IT giant IBM has begun a collaboration with a British university to develop several virtual reality (VR) experiments. The objective? To place the user in an environment that will make him or her forget the feeling of loneliness associated with Coronavirus lockdown.
Getting out of loneliness with VR
Half of humanity is currently in containment because of the Covid-19 pandemic. And among the lockdowned are people who are lonely and therefore particularly prone to loneliness. Isolation can damage our mental health, particularly by creating anxiety. There are various ways to combat this phenomenon.
As Computer Weekly explains in an article published on April 7, 2020, IBM has just announced its new collaboration with University College London (UK). Together, these two entities are working on a virtual reality project integrating both Watson Assistant and Watson Speech. The aim is to immerse the user in a virtual environment with the help of a character to be chosen. The user will then be able to remotely meet friends and family in different locations such as a park, a restaurant or on the street. The aim is to simulate socially engaging scenes in order to bring the user out of his loneliness.
IBM’s project is based on much the same principle as Facebook Horizon. One of the big differences is that, in the Facebook project, the world is created by the residents themselves. On the other hand, IBM seems to want to target the elderly for the most part, even after the lockdown is over. Indeed, according to the firm, 43% of the elderly are alone a large part of the time.
IBM wants to enable people to feel less alone during containment through virtual reality.
Another VR project
Computer Weekly also reports that IBM is carrying another virtual reality project, this time for medical students. This one integrates voice recognition from AI Watson. It involves training exercises that would normally require the physical presence of a professional. IBM hopes to be able to integrate this project into the curriculum of British universities. In the meantime, these projects are not yet complete and we hope to know more in the very near future.
It should be noted that virtual reality is already being used in medicine and education. In a study conducted in late 2019, American researchers conducted an experiment in which they found that RV could greatly help orthopaedic surgery students.
5G and Virtual Reality for Covid-19 Patient Monitoring
China is promoting the use of 5G for follow-up visits of its patients in hospitals.
While it takes no less than half an hour for healthcare staff to put on protective clothing before making patient visits, a Chinese hospital shows in a video their use of 360° cameras combined with R.V. helmets. Visits are made more quickly and their flexibility of use allows a greater number of visits in a day.
Thanks to this remote monitoring provided by a high-speed connection, doctors can follow the patient in real time and exchange with him/her on his/her symptoms.
