Health
Assisting Psychological Therapies
The Xenodu platform is being utilised by the NHS (National Health Service, UK) with custom-designed interactive virtual environments to assist psychological therapies for anxiety disorders and intellectual disabilities.
This ongoing research and development project has involved long-term partnerships with the University of East Anglia and the University of York in collaboration with the NHS as well as other academic research and healthcare partners.
Drawing on a multi-disciplinary network of expertise in Psychology, Video Production, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Human-Computer Interface Design, this project aims to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of our platform as a novel computer-based system to assist psychological therapies and rehabilitation.
Therapeutic Outcomes
• Providing the opportunity for systematic practice and improvement of competence in social skills such as conversation or body language.
• Building self-awareness and self-assurance to enable exposure to real-life events which would normally present challenges or create anxiety.
• Challenging anxiety-driven misperceptions of self.
• Enabling understanding that anxiety can be perpetuated by avoidance strategies and inaccurate interpretation of events in feared scenarios.
• Demonstrating that anxiety declines when exposure to feared scenarios is practiced whilst inhibiting impulses to avoid such situations.
Research Publications
The latest research shown below has found that people with social anxiety and intellectual disabilities can be helped to overcome their fears and learn appropriate social skills by using the Xenodu platform to experience and observe themselves taking part in a range of virtual scenarios;
The Psychology of Social Networking Vol. 2 - Virtual Environments With Chroma-Keying Video Capture In Psychological Therapy (Gega L. et al. 2015)
A Comprehensive Cognitive Behavioral Program for Offenders - Trying and Practicing in Virtual Immersion (Langdon P. et al. 2015)
A Video-based Virtual Environment for Teaching Social Skills to Adolescents with Autism: In Search of Generalisation (Barry O. 2015)
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking - Virtual Environments Using Video Capture for Social Phobia with Psychosis (Gega L. et al. 2013)
Controlled exposure therapy sessions for social anxiety and intellectual disabilities with patients in NHS clinics have utilised our custom-designed immersive installations with over a hundred virtual environments (2-7 mins in duration) including public speaking, public transport, shops, streets, parties, bars, cafés, speed-dating, medical consultations and a job interview.
A range of psychological therapies and learning-related applications are currently undergoing further research and development using the Xenodu platform.
For more details about clinical research please feel free to get in touch here.
This ongoing research and development project has involved long-term partnerships with the University of East Anglia and the University of York in collaboration with the NHS as well as other academic research and healthcare partners.
Drawing on a multi-disciplinary network of expertise in Psychology, Video Production, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Human-Computer Interface Design, this project aims to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of our platform as a novel computer-based system to assist psychological therapies and rehabilitation.
Therapeutic Outcomes
• Providing the opportunity for systematic practice and improvement of competence in social skills such as conversation or body language.
• Building self-awareness and self-assurance to enable exposure to real-life events which would normally present challenges or create anxiety.
• Challenging anxiety-driven misperceptions of self.
• Enabling understanding that anxiety can be perpetuated by avoidance strategies and inaccurate interpretation of events in feared scenarios.
• Demonstrating that anxiety declines when exposure to feared scenarios is practiced whilst inhibiting impulses to avoid such situations.
Research Publications
The latest research shown below has found that people with social anxiety and intellectual disabilities can be helped to overcome their fears and learn appropriate social skills by using the Xenodu platform to experience and observe themselves taking part in a range of virtual scenarios;
The Psychology of Social Networking Vol. 2 - Virtual Environments With Chroma-Keying Video Capture In Psychological Therapy (Gega L. et al. 2015)
A Comprehensive Cognitive Behavioral Program for Offenders - Trying and Practicing in Virtual Immersion (Langdon P. et al. 2015)
A Video-based Virtual Environment for Teaching Social Skills to Adolescents with Autism: In Search of Generalisation (Barry O. 2015)
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking - Virtual Environments Using Video Capture for Social Phobia with Psychosis (Gega L. et al. 2013)
Controlled exposure therapy sessions for social anxiety and intellectual disabilities with patients in NHS clinics have utilised our custom-designed immersive installations with over a hundred virtual environments (2-7 mins in duration) including public speaking, public transport, shops, streets, parties, bars, cafés, speed-dating, medical consultations and a job interview.
A range of psychological therapies and learning-related applications are currently undergoing further research and development using the Xenodu platform.
For more details about clinical research please feel free to get in touch here.
Xenodu in the News
ITV News - Virtual answer for the socially anxious.
BBC News - Out-of-body virtual scenarios 'help social anxiety'.
Assisting Health Education
Medical Simulation Training
Our ongoing partnership with Surrey and Borders NHS Trust involves the development of the AVATr (Augmented Virtual-reality Avatar in Training) Virtual Patient simulation system that uses virtual humans to train medical practitioners how to be better communicators with patients and colleagues.
This innovative project aims to promote curiosity driven learning in order to build empathetic practice by giving learners a licence to fail and learn from their mistakes in a safe environment through using simulated high-stakes scenarios.
This involves the development of authentic virtual characters with believable personalities, diverse points of view, detailed back-stories, family backgrounds and medical histories, all taken from real-world scenarios.
Feedback from the continuously evolving NHS programme run with Foundation Year junior doctors has been highly positive.
For more information please see our Learning section here.
Public Health
Our work with the NHS has included various interactive learning projects to help protect and promote public health in the community.
Pledge 2012 was initiative run by Active Norfolk in association with Norfolk & Suffolk NHS and used the Xenodu platform to celebrate the London Olympic and Paralympic Games by inviting members of the public to participate in a county-wide legacy project.
Through the use of custom-designed Pledge 2012 Pods at events throughout Norfolk, participants were asked to make a pledge against a special Olympics-themed video background and were able to see themselves running around an athletics track or cycling around a velodrome.
Pledges ranged from simply committing to take regular exercise, to healthy eating or doing something specific such as taking up a new sport or running a half marathon.
Each pledge was then uploaded to an online interactive map on which participants were able to zoom in and watch their pledges and those made by others.
Mental Health & Communication Skills Learning in Prisons
In collaboration with the University of York, the University of Leeds, HM Prison Service and The Ministry of Justice we have been exploring the use of the Xenodu platform for supporting mental health and communication skills learning in UK prisons.
This innovative collaboration has involved the co-production of a 'virtual prisoner experience' featuring virtual characters scripted and voiced by prisoners in custody to create authentic portrayals of real-world experience through intimate and honest expressions of thoughts, feelings, ideas and opinions.
The programme of work has explored a number of different applications including;
• The recruitment of prison psychologists through an assessment process using interactive role-play.
• Training and testing of prison staff to improve communication and problem-solving skills.
• Experiential learning for prisoners who wish to develop problem-solving and mentoring skills.
Link to: University of York Department of Health Sciences
Our ongoing partnership with Surrey and Borders NHS Trust involves the development of the AVATr (Augmented Virtual-reality Avatar in Training) Virtual Patient simulation system that uses virtual humans to train medical practitioners how to be better communicators with patients and colleagues.
This innovative project aims to promote curiosity driven learning in order to build empathetic practice by giving learners a licence to fail and learn from their mistakes in a safe environment through using simulated high-stakes scenarios.
This involves the development of authentic virtual characters with believable personalities, diverse points of view, detailed back-stories, family backgrounds and medical histories, all taken from real-world scenarios.
Feedback from the continuously evolving NHS programme run with Foundation Year junior doctors has been highly positive.
For more information please see our Learning section here.
Public Health
Our work with the NHS has included various interactive learning projects to help protect and promote public health in the community.
Pledge 2012 was initiative run by Active Norfolk in association with Norfolk & Suffolk NHS and used the Xenodu platform to celebrate the London Olympic and Paralympic Games by inviting members of the public to participate in a county-wide legacy project.
Through the use of custom-designed Pledge 2012 Pods at events throughout Norfolk, participants were asked to make a pledge against a special Olympics-themed video background and were able to see themselves running around an athletics track or cycling around a velodrome.
Pledges ranged from simply committing to take regular exercise, to healthy eating or doing something specific such as taking up a new sport or running a half marathon.
Each pledge was then uploaded to an online interactive map on which participants were able to zoom in and watch their pledges and those made by others.
Mental Health & Communication Skills Learning in Prisons
In collaboration with the University of York, the University of Leeds, HM Prison Service and The Ministry of Justice we have been exploring the use of the Xenodu platform for supporting mental health and communication skills learning in UK prisons.
This innovative collaboration has involved the co-production of a 'virtual prisoner experience' featuring virtual characters scripted and voiced by prisoners in custody to create authentic portrayals of real-world experience through intimate and honest expressions of thoughts, feelings, ideas and opinions.
The programme of work has explored a number of different applications including;
• The recruitment of prison psychologists through an assessment process using interactive role-play.
• Training and testing of prison staff to improve communication and problem-solving skills.
• Experiential learning for prisoners who wish to develop problem-solving and mentoring skills.
Link to: University of York Department of Health Sciences
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