Can Virtual Reality Benefit Seniors?

Nikki Attkisson | Last Updated : June 3, 2021

A California school and a Floridian elder home are collaborating to examine if the virtual world may benefit elderly human’s mental health. On Tuesday, Terry Colli with three fellow members of the John Knox Center elderly residence took a virtual reality journey to the Space Center as part of a Stanford College course to see if the virtual world might help the elderly’s mental health.

Can Virtual Reality Benefit Seniors?

The 4 might experience flying freely with pilots and receive a 360º view of the outpost while wearing 1-pound (470-gram) sound and video headphones. People can participate in various activities such as internet links to Paris, Venezia, Egypt, and other locations across the world; or join a live event.

Can Virtual Reality Benefit Seniors?

People can also participate in virtual tours to France, Italy, Cairo, and other location across the world, as well as participate in auto rallies, skydives, and hikes. The idea is to investigate if virtual reality may boost their happiness, enhance their connections with coworkers, and increase their technological receptivity.

The Californian institution will shortly include other elderly villages in the U.S. And internationally Virtual experience operates by synchronizing what a user hears with their actions. For instance, on a virtual reality journey to Paris, a user could move left seeing the Eiffel Tower and a pianist performing in the background, then straight to view two individuals speaking.

When the person gets closer to one of the sounds, that noise becomes louder while another becomes quieter. Colli, Anne Selby 77, Mark Levey 64, and Hugh Root 92, tilted their faces to right to left and upwards as they received personal views of the spaceship at Tuesday’s presentation in the suburb of Fort Lauderdale town.

Since the spacecraft was just so lifelike, Selby, a painter, claimed she got a little sick as she went it across but she had managed to deal by drawing long breathes. Participants would be evaluated to ensure they were psychologically capable of utilizing VR technology, so each guard will have an abandoned key if they get overpowered by the encounter, according to Chris Brickler, President of MyndVR, and the Dallas business that supplied the technology.

Individuals and pairs who stay independently, in aged care, or with entire nurse care are among John Knox’s inhabitants. The public’s managers think VR benefits patients, according to Monica McAfee, senior product technology director at John Knox.

It’s being utilized on a small scale somewhere for 3 years, but Stanford’s research “would offer the empirical evidence,” she added. Researchers would like to learn, for instance, if virtual reality might help residents with dementia who struggle from “sundowning,” or dramatic mood changes that start around sunset.

 Erica Neely, an assistant psychology lecturer at Northern Ohio College who researches the morality of tech, says this is critical that Stanford get explicit consent, screens individuals, and ensures that people are not utilizing VR individually initially. She is not a participant in the research.

“We don’t really desire someone to be locked in the encounter if they feel upset and ca didn’t work find out a way to shut that off,” she added. “The idea that a partner can accompany (the registrant) is brilliant”. “Yes, we wouldn’t absolutely have individuals with impaired abilities going about for themselves in actual space; perhaps we can do the similar for the online world was a great concept”.


Nikki Attkisson

With over 15 years as a practicing journalist, Nikki Attkisson found herself at Powdersville Post now after working at several other publications. She is an award-winning journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit and worked as a journalist covering technology, innovation, environmental issues, politics, health etc. Nikki Attkisson has also worked on product development, content strategy, and editorial management for numerous media companies. She began her career at local news stations and worked as a reporter in national newspapers.

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