HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 11/20/2018 - Information From Darin Atteberry Re: Article On The Fort Collins Symphony - A Symphony Concert In Occulus Go: Could It Help With DementiaNov 4, 2018, 06:35pm
A Symphony Concert In Oculus Go:
Could It Help People With
Dementia?
Consumer Tech
Writing about the creators and data behind digital entertainment.
Michael Humphrey Contributor
When I put on the Oculus Go headset, ready for a 360-degree performance by The
Fort Collins Symphony, I was a little surprised by the first scene: The lobby of the
Fort Collins Lincoln Center, where a pre-concert social event is taking place. The
second scene was a little unexpected too: Sitting at a table with four other
people who are telling stories about their lives and talking about the program that
inspired this video. Finally, in the third scene, I am in the concert hall,
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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11/14/2018
TO: Mayor Troxell & City Councilmembers
FM: Darin Atteberry
FYI
where music director Wes Kenney gives a pre-concert talk. Then Tchaikovsky's
Symphony No. 4 begins.
These are early clips, not available for public consumption, to be tested in focus
groups by a group of researchers from multiple disciplines at Colorado State
University. (I am also on faculty at CSU, but not part of this research team, nor
compensated in any way for covering this project). The clips offer fascinating
possibilities for how art, virtual reality and dementia might interact.
"Especially since we're doing something with people who have cognitive
impairments," Meara Faw, an assistant professor in Communication Studies,
explains, "... we want to make sure it's not causing any distress."
Once that question is satisfied, another emerges: Could a VR symphony
experience help people with dementia improve their mood, memory and
attention?
The video and research, funded by the CSU Office of the Vice President for
Research's Catalyst for Innovative Partnerships program, and produced by Fort
Collins VR startup Blue Penguin, is an experiment and investigation into the
power of immersive technology and art on the human mind. But it is also an
extension of something these researchers already know from an
initial collaboration launched three years ago between CSU and FCS called
B-Sharp. The premise was simple enough: Offer 30 dementia patients and their
caregivers free season tickets to the symphony's Masterworks Series
and test whether it improves cognitive functioning.
"I told [fellow researchers], you're not going to get improvements," says Deana
Davalos, associate professor in the Department of Psychology and the director of
CSU’s Aging Clinic of the Rockies. "Just stabilization after nine months,
that would be really be great, we should be happy, because that's what drugs get.
And we actually got a statistically significant improvement, a correlation between
number of symphonies attended and degree of improvement."
The power of a symphony experience to improve cognitive decline, thanks to a
combination of social and artistic stimuli, is a potentially powerful finding (a
paper describing their research results is currently submitted), but would such
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the lens of creators and data. In addition to Forbes, I have written for The New
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effects transfer to immersive media? Other examples of VR for dementia patients
have shown promise, especially in use for reminiscence therapy, but this idea may
also help with one of the most insidious aspects of dementia: Social isolation.
Moving a dementia patient from their care center, or home, to a concert hall can
be difficult depending on the physical needs of the person. What if the concert
hall, and virtual social interaction, could come to them? The results could depend
on a variety of factors, including how the concert is shot (what angle and how
close), how the components are edited together, how long someone can
comfortably be in the headset, and potentially much more.
"We have about 85 minutes or so of footage," says Kaden Strand, CEO of Blue
Penguin. "And so the question that we have is ... Where do we draw the lines?"
Is it one long video or several shorter clips, should it be navigable, should it be
truncated as an experience? If they find those answers, with products such as the
Oculus Go and even smartphone-based headsets, thousands of dementia patients
could experience something similar to what the B-Sharp participants enjoyed.
Thinking back on the experience a few days later, the music was fun to listen to,
but so were the thoughts and stories of my virtual table mates. What is it about art
that has the power to heal, and transform—is it he experience, the company, the
music or all of them? There may be answers in those Oculus headsets.
Correction: An earlier version of this article credited the National Endowment
for the Arts for funding this project. The correct funding source is now credited.
Note: This is part of a monthly series exploring the collaboration between
immersive technology and art forms. Read the previous installment here.
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