USC Institute for Creative Technologies

Military to test PTSD video therapy - Canada - CBC News

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation covered Canada’s decision to begin using the ICT’s virtual reality exposure therapy for treating PTSD. Skip Rizzo, ICT’s associate director for medical virtual reality developed the innovative therapy, which is currently being used and studied across the U.S..

“The research shows, pretty consistently over the years, that by having the person gradually imagine or be exposed in VR to events in the traumatic memories, that they’re able to process emotional memories,” said Rizzo in the story.

Read and watch Light Stage X: Making A Digital Human Takes Lights, Camera, Action by Cara Santa Maria for the Huffinton Post’s Talk Nerdy to Me.

U.S. Dept. of Defense: Report Shows Success of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Repeal

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2012 – A new report shows the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law is being implemented successfully in the military, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said during a news conference today.

The repeal of the law banning gay and lesbian people from open military service took effect Sept. 20, 2011. The secretary said he received the report on repeal implementation yesterday, and it shows repeal is going “very well” and according to the department’s plans.

MxR Lab WITH DESIGNS ON CHI 2012 »

The MxR Lab is having a substantial presence at the ongoing 2012 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the premier international conference on human-computer interaction. (http://chi2012.acm.org/index.shtml)

Evan Suma and Mark Bolas are taking part in the GESTURES IN 3D SPACE as part of the 3^rd Dimension of CHI (3DCHI): Touching and Designing 3D User Interface with the paper: FAAST-R: Defining a Core Mechanic for Designing Gestural InterfacesEvan Suma, Belinda Lange, Albert Rizzo, David Krum, Mark Bolas.

Mark Bolas also worked on a paper being presented by Nili Metuki of Primesense, Inc. looking at information discovery: Infinite Content Within Reach: Using 3D Body-Based Interaction to Enhance Content Discovery (Long) Nili Metuki, Orlee Tal, Ran Shani, Mark Bolas

As part of the CHI FOOD AND INTERACTION DESIGN WORKSHOP. (http://di.ncl.ac.uk/foodixd/), MxR and Interactive Media Division, USC alumni Diane Tucker is presenting her paper, Chains of Food, describing the concept of the gesturally-controlled game that promises to transform some of the human-computer interactions that have been harmful to people’s health into engagements that improve it. The game was a finalist for the Future of Health Award given by Games for Health Europe.

Ed Yee from the IMD program and Josh Joiner are presenting their physically collaborative game, Combiform http://combiformgame.com/showcases.html in the Interactivity Demo session and Student Game contest.

Clicking ‘Like’ on Facebook Is Not Protected Speech, Judge Rules »

Exactly what a “like” means played a part in a case in Virginia involving six people who say Sheriff B. J. Roberts of Hampton fired them for supporting an opponent in his 2009 re-election bid.

Imagine walking up to a tall, cylindrical pod, and talking to a life-size, 3-D projection of a faraway friend, family member, or colleague.

(via 3-D Video Pod Delivers 360-Degree, Holograph-Like Projections | Gadget Lab | Wired.com)

Cara Santa Maria from the Huffington Post’s Talk Nerdy to Me science segments shows off ICT’s virtual humans - and her shooting skills - in Gunslinger, our Wild West virtual human simulation.

In a study presented last week at the British Psychology Society Annual Conference, a team led by Oxford psychiatry expert Dr. Emily Holmes concluded that when played soon after exposure to trauma, Tetris served as “a cognitive vaccine” that seemed to “inoculate against the build-up of flashbacks.” Why? Because the process of playing Tetris, the team hypothesizes, places demands on one’s brain that interfere with its ability to form and retain the traumatic memories that later emerge as flashbacks.

(via Oxford Docs: We Can Prevent PTSD … With Tetris | Danger Room | Wired.com)

At a training facility on the outskirts of Kabul, the Afghan capital, elite female soldiers practice alongside their male counterparts. Afghan Special Forces want to recruit at least 100 women before the pullout of most NATO combat troops by the end of 2014.

(via Elite female night raiders break down barriers in Afghanistan | Reuters)

Learn about INOTS! The Office of Naval Research-funded Immersive Naval Officer Training System (INOTS) is designed is designed to teach interpersonal communication and leadership skills by practicing complex problem solving and situational awareness in an instructor-facilitated simulation environment with a virtual human.