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An open letter on virtual worlds for Senator Conroy

June 25, 2009 by 23 Comments

Today’s coverage by Asher Moses in Fairfax newspapers on the latest saga with content filtering in Australia, alludes to virtual environments such as Second Life being added to the list of content not suitable for viewing in Australia. Essentially, the issue is that online ‘games’ like World of Warcraft and Second Life have not received an Classification rating and therefore under the proposed content filtering would be blocked.

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The government funded ABC island: collateral damage through bad policy?


It’s difficult to know where to begin to pick the flaws in the logic of the approach, but I thought it may be worth writing an open letter / tutorial to the obviously misinformed Minister in question, Senator Conroy:

1. Virtual worlds do indeed contain adult content such as sex of pretty much any type, simulated drug use and plenty of violence. That said, just like going to the R-rated shop located in most suburbs, in environments like Second Life you can’t partake of the goods unless you’ve provided proof of age. So Senator, are you going to mandate the Australian Federal Police to ensure every ‘bricks and mortar’ adult store customer has to go through a government check before entering? Will you also be closing down other social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, as they too are not rated and also contain graphic content?

2. Second Life, OpenSim grids and gaming worlds like World of Warcraft are three examples of environments that have highly valuable and empirically demonstrable educational benefits. Just talk to the dozens of Australian educators who have undertaken postgraduate research in the area. Can you explain what alternative means of immediate support the Rudd government will be providing to those people who utilise such environments for immediate health support around issues as diverse as mental health, physical disabilities and chronic disease support?

3. Given a range of virtual environments are used for the purposes of expressing free speech or engaging in activism in a much more visual way, does the Australian Labor party commit to not using emergent technologies for political purposes? Why should Gaza protesters not be able to get their message out via Second Life to Australians whilst the ALP spams YouTube with Kevin Rudd informercials?

4.On the child protection thing. Any normal person doesn’t want their kids exposed to undesirable influences – it’s called parenting. If parents cannot be trusted to screen virtual world content, then is the government also committing to a full ban on R-rated magazines in newsagents, a blanket ban on all legal drug consumption in public and zero tolerance on swearing or violence. And if so, how will this be funded and implemented?

5. Can the Rudd government outline how Australians will maintain their competitive advantage in a global economy where virtual worlds are increasingly adopted as a means of communication? Will books be distributed with vetted pictures of said technologies and will this be enough to make our children competitive?

6. This to me is the most important question of all: have you, Senator Conroy, received any substantive briefing on the opportunities virtual worlds provide for educators, health professionals and businesses? I don’t mean Steve Fielding showing you a picture of two avatars going at it in Second Life. I mean a real briefing covering demographics, trends, research and evidence-based success stories. I can point you in the direction of half a dozen great people locally off the top of my head. Hell, I’ll come too to report on your newfound open-mindedness. I promise I’ll behave.

Of course, Senator Conroy is no more likely to read the above open letter than he is to request the substantive briefing mentioned. To be fair, no definitive statement has been made by the government on virtual worlds but the signs certainly aren’t encouraging. Like the wider issues with content filtering, the baby looks like being thrown out with the bathwater, and we won’t know it until it’s too late. If this does come to pass, Australia will be up there with North Korea in developing its population to be tech-savvy competitors in a global economy. Now THAT’s an education revolution.

Postscript: this afternoon I spent some time discussing the issue with Tateru Nino (who’s written on the issue here and here) and she made a really good point: by creating its adult-only continent in Second life, has Linden Lab forced the hand of ACMA to provide a rating on Second Life’s content. Having everything conglomerated in one place makes a rating easier. The trouble is, under the proposed regime it could also spell the end of Second Life access for Australians, or at least some significantly pared down access to PG-areas only.

Filed Under: Australian News, Law and virtual worlds, Op-ed, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: , ,

Interview: Andrew Campbell – Director of Prometheus Research Team, University of Sydney

June 23, 2009 by 1 Comment

(Published earlier today on Metaverse Health)

Over the past couple of years I’ve had the opportunity to chat with Andrew Campbell on a couple of occasions. As Director of the Prometheus Research Team, Andrew is heavily involved in the area of mental health and technology. I’ve always been struck by Andrew’s objective view of gaming and virtual worlds, which he rightly sees as simultaneously providing significant opportunities and challenges.

I caught up with Andrew to discuss his work and perspectives on mental health, gaming and immersive virtual worlds.

DH: Can you describe the main focus of your clinical work?

AC: The main focus of my clinical work is divided into two categories. Firstly, research. My primary job is an academic researcher and teacher in the field of Psychology. I conduct research particularly in the area of Cyberpsychology, which is the study of how technology is impacting human behaviour, both in good and bad ways. Secondly, I am a general practice psychologist who specialises in child and adolescent mental health and behavioural problems. My clinical work to date has been focused on treating children with ADD/ADHD, anxiety and depression, conduct problems, as well as parental counselling and family therapy.

DH: What led your career to the stage it is at today – what got you into the issue of mental health and technology?

AC: In 1997 I was finishing my undergraduate degree in Psychology and Education at The University of Sydney and decided to spend some time in the United States working as a teaching assistant at a few universities. I became captivated with work being done by a handful of academic psychologists in the US at the time who were focusing on how the internet was going to be a revolution to impact human behaviour and society at large.

I read everything I could get my hands on at the time to do with online relationships, virtual societies and even gaming communities that were developing international reputations and new cultures in cyberspace. I asked myself at the time ‘could this be the start of a new movement in human enrichment?’ and set forth to find out the good and the bad (and the down-right terrible) aspects of spending a lot of time engrossed in an online world, be it chat, gaming, shopping, finance, politics etc. Thus, my interests turned toward career aspirations to develop psychological research and an applied track record in the use of information communication technology and the use of other technologies in helping the ‘human condition’.

DH: Arguably the number one and two areas of broader public interest with mental health and technology is gaming and violence and addiction. What percentage of your work is spent dealing with actual or perceived issues in those areas?

AC: To date, my clinical work as a generalist psychologist in child and adolescent mental health has only touched lightly on these issues. I have mainly dealt with traditional mental health concerns of parents over their children, but of those clients I have seen about gaming violence and addiction, I’ve noted that the parents themselves do not know anything about the games their children are playing. They tend to have a view that all games are violent or addictive. Given this, I normally direct parents to learn more about what their kids enjoy about their game in order to learn more about behaviours they may be modeling from the game. For example, two of my client’s parents had no idea that strategic games such as ‘Age of Empires’ actually have huge cognitive and historic learning benefits. The game is akin to modern day chess, with historical lessons of ages past. Other games that promote team play
increase problem solving skills in a collaborative environment, therefore promoting team work and clear communication strategies.

Adversely, some team playing games are based on a violent theme, such as the popular game ‘Counter Strike‘. Overall, through my work I’ve found that parents do have concerns about violence and addiction to games, but really do not have an understanding of games themselves. This is troubling in an age where gaming is increasing in popularity across generations and content is still not regulated well by Government or other ‘watchdog’ agencies. As such, parents need to be cognisant of the types of games out there – their pluses and minus points – and be involved in selecting and learning about the titles with their children in order to curtail negative behaviours related to certain genres.

DH: The issue of technology and its influence on behaviour has been around for decades, with the TV / Film and violence link being hotly debated for most of that time. Before we get onto gaming / virtual worlds, is there yet any empirical agreement on TV/Film and violent behaviour?

AC: As surprising as this may sound, no, there is not any empirical agreement on TV/Film and violent behaviour in contemporary society. Incidents such as the Columbine School Massacre and more recently, the Virginia Tech shooting have led psychologists to argue for renewed policies censuring violent films and TV shows from minors and suggestible personality types. Although games are becoming a popular target for connecting atrocious violent crimes to the perpetrator, TV and Film are still front runners in the causation of violent behaviour in, not just the younger population, but the population in general.

DH: The popular media perception of gaming is that there is at least an anecdotal link between the regular playing of violent games and violent real-life behaviour. From your work, have you seen any evidence of this?

AC: Unequivocally, no! To say that violent games or even violent TV/Film is causation for a violent crime is ludicrous. I won’t go so far to say that violent games, TV or Film have zero impact on violent crimes, but to look at it as a sole causation does not address the pathology of the individual to begin with, let alone motive to carry out the behaviour that may lead to a crime. Ergo, playing a violent game is no more likely to trigger someone’s violent behaviour than eating your favourite food is going to motivate you to become a chef! In my private practice, any child who has presented with conduct disorder or oppositional defiant disorder, or even anger management problems, may or may not have been a gamer – however – all have had pathology and environmental problems that
have led to their disorder that are more consistent and pervasive than just playing a violent video game a few hours a day.

DH: Is there actually an argument that gaming can have an ameliorating effect on real-world behaviour and if so, is there research supporting this?

AC: Yes, a number of studies have shown wonderful results helping people to ameliorate either behaviour or, in some cases, the management of pain. My own research has looked at how biofeedback video games that encourage the player to control a task on a screen using their breathing technique, has led to improved attention and relaxation strategies in ADD/ADHD children. Other research has shown that virtual reality games that are immersive can actually help in the treatment of PTSD. One of the best breakthroughs in serious games has been the treatment of burn victims from the current Iraq and Afghanistan wars. These patients have to undertake pain dressing changes and skin grafts. During these procedures, the patient plays a game called ‘Snow world’ which immerses them in an environment that triggers their subconscious into believing they are in a cool and calm environment that distracts them from the pain of the treatment they are receiving. The research in all these examples is very new, but compelling. It is beginning to influence the game developers in entertainment to consider the market for ‘serious games’. This has already commenced with popular programs such as the Nintendo Wii releasing Wii fit and associated sports programs to tackle obesity.

DH: In regards to addiction and online gaming or virtual world environments, what’s your overall take?

AC: My overall take on addiction is that it is possible in either the virtual world or gaming environments online. What needs to be clarified is what aspects of these activities and functions are ‘addictive’. To say we are addicted to the Internet is like saying we are addicted to shopping – what items are we addicted to? The internet houses many areas of interest. It is obvious to posit that sex addiction offline could also be met online, as could be gambling. But gaming offline vs gaming online has different stimulus effects I would theorise.

Also, virtual worlds – what do we gain in socialising in these worlds that we don’t in our offline world? Is there such a thing as addiction to socialising?! Most likely not, because socialising is part of being human. Therefore, what is the attraction to these worlds that stimulates us highly enough to spend hours online engaging with strangers vs. meeting strangers in the offline world? The answer probably lies somewhere between the functions of pursuing anonymity, creativity, cerebral connections and/or reducing the chance of being socially awkward – all reasons one person may prefer the online world.

DH: If addiction is only quantifiable in a small component of the population, is that component larger or smaller than other behaviours such as substance use, gambling etc?

AC: I think if we look at gaming addiction in comparison to substance use, for example, we can quickly conclude that substance abuse is both physically and psychologically damaging and perhaps more wide spread globally across ages, genders and cultures. But the damage of gaming addiction is growing in certain cultures, such as in Asia where gaming is an accepted pasttime for all ages and genders and thus could be on the rise without society realising it since it is not an illegal behaviour or even an invasive or obviously destructive past time compared to drug taking.

prometheus However, it is psychologically damaging both in psychosocial relationships, employment responsibility and accountability and can even affect our general health to a large degree. You might therefore say that although substance abuse and gambling are faster and
harder-hitting addictions, gaming addiction is fast becoming a contemporary societal problem that is slow to build in destructiveness,
but easier to ignore.

DH: For those who do require actual treatment for addiction, what’s your take on the use of online treatment when the issue is related to online behaviour i.e. addressing the traditional view that you can’t use the mechanism for facilitating addiction to treat the addiction itself.

AC: One of the earliest therapies provided online by Psychologist, Dr Kimberly Young, was treatment for online addiction. She began this service, online, in the early 1990’s. Although it has been a growth industry for Dr Young and others who believe in her treatment modality, I personally find it to be flawed therapy and lacking in best-practice evidence. Addiction, be it to specific functions of the internet, gaming, substance abuse, gambling etc, is an extremely difficult pathology to treat, let alone treat well. Therefore, all scientific practice indicates that addiction therapy should be done in a face-to-face or group counselling environment. It requires ongoing resource support utilising mentors, friends and family. It is something that may (but only in very specifically suitable cases) use the internet as a support tool, but in all other regards addiction, especially to internet functions and gaming, should be done away from the primary stimulus.

DH: With growing immersiveness in gaming and in virtual worlds more broadly, what do you see as the mental health challenges and opportunities?

AC: Research right now is looking out how we can harness immersive environments, be they virtual worlds or games, for tackling problems in health, behaviour and education. The challenges we face at the moment are actually not to do with the quality of the environments being delivered to consumers over the internet or through off-the-shelf games, but more through the cost of developing serious games or health purpose virtual worlds by the commercial sector. In addition, we are facing a health professional vs tech industry challenge in trying to have these two expert bodies effectively harness the ideas that are scientifically based delivery of health interventions. In short – the health professionals need to learn more about the tech industry and vice versa. Once this bridge is finally built, I believe we will be entering a new error of technology consumerism – games for wellbeing and ICT for personal health management.

Filed Under: Australian News, Education, Profile, Virtual Worlds

Australia revamped

June 19, 2009 by Leave a Comment

australia build cellar Back in May 2007 we covered the launch of a sim in Second Life called Australia. Up until a month or so ago, things hadn’t altered much until the sim’s change of ownership when it’s previous owner sold due to real-world time contraints. Now run by Australian Second Life developers Top Dingo, there’s been a significant remodification.

Top Dingo partners Noel Jacobson (SL: Pants Lilliehook) and Amanda Hassett (Mahala Peccable) spent just under a month creating some impressive experiences, from red-dirt outback to a South Australian winery and Opera House. Some are indeed enhancements of builds already in existence but the overall effort is so much more than that. It all just seems to fit together a lot more effectively and there’s some real visual delights spread throughout. A highlight for me was the Centrepoint Sydney Tower with its 36-degree Sydney panorama.

Aesthetics have always been a matter of individual taste, but for me, the work done by the Top Dingo team has placed the Australia sim in the same league as the BigPond and ABC presences as far as their visual appeal and focus on building a community rather than a ‘brochure sim’.

A few pictures from the Australia sim:

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Check it out in-world

Filed Under: Australian News, Landmarks of note, Virtual Worlds

Beautiful Kate – virtual worlds as normality

June 14, 2009 by 10 Comments

beautiful-kate Beautiful Kate is both a visually stunning and emotionally confronting movie that builds a warmth that belies its subject matter. Based on Newton Thornburg’s 1982 novel of the same name, Director Rachel Ward has transplanted the bleakness of Idaho USA to outback Australia (the film was shot primarily at Wilpena Pound in South Australia). It made its debut at the Sydney Film Festival last night, with a wider Australian and international release on the 6th August. It’s likely to draw some serious attention for a range of reasons, not least of which are its subject content (unresolved family conflict, frustrated ambitions and incest to name three) and its actors – Ben Mendelsohn, Rachel Griffiths and Bryan Brown are three of the most well-known. Its location and intense examination of some deep emotional issues should also make it stand out.

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The Jungle Bar set

The reason for this being discussed on The Metaverse Journal is the involvement of Second Life and some Australian (and American) Second Life residents in the movie. That involvement is extremely modest and in no way pivotal to the progression of the film’s plot, and that is exactly why I believe it’s noteworthy. Second Life is shown in a remote but otherwise remarkably everyday setting, being used for what it does best: connecting people in a more immersive way. Even better, it shows how virtual worlds are accessible in remote areas: I can vouch for the fact that frame rate times and latency issues were calculated to get as close an estimate to what an actual Second life session would look like from a remote location.

I won’t give away any more than that in regards to plot, but for the more dedicated virtual worlds follower, Beautiful Kate is one of the first (possibly the very first?) international release movie featuring a 3D non-gaming world in a context where that world isn’t the focus. There’s some analogies that can be drawn with TV: the first time one appeared in a movie would have been an eye-opener for some, but now there’s more likely to be comment about a movie scene featuring a home living area without a TV.

This is the future lot of virtual worlds in regards popular culture, and it will be a welcome evolution. Once virtual worlds’ place is cemented in everyday life, then perhaps there can be sensible discussions around their opportunities and challenges without the white noise of sensationalism or unfamiliarity.

Some significant kudos need to be given to Beautiful Kate’s production team. Director Rachel Ward is the first to admit she’s no Second Life user. That said, when writing the screenplay Rachel had an intrinsic understanding that Second Life was increasingly a normal way for people to interact remotely in a more immersive way. She also understood that most people use Second Life for one thing: to have fun. It was 100% Rachel’s vision on what the ‘Jungle Bar’ and the lead avatars should look like that were featured. Producers Leah Churchill-Brown, Bryan Brown and their team were very patient and supportive throughout the whole process of clearing intellectual property rights with Linden Lab. As I’ve said already – the Second Life footage is a tiny component of a movie with much broader themes, but it remains demonstrative of the growing power of virtual worlds in popular culture, and not just driven by the ‘digital natives‘.

Should you go and see Beautiful Kate? My obvious and biased answer is yes. Be prepared to be confronted and don’t expect to come out laughing (although there are some very humourous sections), but this is a more than worthy film, with or without the couple of minutes Second Life 😉 You can view the trailer for the movie right here:

Technical Aspects

The Second Life footage was shot in June 2008 on a set specifically designed to the Director’s requirements. Encore Design Group (EDG) created the ‘Jungle Bar’ in Second Life and did a stupendous job if it . They had created a Second Life presence featured in the US version of The Office and they delivered in spades for this project too. The scene itself was shot over three weekends and involved the following Second Life Residents in addition to myself:

Graham Sabre
Wolfie Rankin
Simon Kline
NeilRobert Janus
Kat Claxton (EDG Designs)
AnnGee Li (EDG designs)
Leyah Renegade
Zak Claxton
Jambalaya Fonck
Willowhouse

The footage itself was captured via iShowU on an iMac at a frame-rate to replicate Second Life responsiveness on a less than optimal broadband connection. The only editing done was to package the footage in a range of acceptable formats for the production team to edit. This by necessity was a low-cost project but the end result in my biased opinion, is pleasing and a good fit for the movie.

I’d really like to thank all those people listed above for their help with the creation of the scene. Kat and AnnGee from EDG were stupendous. I also have to make special mention of Simon Kline who initially let me know about this opportunity and it was great to have him involved in the scene. Graham Sabre was also invaluable as the male lead avatar and was very patient with the large number of takes, as were all the other dancers. We’ll have more on Beautiful Kate, including some shots of the Second Life scene, in the weeks leading up to its more widespread distribution.

Disclosure: Creative Shed Services (of which I am the owner) was involved in Project Managing the Second Life shoot and was paid to do so. EDG Designs are an advertiser on TMJ.

Other coverage of Beautiful Kate and Second Life:

1. Virtual Worlds News

2. Massively

3. New World Notes

Filed Under: Australian News, Virtual Worlds, Virtual worlds in the media Tagged With:

Interview – Prof. Young Choi and Dr. Thomas Furness, HIT Lab Australia

June 11, 2009 by 1 Comment

hit_lab3 In 2008, with not a lot of fanfare, the Human Interface Technology Laboratory Australia (HIT Lab) was created. Part of the University of Tasmania (UTAS), its brief is to be a specialist human interface technology teaching and research centre.

Headed in an interim capacity by Professor Young Ju Choi with significant involvement by veteran virtual reality researcher Tom Furness, HIT Lab has an ambitious brief that could position it as one of Australia’s virtual reality engine rooms. I took the opportunity to catch up with Prof. Young Choi and Dr Furness, who compiled the answers collaboratively, to discuss what’s likely to be a hectic future.

TMJ: Can you give a potted history of how HIT Lab got its Australian iteration?

HIT Lab: Attracting Australia’s first HIT Lab to UTAS Launceston was a case of serendipitous alignment of vision and aspiration with a visit to Tasmania in 2006 by Tom Furness – as a keynote speaker at an international conference in Hobart, organised by Professor Young Choi. By way of background, HIT Lab US at the University of Washington was established by Tom in 1989 followed by HIT Lab NZ in 2002 at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.

In recent years UTAS has been considering strategic directions and initiatives for the Launceston campus. As part of this exercise Professor Choi was investigating opportunities for cutting-edge, world-class technology for a potential world-leadership, niche technology development. The current UTAS Vice-Chancellor, Professor Daryl Le Grew, was previously VC at the University of Canterbury when HIT Lab NZ was established. He encouraged Professor Choi to have a conversation with Professor Furness during the 2006 conference, and the HIT Lab Australia initiative developed from there.

TMJ: Structurally, how closely do each of the HIT Labs liaise?

HIT Lab: HIT Lab Australia and UTAS (and HIT Lab NZ and University of Canterbury) each have a formal Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the University of Washington and HIT Lab US, which establishes, among other things, a framework for collaboration and cooperation in research, teaching and other endeavours.

The Australian and NZ HIT Lab’s are also establishing an MOA to formalise and strengthen their relationship. Professors Furness and Mark Billinghurst (Director of HIT Lab NZ) are also Adjunct Professors of HIT Lab Australia and have contributed to a number of activities including curriculum development and teaching.

TMJ: A key aspect of the research and learning components at HIT Lab is collaboration across many disciplines, from Architecture to Nursing. How do you envisage this will be managed and do you have buy-in from each of the faculties at present?

HIT Lab: From the outset HIT Lab Australia was established as a trans-disciplinary strategic development of UTAS. The location at the Launceston campus was determined on the basis of plans to develop collaboration in teaching and research across many of the Launceston campus academic schools including Architecture and Design, Nursing and Midwifery, the Australian Maritime College, Visual and Performing Arts, Education and the School of Computing and Information Systems.

HIT Lab Australia has an academic planning and development group to identify and plan cross-disciplinary developments in teaching, research and commercial projects. The group includes the heads of a number of academic schools mentioned above.

A pleasing development for the HIT Lab Australia has been the interest shown in undergraduate HIT units in the summer school and first semesters by students from a range of schools. The units have attracted student enrolments from many schools/courses including Architecture and Design, Contemporary Arts, Arts/Social Science, Education, and Business as well as Computing and Information Systems.

TMJ: What are the key research priorities for HIT Lab in the short and medium term?

HIT Lab: An announcement will be made shortly on the inaugural appointment of Director of the HIT Lab Australia. The Director will commence duties later in the year and will be instrumental in establishing research directions, strategy and priorities. Having said that elements of the research strategy will include:

• a focus on creative design, visualisation, simulation and interactive entertainment

• application of cutting-edge visualisation, immersive virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies to underpin collaborative training & education, research & development programs and commercial development by linking key disciplines and centres in the Launceston Campus

• building international collaboration in research through our partnership with the world-renowned HIT Lab US, University of Washington and the HIT Lab NZ, University of Canterbury, as well as in China, Korea and elsewhere

• research and commercial projects that will help to fulfil the objectives for HIT Lab Australia to develop as an economic engine for Tasmania and Australia

TMJ: Are there significant human interface milestones that excite you in the short and medium term?

HIT Lab: The key driver behind the research agenda of the HIT Lab Australia will be the solution of challenging problems that confront the nation and the world. We just don’t want to work on technology because we can – we want to solve real problems. To this end we will start in Tasmania and Australia then branch out to the world, especially the third world. As for short term milestones, we definitely want to develop new and more efficient ways of generating 3D content for education, training, medicine and entertainment applications. This plays well with the interdisciplinary partners in the venture. In the longer term we would like to spin off several companies that build and market interface appliances that solve the problems above.

TMJ: What are your thoughts on human interface products already commercialised?

HIT Lab: We are just at the beginning of a new era of developing interfaces that deeply couple humans to machine – in an attempt to amplify or augment human capability. New products will follow this theme of looking at the deeper physiological and emotional aspects of design interfaces. In the end, we want to build the ‘Nextant’, or the next sextant, that lets us use our mind for navigating in virtual spaces much like the sextant allowed early navigators to use their eyes and the stars to navigate in physical space.

TMJ: What do you see as the key measures of success for a good human interface for virtual worlds?

HIT Lab: In general, good interfaces should be seamless and transparent. That is, they shouldn’t get in the way. Interfaces and the tools that they link to humans are only a means to an end. It is the end, or application, that is most important – what is it supposed to do, versus what is it! The ideal interface would be one that is so intuitive, that the user doesn’t have to learn anything new to operate it, while at the same time performing tasks that were impossible before, or at least with more efficiency than before.

TMJ: Aside from the neurological / physiological aspects of such interfaces, what do you believe are the key psychological and/or sociological challenges of developing human interfaces with virtual worlds?

HIT Lab: Clearly the greatest challenge is understanding consciousness and how that maps to brain function. There is also a lot going on subconsciously where processing takes place in the background before being brought to the surface. Ideally we would build advanced interfaces that serve both levels, e.g. subliminal interfaces.

TMJ: Using nursing as an example, how do you see HIT Lab’s work making an impact in the next five years?

HIT Lab: One of the key issues in nursing is the time and quality of training it takes to produce a well-qualified nurse. As in other clinical practices, the key factor is practice, and opportunities for practicing on real patients is limited. Virtual humans can take the place of real humans in training and thereby provide a more rich, diverse and intensive training experience for nurses. We want to work with the School of Nursing to develop a suite of training devices that can not only be used for task training but also provide visualisation of processes normally not seen, e.g. how contamination spreads by viewing virtual bacteria or how a drug or injection infuses the body, etc.

TMJ: Immersiveness is something heavily sought after in virtual worlds – is that a key goal of HIT Lab’s work or a secondary objective?

HIT Lab: Presence or the sense of ‘being there’ is clearly one of the more powerful attributes of immersive virtual reality. The feeling of being in a place provides vital hooks to memory, or the ability to retain things that are experienced. In general, a person immersed in a virtual world never forgets it. So in answer to the question, yes, this is a key goal. But the key goal is solving real world problems, even if immersion is not necessary.

TMJ: What are HIT Lab’s markers of success – are there objectives required to be met for ongoing funding etc?

HIT Lab: HIT Lab Australia has been established as a strategic initiative of the University of Tasmania with seed funding to establish the staffing profile, teaching and research staff profile, curriculum development and research program. A condition of this funding has been the development of a business plan which was approved by UTAS earlier this year.

The business plan covers the first five years of operation and establishes a number of key targets and milestones including undergraduate, postgraduate and research higher degree enrolments for domestic and international students. There are also targets for course development, research and commercial project outcomes and so on. Progress towards objectives will be monitored progressively.

HIT Lab Australia has the strong support from the UTAS Vice-Chancellor and Senior Executive as well as from senior academics from a number of allied schools and faculties. Interest from enrolled students, prospective students, colleges and schools, business and industry has been tremendously encouraging and point to long term success of this exciting initiative for UTAS and its Launceston campus.

TMJ: How do you view the virtual worlds sphere locally – are there any developments outside of HIT Lab that interest/excite you?

HIT Lab: The Launceston Campus of UTAS is a great place to begin the HIT Lab since it has not only the Nursing School and Australian Maritime College but also the design element in Architecture and Visual and Performing arts to name a few. The confluence of these disciplines and activities can be enriched by the catalyst and technologies provided by the HIT Lab AU. In the end, we would hope to involve existing local companies as well as develop new start-ups that we spinoff from the HIT Lab and UTAS. Within Australasia, the USA and Europe there are a number of links (beyond the HIT Labs) that we would like to establish involving projects and student exchanges etc.

TMJ: How important is some form of agreement on virtual world interoperability to HIT Lab’s work?

HIT Lab: There will be a time when standards for interface appliances supporting virtual worlds will need to be developed -but not too soon, as these will tend to restrict or constrain the progress of this remarkable technology. This is true especially as new functionality is developed along with growth in supporting technology. For example, we don’t want to be constrained by 8 bit byte standard when in the longer term we will need 128 bits per byte or more to grow the technology. Although standardisation can help interoperability, it can limit the vitality of a technology. Instead of standards, what would be useful is guidelines to give investigators and developers a feeling for best practices and what needs to be considered in the design and human factors engineering of virtual interfaces. Such a foundational understanding would then grow as the science and technology grow. The HIT Lab Australia, along with sister labs in the US and NZ will be the world’s repository for these best practices and guidelines.

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A big thanks to Chris Carstens for his help in coordinating the interview responses. Below you can find more detailed biographies:

Professor Young Ju Choi

ychoi2Born in Kwangju, Korea, and Australian by naturalisation, Professor Young Choi was educated at the Australian National University and the University of Adelaide.

Professor Choi has worked as a Computer Science academic in Australian higher education since his initial appointment at the University of Adelaide. Before coming to Tasmania he was Head of Computer Science and Deputy Dean, Faculty of Mathematical Sciences at Flinders University, Adelaide.

He was subsequently appointed as the Foundation Head of School of Computing at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) and served in this role for nearly twenty years. He has published widely in areas including concurrent and distributed computing, multimedia and internet technologies, and eLearning technologies.

He is recognised internationally for his work in international education, especially in China and Korea, including Chair of the Academic Advisory Committee; International Education Network, China; Asia Pacific Digital Multimedia Education Network member; and the ACHEM Computing Curriculum Board, Malaysia.

Professor Choi is currently Interim Director of the Human Interface Technology (HIT) Lab Australia at the University of Tasmania which is linked to the world-renowned HIT Lab US at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA.

Dr. Thomas Furness

furness Prof. Furness is a pioneer in human interface technology and virtual reality. He received the BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Duke University and the Ph.D. in Engineering and Applied Science from the University of Southampton, England. Dr. Furness is currently a professor of Industrial Engineering with adjunct professorships in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington. He is the founder of the Human Interface Technology Laboratory (HIT Lab) at UW and founder and international director of the HIT Lab NZ at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, NZ and the HIT Lab Australia at the University of Tasmania, Launceston, Tasmania. He is also an Erskine Fellow and Adjunct Professor at the University of Canterbury and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Tasmania.

Prior to joining the faculty at the University, Prof. Furness served a combined 23 years as an U.S. Air Force officer and civilian at the Armstrong Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, where he developed advanced cockpits and virtual interfaces for the Department of Defense. He is the author of the Super Cockpit program and served as the Chief of Visual Display Systems and Super Cockpit Director until he joined the University of Washington in 1989.

Dr. Furness lectures widely and has appeared in many national and international network and syndicated television science and technology documentaries and news programs. He is the inventor of the personal eyewear display, the virtual retinal display, the HALO display and holds 15 patents in advanced sensor, display and interface technologies. With his colleagues Dr. Furness has started 24 companies, two of which are traded on NASDAQ at a market capitalization of > $ 2 B. In 1998 he received the Discover Award for his invention of the virtual retinal display.

Filed Under: Australian News, Education, Profile, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: , ,

Merged realities – events and issues for virtual worlds

June 2, 2009 by Leave a Comment

cube3-virtualedgesml 1. Anyone still not convinced about the growth of virtual meeting spaces within business might like to check out the one created for the Virtual Edge Summit by Officepodz. More on this later in the week.

2. Twinity have expanded their virtual Berlin area. As of now, there’s a ‘be Berlin citystore’, which is part of the ‘be Berlin’ tourism marketing campaign. The citystore will play host to some further events and some round-table discussions to promote Berlin as an attractive tourist destination. The citystore can be found in the real world and in Twinity at Rochstraße 15, 10178 Berlin-Mitte.

3. The Alter Ego documentary on Second Life is now scheduled for screening this month: Friday 26th June at 10pm AEST. A review of the documentary is coming soon.

4. Gary Hayes has an interesting post to coincide with the widely misinterpreted “bombing” of ABC Island in Second Life. Those were the days.

5. Apparently it’s barbed wire and a concentration camp feel on the boundaries of the new adults-only test areas in Second Life.

Filed Under: Australian News, Events, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: , ,

The Multiplicities of Internet Addiction – a book review

May 19, 2009 by 1 Comment

This book review appeared yesterday over on Metaverse Health, but given the book’s Australian author and it’s broad examination of online behaviour, I thought it was worth re-posting it here.

Johnson – The Multiplicities of Internet 2a1

Nicola Johnson from the University of Wollongong in Australia, recently released a book titled The Multiplicities of Internet Addiction – The Misrecognition of Leisure and Learning. It’s an engaging read, not least for the very objective look it takes at the concepts of internet addiction and framing the issue within the realities of a net-connected society that has changed immensely in the past twenty years or so.

Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice is the frame for the qualitative study of eight New Zealander teenagers and the illumination it provided on the perception of technology use amongst those who’ve know no different (digital insiders), those who haven’t (digital newcomers) and those who are plain not interested (digital outsiders). Additionally, there’s some fascinating discussion on how expertise is being developed by digital insiders and how this expertise is at best partially gained from the traditional educational institutions in place at present.

It’s the elaboration of the experiences of these eight teens that allow Johnson to weave in a great deal of the substantive research that’s occurred into the nature of addiction in regard to online activity. There’s no assertion of internet addiction as non-entity, just a much smaller subset of use than usually claimed. As contributing writer Feldspar Epstein has written previously in relation to heavy use of virtual worlds by people with disabilities:

Can you imagine telling someone with no legs to forsake their wheelchair? How about someone with a pain disorder? Are you going to tell people with crippling mental disorders that they are not allowed to take drugs to normalize and enable them? Are you going to tell deaf people they can’t use Teletype in place of the telephone?

Each of these technological advances were radical in their time; some of them were seen as being destructive, to society or to the individual. It’s hard to imagine any of these people being denied their enabling technologies in today’s first world society (one hopes). I hope to live in a future where my enabling computer habits are accepted.

Johnson’s assertions based on a thorough exploration of the literature, reveal a similar conclusion: internet addiction does exist, but when the preconceptions of digital newcomers and digital outsiders are removed from the equation, the prevalence of internet addiction seems pretty limited indeed. As Johnson concludes:

Digital outsiders (and some digital newcomers) find it unfathomable to understand the preoccupation that digital insiders have with their online lives. Because it is not what they did in times gone by, they find it difficult to understand the value, worth and social capital received by avid users in what appears to be an unhealthy obsession. As I have argued, these practices are not only misrecognized as obessions or addictions, but they are misunderstood.

This book’s research base means it’s more likely to be consumed and digested by those who are doing research or study in the area themselves. Which is a shame, as the discussion deserves wider recognition and debate. Work like this balances out some of the excesses on the mainstream media side of the equation. It’s only a lack of dissemination of this perspective that will ensure the sensationalism camp prevails for some time to come.

You can purchase this book from our online bookstore, Amazon direct or direct from the publisher.

Filed Under: Australian News, Review, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

Merged realities – events and issues for virtual worlds

May 16, 2009 by Leave a Comment

jokaydia-eurovision11. Second Life educator extraordinaire, Jokay Wollongong, is having a Eurovision party this coming Sunday.

2. Caleb Booker has an interesting article on funerals and virtual worlds. He links to a YouTube vid of an incident a few years back in World of Warcraft that I’d seen before, as a basis of showing how mindsets have changed about the death of avatars and their real world impacts. Well worth a read.

3. For those that missed last months Catalyst program on ABC TV about the use of virtual reality in the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), you can view it here. There’s also an extra 7-minute interview with a US Marine whose PTSD treatment was benefitted by the use of virtual reality.

4. Human Resources and training virtual world NoviCraft has picked up Finland’s best e-learning product for 2009 and was the only game-based product entered.

Filed Under: Australian News, Events, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: , ,

Health Beyond 2009 – e-health, Serious Games and Second Life

May 6, 2009 by 2 Comments

Posted originally over on Metaverse Health:

As a Registered Nurse with a passion for the use of emerging technologies to improve health, it can sometimes be a little frustrating when things don’t seem to progress as fast as one would like. There’s also the ‘they just don’t get it’ phenomenon amongst some in health leadership and management roles, which can lead to the conclusion that progress is all too slow with new approaches.

A stark contrast to that is occurring this week in Melbourne, Australia, with the HealthBeyond e-health Consumer Day. I was very happy to be invited to attend this event to provide participants with a tour of some key health presences in Second Life in conjunction with what will no doubt be an engaging keynote from Mandy Salomon . It’ll be difficult to choose which health areas in Second Life with so many great options, but I do know the University of Plymouth’s sexual health sim is going to feature.

healthbeyond2009-small

It’s great to see the Health Informatics Society of Australia taking such a lead, featuring virtual worlds, serious games for health and broader gaming for exercise and stimulation in a get-together of this calibre. I have a feeling there’s going to be some exciting announcements come out of the gathering for the Australian health sector, which I’ll report on in coming weeks.

Filed Under: Australian News, Health, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: , ,

Skoolaborate: Linden Prize finalist

April 24, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Linden Lab have announced the finalists for their US $10000 Linden Prize, and amongst the handful of finalists is Skoolaborate,

By its nature, Skoolaborate is an international venture, but some Australian educators are key driving forces behind the project. Good luck to all the finalists – all illustrate some of the significant good coming out of virtual worlds.

Filed Under: Australian News, Education, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

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