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Category: VR

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  • VR isn’t just fun. It’s a new hope for early detection of Alzheimer’s

    Over the past few years, virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a remarkably useful addition to the field of medical science. From offering physician training and helping people cope with pain to delivering at-home physiotherapy and reducing stress, VR platforms have proved to be of immense help. 

    The next VR breakthrough could help with the early detection of a well-known neurodegenerative disease. In its current form, the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease requires expensive neurological tests, brain scanning, blood analysis, and more. There is no single, or definitive, biomarker test. 

    A team of experts is now exploring how VR-based experiences can help assess spatial memory and check for signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Research shows the development of Alzheimer’s proteins affects a person’s memory and navigation functions. Or to put it more specifically, allocentric navigation and spatial memory.

    How VR can help detect Alzheimer’s?

    Cognitive tests for detecting signs of Alzheimer’s also rely on gauging episodic memory, but the usage of VR enables healthcare experts to check the brain’s memory functions in an even more granular and immersive fashion.

    Due to weakening memory functions, people with Alzheimer’s commonly misplace objects, and this gets worse as the disease progresses, suggesting it could be an early sign of the illness. Alzheimer’s is also tied to the development of certain proteins in the brain, which helped researchers verify the efficiency of their VR-based detection system.

    A man uses a VR headset while playing a game.
    Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock

    The team focused on plasma Aβ42/Aβ40 and pTau217 protiens as part of their VR test. They asked participants to remember the location of various objects in nearly two dozen virtual living rooms. Based on the memory performance and body fluid tests, the team discovered a link between these proteins and object location memory as well as location precision. 

    “We found decreased object location memory, as well as decreased precision for the object location memory, between young adults and older adults and unimpaired participants and those with mild cognitive impairment,” says Tammy Tran, a neuroscientist who presented her findings at the annual conference of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS) this month. 

    A more accessible future for Alzheimer’s detection

    As part of their tests, the team tested healthy young (and old) people as well as folks diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The latter category, showing symptoms of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), struggled with memory-related tasks in the VR atmosphere. 

    Alan Truly sits in front of a Windows PC and adjusts a virtual screen while wearing a Meta Quest 3 VR headset.
    I can adjust virtual screens while using my Windows PC via a Meta Quest 3 VR headset. Photo by Tracey Truly / Digital Trends

    Experts behind the project developed VR gear equipped with head and eye tracking sensors, similar to those you will find on devices such as the Apple Vision Pro or the upcoming Meta Orion holographic smart glasses. In a separate test, healthy adults were asked to remember corridors and hidden landmarks in a VR space. 

    Following the tests, it was discovered that navigational abilities differ across different age groups. “We expect that the presence of different complexity levels across trials will amplify differences between younger and older participants, and between older participants and those diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s disease,” adds Manu Madhav, a robotics expert and neuroscientist who is also working on the project. 

    “Designed for use by both clinicians and caregivers, this tool will facilitate early AD detection, enable long-term monitoring, and guide restorative interventions,” the team adds. The overarching goal is to deploy VR as a non-invasive and immersive tool to measure age-related memory decline that is a clinical symptom of Alzheimer’s onset. 

  • I turned a mossy tree into a 3D world and walked inside with my Quest 3

    I live in a heavily forested area, so I don’t have to travel far to enjoy an early spring walk through the woods. I’m always seeking new ways to capture the essence of the experience. Photos are great and videos can record even more of a beautiful location, but it’s not quite the same as being there. I want to relive that moment, particularly when the weather makes going out more challenging.

    Fortunately, technology keeps opening up new opportunities, like turning a real location or tangible object into a 3D world or digital twin I can visit from home. My latest experiments let me scan a lush mossy patch beside a tree with an eye-catching arched root. With my Quest 3 or Quest 3S VR headset, anyone can find and walk around that spot again. It’s almost like taking a piece of the forest inside. This is the kind of metaverse I’d like to see more of.

    The best VR headsets open up new realities and sometimes make it easier to explore the real world in new ways.

    It’s made of splats

    Scaniverse shared an image of a Gaussian splat represented as pixels.
    Scaniverse shared an image of a Gaussian splat represented as pixels. Scaniverse

    The key to making a 3D scan that I can enter later is finding a Gaussian splat scanner with a viewer that works in VR. The Quest app is called Into the Scaniverse, and it’s free on the Meta app store.

    A Gaussian splat looks like it’s made of fuzzy dots. The Scaniverse mobile app can capture enough detail that those dots fuse together to render high-resolution images that look almost photorealistic.

    It’s an early access app, but there are already more than 50,000 3D scenes recorded at locations around the world. Even if you don’t capture any scans of your own, you can become a world traveler without leaving home with just the Meta Horizon app and a Quest 3 or Quest 3S.

    I’m sure Into the Scaniverse will launch on other platforms. It would be incredible on Apple’s Vision Pro or the upcoming Android XR headsets.

    My experience with Scaniverse

    Into the Scaniverse lets me view the world from elf height and peek under tree roots.
    Into the Scaniverse lets me view the world from elf height and peek under tree roots. Digital Trends

    I’ve used several 3D capture apps in the past and already knew that slow and steady movement provides the best results. I also remembered that circling an area of interest at various heights gives the app more spatial data.

    The Scaniverse mobile app shared similar tips, so my first scan took about five minutes, maybe a little longer. My subject was an elf sculpture my wife made for her TraceyTrulyArt Etsy shop. I started low, spiraling around the forest elf that leaned against a moss-covered tree root that formed a natural arch.

    After scrabbling around on the ground for a couple of minutes, I stood and slowly circled again. I moved back and went around a few more times. The app takes several minutes to upload and process the data, and I chose the optional enhance step, which added another minute.

    With a push on my Quest 3 thumbstick, I can switch to a higher angle and continue to walk through the scene.
    With a push on my Quest 3 thumbstick, I can switch to a higher angle and continue to walk through the scene. Digital Trends

    It was worth the effort, because the scan was almost perfect. Back home with my Quest 3, I could walk around, the space at my normal height, or push a thumbstick down to “shrink” to elf size and walk under the arch of the tree root.

    You can search for it in the Quest app. I named it “Trenton Park Elf.” You can also view it in a desktop or mobile browser, using a mouse or gestures to angle and drag the view. The VR experience is much more immersive.

    While I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was better than reality, it allows me to relive that memory as it was or change my perspective for a unique experience that’s only possible in VR. I could change my height in an instant and pass through physical objects, seeing them from the inside out.

    Exploring Into the Scaniverse

    Scaniverse developer Ninantic posted a video that demonstrates how it looks in the Quest. Of course, the video makes it look effortless, but there’s a bit more work needed to get the best quality.

    Beyond my own scans, I browsed the 3D content others have uploaded publicly. It’s also possible to save scans to my own private library.

    While there are thousands of locations represented as 3D worlds, the scale is never big enough to explore very far. Still, there are some very nice captures of artwork, architecture, parks, and nature. I enjoyed spending time exploring what was available.

    Since public scans are contributed by the user community, the quality varies. The quality suffers if you try to capture an environment instead of circling a subject. It’s best to think of recording an area the size of a small room and accept that the background could be out of focus. Still objects work best, so people, plants, animals, and things that wave in the wind will have distortions or blur.

    The most important technique is to move slowly and circle the subject several times at varying heights, tilting your phone up and down to keep the point of interest in view. With enough angles and a steady hand, you’ll get great captures even if you can’t get behind an object.

    While my Scaniverse of an art shelf only captured one side, I could move into the shelf and see more.
    While my Scaniverse of an art shelf only captured one side, I could move into the shelf and see more. Digital Trends

    For example, I recorded a shelf of figurines and ornaments with Scaniverse. The shelf is against a wall, but in VR, I can walk into the shelf and see the art from the side or even peer through the sculptures from behind.

    Scaniverse expands the metaverse

    To save your own scans, you need Scaniverse for iOS or Android. It’s free and has a quick tour that shows how to capture a Gaussian splat.

    3D captures are just one way that the metaverse is growing, and it’s not limited to Quest headsets. Android XR is coming this year, and Meta has partnered with other manufacturers to create new VR headsets that can run the Quest’s Horizon OS.

    Apple is expected to announce bigchanges to visionOS at the 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference. There are also rumors that Apple might launch a new Vision Pro model this fall.

  • Mobile-based free VR tool is helping people beat speech anxiety

    Virtual Reality was once considered a niche for video games, but over the years, it has found application in many areas. From finding a place in medical education and paving the way for immersive concerts to helping teens and adults deal with psychological distress, the applications of VR are now an ever-expanding domain.

    The latest VR innovation comes from the University of Cambridge, and it aims to help people overcome speech anxiety and the fear of public speaking. The institution’s Immersive Technology Lab has launched a free VR training platform that focuses on accessibility and provides expert-curated course material.

    Terrified of public speaking? This Cambridge VR solution could eliminate your fear

    To that end, the team has created a system that doesn’t necessarily rely on an expensive VR headset. Instead, all it needs is the smartphone in your pocket to provide an immersive experience, fitted atop a mounting kit that can cost as little as $20 a pop.

    The training material, on the other hand, is freely available via a website to anyone across the world. Moreover, it is also one of the first products of its kind with a dual-compatible VR player architecture, which means it works just fine with iPhones and Android devices.

    Smartphone-based VR kit for speech training.
    Lucy Cavendish College

    “The platform has been built in such a way that whether a participant is using the latest standalone VR headset or an old smartphone inserted into a device mount, they will get the same content and the same experience,” says the team.

    The idea is not too different from the Google Cardboard, which cost $15 roughly a decade ago and offered a low-cost route to experiencing VR content by using one’s smartphone. But unlike Google’s approach, we have now entered a market phase where “converter kits” are a lot more polished and use higher quality materials.

    How does the VR training program work?

    Putting a phone inside a VR kit.
    Lucy Cavendish College

    The training material created by Dr. Chris MacDonald, a behavioral scientist and founder of the Immersive Technology Lab, has passed clinical validation. It has been tested by students at Cambridge and UCL, delivering a 100% success rate in helping adopters with speech and public speaking anxiety.

    The training material follows roughly the same pattern as psychological exposure therapy. In a nutshell, to help a person overcome fear and anxiety, they are gradually exposed to mild forms of their fear. Over time, the exposure intensity increases, eventually helping people get rid of their fright and trepidation.

    Scenarios of VR-based public speaking.
    Lucy Cavendish College

    In this case, when participants log into the VR training platform, they see various kinds of audience setups. It can be an empty room, anchoring a TV studio, a cabin with a few people in front of them, a radio interview, or an entire stage-like setting with people across their field of view.

    The training scenarios can be filled with all kinds of noise, light, and camera effects to provide a realistic feel. The objective is to help participants face their fear and then grow mental resilience.

    For the VR training platform, however, Dr. MacDonald upped the ante with Overexposure Therapy, which is essentially putting people in hyperbolic scenarios they will likely never face in their real lives, like performing in a packed stadium. Think of it as the “psychological equivalent of running with weights or at high altitudes.”

    The end goal

    The VR training material has been created to help people with speech anxiety and fear of speaking in public. Dr. MacDonald notes that these challenges are not only a mental health concern, but also pose a hurdle to academic progress as well as professional opportunities. At the end of the day, it’s simply obstructing sheer human potential.

    Person holding a VR kit for speech anxiety training.
    Lucy Cavendish College

    So far, the VR-based training platform has proven its efficacy. After one week of independent use, participants reported positive outcomes in improving their well-being, a feeling of increased preparedness, more adaptability, resilience, a boost in confidence, and improved management of anxiety and nervousness.

    He is now at work to expand the scope of his novel VR training platform, add more features into the mix, and reach more platforms. So far, the VR training platform has clocked over 50,000 remote sessions, and hundreds have tried it in lab settings as well as in-person events.

    “I am also collaborating with organisations that seek to support specific groups such as children who stammer. The goal is to create more targeted treatment options for those who need it the most,” says Dr. MacDonald. The VR training platform is now accessible to all enthusiasts globally via an official website.