The celebration of Student Writing(CSW) was a mandatory event that I had to attend for my writing 121 class. At this event I presented my multimodal transformation project, which I made to inform the masses of Virtual Reality(VR) and its ability to distract patients from pain. To better show this application of VR I focused my project on Phantom Limb Disorder(PTLD), which is when a patient can still feel sensations in their missing extremities. Along with various sensations like heat, cold, tingling, and cramping, victims of PTLD are also often experiences a fair amount of pain. My project was composed of two dolls in a cardboard box, one of which was dressed as a doctor or a researcher of sorts, and the other played the role of a patient with both arms amputated. The scene is set up to show the patient using a VR headset and receiving assistance from the doctor or researcher, in an attempt to show my audience that VR can help patients experiencing psychological issues. PTLD is mostly in the patient’s head, sure the whole loss of limbs thing is fully physical, but the sensations they feel long after losing their limb as an effect of PTLD is purely psychological. The pain, tingling, and cramping that the patient feels is a mental thing, their brains seem to have a difficult time processing that they’ve lost a body part. This is where VR comes in, using VR the patient can not only distract themselves from the pain and sensation they’re feeling, but they can also train their minds to control their missing limbs, making it easier for them to control the sensations in which they’re feeling. As for the actual event, I feel I was definitely prepared, I had practice presenting my project in class and was fairly confident that I would be able to express the thought process behind choosing my transformation and what the project was about. I even wore a dress shirt and pants, I looked amazing. The CSW seemed very lively, and it was, but even with all the people that were there I couldn’t get any viewers for my project, probably because mine was actually hidden behind somebody else’s project, since there wasn’t enough room on the table there. So if I had any sort of suggestion for improving this event I’d say give us more room, longer tables maybe so our projects have an easier time showing themselves off.
Tag: virtual reality
Finished Multimodal Presentation
Multimodal Transformation
To take the research paper that I’ve written and transfer it to another medium is definitely possible. Not to say that It would be easy however. Writing takes a lot of time and effort to produce something of quality and just when I’ve gotten to a point in which I’ve created something I feel is decent, I’m being made to stop thinking like a writer and to somehow move the information I’ve gathered into another project. I could possibly do a video of sorts, showing somebody in an amount of pain using virtual reality to distract from it. Powerpoints and poster boards are also potential candidates for my project. I’m leaning more towards creating a 3D structure of sorts, using dolls and maybe a shoebox. I’ve already purchased two dolls off of Amazon, thankfully I should be able to use them as christmas gifts too once our project is finished. I’d much rather not keep a barbie in my apartment. Actually finding the materials to form the image in my head is quite difficult, and since my time and resources are so limited I feel I can’t fully explain the intent of my research with what I’m trying to do now. Pain distraction is what I decided to emphasise for this project, since recreating a virtual world of sorts for PTSD and anxiety patients would be difficult to pull off inside of a shoebox. I can just have a doll patient lay there with something similar to a VR headset on, and a doctor next to them. Somehow showing that they’re in pain, but are being properly distracted by VR.
Narrow It Down
My research paper for writing 121 is about virtual reality(VR) and its application for improving psychological health. VR can be applicable to numerous things, such as gaming, medicine, and psychology. The amount of people in the United States of America with mental disabilities is extraordinary, and the cost of treating these patients is even more so. My paper is about how VR has the potential to be a cheap and effective method of treatment for people suffering from mental issues like PTSD, anxiety, and phobias that are likely difficult to treat using current methods. VR can do this by providing the patient and medical professional with a safe and controlled environment with which they could have their patients confront their problems without worrying about their safety and health, being able to have somebody with coulrophobia confront their fear of clowns without having them in the presence of an actual clown can prove to be quite effective.
Primary Research
Initially I struggled with the primary research portion of my paper. I had this fear that I would be intruding somehow into somebody’s life by asking them questions about a topic I didn’t have full understanding of. Thankfully I pulled through and found somebody particularly qualified to interview about virtual reality applications in the improvement of psychological health. A research professor and psychologist, Albert “Skip” Rizzo, who is the director for medical virtual reality at the University of Southern California’s institute of creative technologies. Some of Professor Rizzo’s research includes using virtual reality to train soldiers how to cope with their emotions better before being sent into battle, and utilizing virtual reality to provide exposure-therapy to patients as a way to help treat PTSD, phobias, and other psychological issues. After receiving the go ahead via email from Professor Rizzo I called him October 22nd around 6’o clock pm. I then proceeded to ask him various questions pertaining to my research, which he answered both fluently and in depth which is to be expected from a man that spent about 20 years researching virtual reality and its applications for the betterment of human health. Some of the questions that I asked included his reasons for researching virtual reality, it’s overall applications and cost-efficiency compared to current medicine and treatment, and about his research.
Thesis/Primary Research
I’m researching the application of virtual reality in improving the psychological health of individuals. My paper’s thesis is, “Virtual reality will have a positive effect on the psychological health of individuals.” I did alter my thesis slightly in hopes of achieving a more specific writing topic, changing my focus from both physiological and psychological effects to only the psychological effects. My primary research hasn’t begun yet, and unfortunately I haven’t begun my preparations for the interview I plan on conducting. I have found somebody that I could potentially interview however, a professor by the name of Albert Rizzo. He’s the active director for medical virtual reality at the USC institute for creative technologies. Before I contact him though I’d like to prepare my questions, so if I actually get a response I don’t sound like a complete dunce when trying to interview him. Possible questions I might ask could be about what it is exactly that he’s trying to accomplish with virtual reality, how V.R. is being used in a medical sense currently, how it could potentially be used in the near future, the cost of the technology compared to traditional methods, and the overall effectiveness of V.R. methods compared to traditional methods. I’m aware that my questions are lacking in quantity, but they should provide some fairly adequate answers about my topic, hopefully ones I haven’t already found in an article. Some things that I’ll be looking for would be the interviewee’s ideas on the topic of virtual reality being used in psychological treatments, or if the information I receive matches the information I found inside my sources, and if virtual reality seems like it’s even worth the time and effort into researching it. Aside from preparing more abundant questions for my interview, I intend on scouting for more potential interview candidates, in the case that Dr. Rizzo doesn’t get back to me.
Blogs
While I was looking for different blogs that discussed my research topic I came across two that actually caught my attention. These blogs seem to focus on technology as a whole though, they aren’t 100% about virtual reality. Some of their posts do have information on the matter of virtual reality however, about their applications and just general news involving the technology. I’d assume I’d be able to use these blogs as a popular source in my research paper, their posts could potentially give me more insight into my topic. Hopefully they could provide me with better understanding of virtual reality, more so than I already have. In regards to actually reaching out and communicating with these bloggers I suppose I could comment on an article that interests me, or maybe find some sort of contact information on their blog.
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