These cutting-edge AR and VR contact lenses stand at the forefront of wearable technology, designed to overlay digital information onto our physical world or submerge us completely within virtual realms. Unlike conventional VR headsets, these lenses offer an immersive experience that seamlessly integrates real and digital elements, enabling users to interact with both realms concurrently.

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Medical students get ready to diagnose and treat patients with realistic 3D virtual simulation

Wolters Kluwer and Body Interact collaborate to build clinical reasoning skills and confidence of medical and PA students with realistic virtual patient simulations, in a safe-to-fail environment.

Wolters Kluwer, Health, a leading global provider of information and point of care solutions for the healthcare industry, has announced a new collaboration with Take the Wind, the company behind the leading digital simulation platform Body Interact, to help expand virtual training tools and resources for medical and physician assistant students. The offering allows students to interact with virtual patients in life-like scenarios, where they are encouraged to assess, order tests, and diagnose in a safe environment. 

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UCLan medical students to use VR technology in classroom

UCLan medical students using the new VR technology at the Burnley campus

Medical students will be using virtual reality headsets to diagnose heart attacks and treat sepsis from the comfort of the classroom.

The University of Central Lancashire will be introducing the technology to Preston, Burnley and Westlakes to allow medical students to diagnose heart attacks, treat sepsis and examine the respiratory system following the development of technology by UK-based Oxford Medical Simulation (OMS).

It allows students studying within UCLan’s School of Medicine to practise treating acutely unwell patients in a simulated, virtual environment without risking patients’ lives.

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NVIDIA Researchers Demonstrate Ultra-thin Holographic VR Glasses That Could Reach 120° Field-of-view

By Ben Lang

A team of researchers from NVIDIA Research and Stanford published a new paper demonstrating a pair of thin holographic VR glasses. The displays can show true holographic content, solving for the vergence-accommodation issue. Though the research prototypes demonstrating the principles were much smaller in field-of-view, the researchers claim it would be straightforward to achieve a 120° diagonal field-of-view.

Published ahead of this year’s upcoming SIGGRAPH 2022 conference, a team of researchers from NVIDIA Research and Stanford demonstrated a near-eye VR display that can be used to display flat images or holograms in a compact form-factor. The paper also explores the interconnected variables in the system that impact key display factors like field-of-view, eye-box, and eye-relief. Further, the researchers explore different algorithms for optimally rendering the image for the best visual quality.

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Osso VR nets $66 million for surgical training

San Francisco’s Osso VR collected $66 million in Series C funding led by Oak HC/FT, the parties tell Axios exclusively. 

Why it matters: Surgical training hasn’t evolved in 30-plus years, but Osso VR is looking to change that by empowering health care professionals with virtual reality. 

Training and assessing surgeons more efficiently can drive up the adoption of modern and hard-to-learn medtech, and democratize surgical education. 

“The innovation from the medical device industry is providing us an incredible opportunity to treat patients much more consistently and with optimized outcomes,” said Justin Barad, Osso’s co-founder and a practicing pediatric orthopedic surgeon. 

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Study suggests VR games may help children better cope with painful medical procedures

by Johns Hopkins University

A recent study by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers suggests that gameplaying using virtual reality (VR) headsets may provide an engaging and practical distraction therapy for children undergoing painful medical procedures, such as venipunctures. Credit: Public domain, Jessica Lewis

Dealing with a painful medical procedure is difficult for anyone, but often more so if the patient is a child. For example, a venipuncture—the penetrating of a vein for a procedure such as drawing blood or inserting an intravenous tube—may make a young patient anxious or uneasy. Many hospitals, including Johns Hopkins Children’s Center (JHCC), have a dedicated child life services team to help children cope with these procedures, while others depend on more traditional methods of diversions such as toys or books. Now, a recent study by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers suggests that gameplaying using virtual reality (VR) headsets—if the games are appropriate and carefully chosen for pediatric clinical situations—may be an engaging and practical addition to the list of distraction therapy options.

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The future of remote work is a lot like living in a video game

BY JOSEPH VOLPE

I didn’t know the closest I’d get to bonding with my coworkers in 2020 would be by strapping a screen to my face. 

I never got to meet the bulk of them — you know, my East Coast work “family” — before lockdown life locked me into the Bay Area. Sure, there was the occasional weekly video chat. But that was really the extent of it. 

“We’ll fly you out for a visit in the New Year,” management told me. That was the plan and I was fine with that. 

Thing is, that New Year — the 2020 that will go down in infamy — brought with it a very unwelcome surprise. (Do I even need to spell it out?) 

Eventually, we all adjusted to our new socially distanced world. Zoom soon became a buzzword even grandmothers knew. Webcams were often out of stock online.  Life became one unending series of scheduled screen time.

Then the novelty wore off, the WFH fatigue set in, the cold winter months approached, and many wondered how we could continue on living and working this way. 

And when would it end?

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Interactive virtual reality emerges as a new tool for drug design against COVID-19

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Interactive virtual reality emerges as a new tool for drug design against COVID-19

Bristol scientists have demonstrated a new virtual reality [VR] technique which should help in developing drugs against the SARS-CoV-2 virus—and enable researchers to share models and collaborate in new ways. The innovative tool, created by University of Bristol researchers, and published in the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, will help scientists around the world identify anti-viral drug leads more rapidly.

A SARS-CoV-2 enzyme known as the main protease (Mpro) is a promising target in the search for new anti-viral treatments. Molecules that stop the main protease from working—called enzyme inhibitors—stop the virus reproducing, and so could be effective drugs. Researchers across the world are working to find such molecules. A key predictor of a drug’s effectiveness is how tightly it binds to its target; knowing how a drug fits into the protein helps researchers design changes to its structure to make it bind more tightly.

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Google used photogrammetry to create a detailed VR tour of Versailles

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It’s the largest photogrammetry capture ever done on the site.

Versailles palace is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world, but fighting those crowds in person can be frustrating. Now, Google and the Château de Versailles have teamed up to take VR users on a private tour of Louis XIV’s royal residence. It’s the largest photogrammetry project ever done at the castle, with 21 rooms and 387,500 square feet of internal surfaces captured. HTC Vive and Oculus Rift users can handle and inspect over 100 sculptures, paintings and other works of art and see them with incredible close-up detail.

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A new immersive classroom uses AI and VR to teach Mandarin Chinese

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Students will learn the language by ordering food or haggling with street vendors on a virtual Beijing street.

Often the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in an environment where people speak it. The constant exposure, along with the pressure to communicate, helps you swiftly pick up and practice new vocabulary. But not everyone gets the opportunity to live or study abroad.

In a new collaboration with IBM Research, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), a university based in Troy, New York, now offers its students studying Chinese another option: a 360-degree virtual environment that teleports them to the busy streets of Beijing or a crowded Chinese restaurant. Students get to haggle with street vendors or order food, and the environment is equipped with different AI capabilities to respond to them in real time. While the classroom is largely experimental, it is being used for the first time in a six-week, for-credit course at the university this summer.

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Ford designers are dropping their pencils and reaching for VR goggles instead

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Ford Gravity Sketch

Ford outlined how it’s increasingly using virtual reality (VR) technology to eliminate the distance between its design studios in North America, in Asia, and in Europe. The Co-Creation tool the firm created jointly with Gravity Sketch lets engineers work on the same project even if they’re located thousands of miles apart. VR is part of the company’s effort to streamline its design and development processes, and it illustrates an ongoing trend in the automotive industry.

Instead of drawing on a piece of paper, or sketching using CAD software, Ford designers are beginning to use VR headsets and controllers to bring their ideas to life. Significantly, the co-creation tool lets Ford skip the 2D stage of design when it wants to save time, and go straight to 3D. Designers can use the technology to transfer virtual ideas. For example, if a designer prefers an upcoming car (like the born-again Bronco) with a more upright grille, he or she can send a VR-wearing colleague a file containing a sample design.

 

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