NODES – Spoke 5 Industria della salute e silver economy – Flagship project TINCARE – Research Module 7: Monitoring mood and cognitive status of patients in the Metaverse
2023 – ongoing
National project
Using AR goggles (Microsoft Hololens 2) and VR goggles (Oculus Quest 2, or the newer Meta Quest Pro) and commercial software, we will evaluate whether the use of such devices are well tolerated by patients with normal aging and/or minor signs of age-related dementia.
After a simple hands-on training, users will get familiar with the devices and the differential interaction modalities. AR goggles offer several advantages, including hands-free interaction (Microsoft Hololens 2 has an embedded hands tracking system) and the complete absence of motion sickness-like symptoms since the goggles allow the real world, see through vision, enriched with digital contents projected to screens embedded in front of the field of view of the users. On the contrary, hardware constraints do not allow a very wide field of view (a maximum of 42° on the horizontal axis). This is not the case for VR head mounted displays, which usually have a FOV of at least 90° in order to provide a fully immersive experience, although VR sickness, which is a close correlate to motion sickness, might be an issue, especially in older people. According to several studies it might occur somewhere between 10 and 30 %, with a possible increase in elderly. Depending on the tolerance of individuals, AR and VR environments will be designed ad-hoc, for either cognitive training, or simple mood improvement (i.e. virtual visits to real landmarks, or digital 3D landscapes).
Furthermore, we will build on the recently developed Metaverse experience, where multiple users wearing the same AR/VR devices can share the same virtual space and interact with each other, or with virtually generated content using either remote controllers, or their own hands. These spaces will be designed and tested to allow physicians to have seamless interaction with patients’ avatars and inquire them about their health.