Using Virtual Reality To Get Inside An Ailing Person’s World
More than 42 million Americans caring for a loved one over age 50 are also living on the margins — as an overwhelmed, overlooked part of our society. Family caregivers and their charges often feel all alone. Many believe that those who are not sick or have not provided care for an ailing or frail parent, spouse or other loved one, really cannot relate to the emotional roller coaster that has become their life.
A Virtual Reality App About Aging
Imagine becoming a 74-year-old African American man with high frequency hearing loss and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), common health issues as we age. This is exactly what Embodied Labs, a Chicago-based start-up created by four Millennials, did with their Alfred Lab app.
The app won the top prize last year in the University of Southern California’s Center for Body Computing (CBC) annual VR hackathon competition. Judges were impressed with the app’s thoroughly informative look at a day in the life of “Alfred,” including interaction with his doctor, his family and others. (Disclosure: Sherri Snelling works for Keck Medicine of USC where the center is located.)
For instance, as a viewer wears the virtual reality goggles, his or her eyesight is blighted by a dark spot in the middle of the visual field simulating AMD. The visual impairment makes eye contact, communication and simple tasks difficult.
Educating Health Care Workers for an Aging America
The goal of Embodied Labs was to create the Alfred Lab Project not as a consumer VR app but to train and educate health care professionals and medical students about aging issues.
What is essential to the success of Embodied Labs is not just delivering on the technology and what the disease or disorder is about. It’s delivering the best storytelling elements that engage the viewer. To do that, Ryan Lebar, a former filmmaker and theater director, helps craft the narrative for maximum empathetic impact.
See the full story here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2017/02/14/using-virtual-reality-to-get-inside-an-ailing-persons-world/#140cc8ae3703