Artificial Telepathy: Prosumers, Cicerones and Mugges


Small electronic devices and social networking software are on the verge of creating a sort of artificial telepathy where images and ideas can be broadcast instantly to a group of people. 'If you get lost, my mobile will guide you' from the MUGGES project. TECNALIA Research & Innovation and Telefónica R+D have succeeded in taking one more step with social networks; with MUGGES, they have managed that any person with a mobile telephone in his or her hand is able to become a “cicerone”, a journalist or mobile reporter and, in fact, a provider of a huge amount of new services from their own terminal. The MUGGES project investigates the transformation of users of mobile telephones into prosumers, i.e. producers, providers and consumers of content from their own mobile telephone. The user generates and stores his or her own micro-services - known as mugglets - on their mobile telephone. This involves small applications that take advantage of the experience of the user and make use of the information of the context in real time, combining searching with social interaction. With MUGGES it is possible to share routes, follow the routes of others, visualise which routes are being followed when others are at the same point where the user is, comments by other users of the site, challenge other users on a specific route, create a service to share a car, to obtain a parking place, etc., become a mobile paparazzi present anywhere …. and a multitude of services more. In this way the user can obtain and provide information and content, share these services for their consumption or re-use (creation of new services from existing ones), thus making it possible to develop new business models. This new concept is opening up a pioneering path for a new generation of mobile services for the Internet of the Future, a priority line of research. One step forward in social networks: MUGGES stands out from the social networks in which one's own mobile phone is also enabled for social interaction in any place and at any time, without depending on an internet connection. Millions of potential providers, millions of journalists, a multitude of users informing about traffic, events, recommendations, etc. This is MUGGES, one step beyond social networks. The infrastructure and mobile devices are now sufficiently powerful to enable the development of new business models. The mobile terminal is evolving at great speed, even becoming a content server, so that a mobile user can constantly provide updated information, in real time and relevant for users. This trend will move to the mobile environment, much more suited to the way we carry out social interactions, anywhere and anytime. Mobile infrastructures and devices are now powerful enough to allow for new business models. The mobile terminal will evolve to become a server and therefore, a mobile user will provide constantly updated information, relevant to others users instantaneous interests and current context. 
Read More........→ Categories: ,,,
→

Virtual reality therapy could help people with depression

A new immersive virtual reality therapy could help people with depression to be less critical and more compassionate towards themselves, reducing depressive symptoms, finds a new study from University College London (UCL) and ICREA-University of Barcelona.
This new therapy, previously tested by healthy volunteers, was used by 15 depressed patients aged 23-61. Nine reported reduced depressive symptoms a month after the therapy, of whom four experienced a clinically significant drop in depression severity. The study is published in the British Journal of Psychiatry Open and was funded by the Medical Research Council. Patients in the study wore a virtual reality headset to see from the perspective of a life-size 'avatar' or virtual body. Seeing this virtual body in a mirror moving in the same way as their own body typically produces the illusion that this is their own body. This is called 'embodiment'. While embodied in an adult avatar, participants were trained to express compassion towards a distressed virtual child. As they talked to the child it appeared to gradually stop crying and respond positively to the compassion. After a few minutes, the patients were embodied in the virtual child and saw the adult avatar deliver their own compassionate words and gestures back to them.
This brief eight minute scenario was repeated three times at weekly intervals and patients were followed up a month later. "People who struggle with anxiety and depression can be excessively self-critical when things go wrong in their lives," explains study lead Professor Chris Brewin (UCL Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology). "In this study, by comforting the child and then hearing their own words back, patients are indirectly giving themselves compassion. The aim was to teach patients to be more compassionate towards themselves and less self-critical, and we saw promising results. A month after the study, several patients described how their experience had changed their response to real-life situations in which they would previously have been self-critical." The study offers a promising proof-of-concept, but as a small trial without a control group it cannot show whether the intervention is responsible for the clinical improvement in patients. "We now hope to develop the technique further to conduct a larger controlled trial, so that we can confidently determine any clinical benefit," says co-author Professor Mel Slater (ICREA-University of Barcelona and UCL Computer Science). "If a substantial benefit is seen, then this therapy could have huge potential. The recent marketing of low-cost home virtual reality systems means that methods such as this could potentially be part of every home and be used on a widespread basis."Source: http://www.futuretimeline.net/
Read More........→ Categories: ,,
→
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)