Virtual Reality Could Help Combat Social Isolation in Ageing Population
“We are primarily interested in creating opportunities for creating meaningful social interactions in a virtual world,” Baker said.
Baker said the current study, which has 23 participants over the age of 70 called “Technology Explorers”, protected the identity of participants and enabled them to create their own virtual reality avatars.
“The first stage of the project had participants sitting in different parts of the university and they were all able to interact and have conversations with each other in that virtual environment as the avatars,” he said.
Baker said the next stage of the project was to explore with participants what types of virtual reality environments they could build.
“Our project is about giving people agency and allowing them to move around and make decisions and interact in a virtual world,” he said.
Baker said after a workshop exploring different possibilities, the team had decided to build a virtual reality card game and a “highway of life”.
“In the highway of life, participants will be able to go back in time to explore different time periods and see stories from that time and be able to contribute their own artifacts,” Baker said.
The project was co-funded by the Australian Research Council and the Microsoft Centre for Social Natural User Interfaces, and the team is working in collaboration with the National Aging Research Initiative and the John Richards Initiative at Latrobe University.
See the full story here: https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2017/07/virtual-reality-help-combat-social-isolation-ageing-population/
Also podcast http://radioadelaide.org.au/2017/07/11/older-adults-living-socially-in-vr/