Difference between revisions of "User:Cjpaping"

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[[Image:NielsterHeijden.jpg|thumb]]
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[[Image:Christianpaping.jpg|thumb]]
 
Niels ter Heijden
 
Niels ter Heijden
  
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== Project ==
 
== Project ==
Project: [[Designing a Multiple patient VRET system|Social Phobia]]
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Project: [[Designing a Multiple patient VRET system|Designing a Multiple patient VRET system]]
  
 
Title: Virtual conversation
 
Title: Virtual conversation
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=== Research Goals ===
 
=== Research Goals ===
The research area of social phobia treatments using VR is still fairly new and unexplored. Research did show that VR can be helpful and effective for treatment even with fairly basic virtual environments and avatars. But the real social aspect, communicating with others, is still for the most part left aside because of technical difficulties and the amount of active involvement needed from the therapist to operate the system. The goal therefore is to automate the social aspect, communicating with the patient, in a way that frees up time for the therapist but still gives him “absolute” control over the conversation. Communication is done on multiple levels between humans but the verbal component is one of the most conscious of the channels used and therefore will be the initial focus. This gives three main problem areas where solutions need to be found firstly listening and converting spoken text into computer comprehensible code. After this the avatar needs to think up a response that is suitable to the situation either by comprehending the sentence spoken by the patient or either by trickery with preprogrammed responses. And finally the avatar needs to respond to the patient in a way that feels natural to humans and therefore does not break the feeling of presence.
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TU Delft is working on virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET). This is a project using head mounted displays (HMD) to treat patients for various phobias like acrophobia, claustrophobia and agoraphobia
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[1]. In its current configuration, it is possible for the therapist to treat one patient at the time [2]. This literature survey explores the possibility of one therapist treating two or more patients simultaneously with the VRET.
How to convert speech to computer comprehensible code is being actively research by many people. Many methods and techniques exist and no one at this point in time has found the holy grail. With the holy grail being a program that can in any circumstance without training convert speech to text mostly flawlessly. This would mean that the automated avatar would fail from the start to relieve this problem a bit some techniques need to be used to improve the recognition this could be done for example by training the system or limiting the number of words or sentences that needs to be recognized. For the solution of this problem a already existing and trained package will be used that means workarounds for the problems and limitations this package has needs to be found and implemented.
 
  
The main focus of the project will be on the comprehending and selecting the appropriate response for the patients input to the system. Comparing different techniques to see which one gives the best or most feeling of presence to the patient but also gives the therapist the means to influence the anxiety level created. The chosen method also needs to be able to work with and disguise the weak points of the other part of the system such as the speech recognition and speech synthesis. The total package should deliver a social interacting virtual human that response realistic to the patient and creates a high feeling of presence in the virtual environment and can be used for
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There are numerous reasons why exploring a multiple patient setup could be useful. First of all therapies are expensive and it could be possible that one therapist treating multiple patients in parallel could be a way to reduce the cost of the treatments. It could also be possible that fewer therapists can assist more patients, thus increasing the efficiency and accessibility of the treatments.
  
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There are many different elements that are involved with the design of a multiple patient setup. Questions range from very practical, like where the patients will be located, does the patient need help putting the HMD on, to theoretical and psychological problems. For example, what are good ways for the therapist to cope with multiple patients at the same time and what factors influence the quality of this type of therapy.
  
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Working with multiple patients simultaneously can eventually mean that the therapists might need assistance focusing their attention between patients. This could be done by implementing a computer system, between the patient and therapist, that continuously monitors the patients and warns the therapist if a patient needs attention. There is even the option of extending this system with modules that can take over specific tasks from the therapist if necessary.
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=== Research Goals ===
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The goal of this literary survey is to get a fundamental understanding of the principles involved when creating a multiple patient VRET system. This paper focuses on two facets that are necessary for creating such a system. Firstly the exploration of the excising VRET system and expanding it to a simple multiple patient setup. This also includes looking at the communication between the therapist and patient and understanding how this can change in a multiple patient setup.
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Secondly this survey will look at the workload of the therapist and explore how the therapist could cope with two or more patients at the same time. We need to look at their tasks and their user-interface. Assuming the therapist can only assist one patient at the time, there needs to be software that warns the therapist if another patient might need immediate attention.
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There could be need for a more complex system; where the computer has the option to take over tasks from the therapist. We need to explore how a computer could take over these tasks and assist the patients autonomously. It could be possible that there is need for additional software which determines when and what task will be taken over from the therapist (Adaptive automation).
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The goal of this literary survey is to understand witch elements are necessary for a treating two or more patients with virtual reality. It is key to get a basic understanding how these elements should work and interact with each other.
  
  

Revision as of 15:12, 9 April 2009

Niels ter Heijden

Human-Computer Interaction

E-mail: slein13@gmail.com

Project

Project: Designing a Multiple patient VRET system

Title: Virtual conversation

Enable ling conversation between a virtual human and a social phobia patient

Research Goals

TU Delft is working on virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET). This is a project using head mounted displays (HMD) to treat patients for various phobias like acrophobia, claustrophobia and agoraphobia [1]. In its current configuration, it is possible for the therapist to treat one patient at the time [2]. This literature survey explores the possibility of one therapist treating two or more patients simultaneously with the VRET.

There are numerous reasons why exploring a multiple patient setup could be useful. First of all therapies are expensive and it could be possible that one therapist treating multiple patients in parallel could be a way to reduce the cost of the treatments. It could also be possible that fewer therapists can assist more patients, thus increasing the efficiency and accessibility of the treatments.

There are many different elements that are involved with the design of a multiple patient setup. Questions range from very practical, like where the patients will be located, does the patient need help putting the HMD on, to theoretical and psychological problems. For example, what are good ways for the therapist to cope with multiple patients at the same time and what factors influence the quality of this type of therapy.

Working with multiple patients simultaneously can eventually mean that the therapists might need assistance focusing their attention between patients. This could be done by implementing a computer system, between the patient and therapist, that continuously monitors the patients and warns the therapist if a patient needs attention. There is even the option of extending this system with modules that can take over specific tasks from the therapist if necessary.


Research Goals

The goal of this literary survey is to get a fundamental understanding of the principles involved when creating a multiple patient VRET system. This paper focuses on two facets that are necessary for creating such a system. Firstly the exploration of the excising VRET system and expanding it to a simple multiple patient setup. This also includes looking at the communication between the therapist and patient and understanding how this can change in a multiple patient setup.

Secondly this survey will look at the workload of the therapist and explore how the therapist could cope with two or more patients at the same time. We need to look at their tasks and their user-interface. Assuming the therapist can only assist one patient at the time, there needs to be software that warns the therapist if another patient might need immediate attention.

There could be need for a more complex system; where the computer has the option to take over tasks from the therapist. We need to explore how a computer could take over these tasks and assist the patients autonomously. It could be possible that there is need for additional software which determines when and what task will be taken over from the therapist (Adaptive automation).

The goal of this literary survey is to understand witch elements are necessary for a treating two or more patients with virtual reality. It is key to get a basic understanding how these elements should work and interact with each other.


Poject: Designing a Multiple patient VRET system


Part 1 A literature survey


Part 2 Building senario's

Part 2 A Test system