When it comes to movies, James Cameron is clearly way ahead of his league,   
   which explains why so many of his films become blockbusters. I don't know   
   how many of you have seen his greatest blockbuster of all time -- Avatar --   
   but as with some of his previous work, it is based on real-world technology,   
   which is even in use as I write this commentary.   
      
   Below is a news article which reveals a lot of what is currently going on in   
   the virtual world of avatars. I found it quite interesting, if not a bit   
   alarming. As I have said before, whenever it comes to modern technology,   
   there is always the danger of abuse by unscrupulous individuals. I can only   
   wonder how this avatar technology might be used in the future. Might it   
   perhaps be a part of the "Image of the Beast" that can speak scenario?   
      
      
   In Cybertherapy, Avatars Assist With Healing   
      
   By BENEDICT CAREY - NYT   
      
   November 22, 2010   
      
      
   OTTAWA -- His talk was going just fine until some members of the audience   
   became noticeably restless. A ripple of impatience passed through the   
   several dozen seated listeners, and a few seemed suddenly annoyed; then two   
   men started to talk to each other, ignoring him altogether.   
      
   "When I saw that, I slowed down and then stopped what I was saying," said   
   the speaker, a 47-year-old public servant named Gary, who last year took   
   part in an unusual study of social anxiety treatment at the University of   
   Quebec.   
      
   The anxiety rose in his throat -- What if I'm not making sense? What if I'm   
   asked questions I can't answer? -- but subsided as his therapist, observing   
   in the background, reminded him that the audience's reaction might have   
   nothing to do with him. And if a question stumped him, he could just say so:   
   no one knows everything.   
      
   He relaxed and finished the talk, and the audience seemed to settle down.   
   Then he removed a headset that had helped create an illusion that the   
   audience was actually there, not just figures on a screen. "I just think   
   it's a fantastic idea to be able to experience situations where you know   
   that the worst cannot happen," he said. "You know that it's controlled and   
   gradual and yet feels somehow real."   
      
   For more than a decade, a handful of therapists have been using virtual   
   environments to help people to work through phobias, like a fear of heights   
   or of public spaces. But now advances in artificial intelligence and   
   computer modeling are allowing them to take on a wider array of complex   
   social challenges and to gain insight into how people are affected by   
   interactions with virtual humans -- or by inhabiting avatars of themselves.   
      
   Researchers are populating digital worlds with autonomous, virtual humans   
   that can evoke the same tensions as in real-life encounters. People with   
   social anxiety are struck dumb when asked questions by a virtual stranger.   
   Heavy drinkers feel strong urges to order something from a virtual   
   bartender, while gamblers are drawn to sit down and join a group playing on   
   virtual slot machines. And therapists can advise patients at the very moment   
   those sensations are felt.   
      
   In a series of experiments, researchers have shown that people internalize   
   these virtual experiences and their responses to them -- with effects that   
   carry over into real life.   
      
   The emerging field, called cybertherapy, now has annual conferences and a   
   growing international following of therapists, researchers and others   
   interested improving behavior through the use of simulations. The Canadian   
   military has invested heavily in virtual-reality research; so has the United   
   States Army, which has been spending about $4 million annually on programs   
   with computer-generated agents, for training officers and treating   
   post-traumatic stress reactions.   
      
   The trend has already generated a few critics, who see a possible downside   
   along with benefits.   
      
   "Even if this approach works, there will be side effects that we can't   
   anticipate," said Jaron Lanier, a computer scientist and author of "You Are   
   Not a Gadget: A Manifesto" (Knopf, 2010). "And in some scenarios I would   
   worry about defining humans down: defining what's normal based on what we   
   can model in virtual environments."   
      
   But most researchers say that virtual therapy is, and will remain, no more   
   than a therapist's tool, to be used only when it appears effective. "There's   
   a real and understandable distrust of technology as a shortcut for good   
   clinical skills," said Albert Rizzo, a psychologist at the University of   
   Southern California, "but I think, deep down, most therapists will want any   
   tool that can help them do their work, and they'll be open to using virtual   
   approaches."   
      
   Virtual Humans, Real Therapy   
      
   "My abilities are somewhat limited," says a female voice. "For example, I   
   can speak and listen to what you say, but I can't do any physical activity."   
      
   In an office at the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of   
   Southern California, a virtual woman named Angelina is addressing a college   
   student from a computer screen.   
      
   Angelina looks to be about 30 or so, a pretty, athletic figure with an open,   
   intelligent face framed by short black hair. Her eyes and expression, guided   
   by video cameras and microphones, stay in sync with the student's, as an   
   empathetic therapist's would. "What are some of the things you hate about   
   yourself?" asks the voice.   
      
   The student stalls for a moment. "Well," she says, in a video of the   
   exchange, "I don't like that I can be really quiet in social situations.   
   Sometimes people take that as me being rude, but it's just me being quiet."   
      
   Angelina nods sympathetically and then asks another question, about what the   
   student fears most.   
      
   Interacting with a virtual human programmed to be socially sensitive in this   
   way is oddly liberating. The figures are clearly not human; some are balky   
   with language, others mute. Many have a two-dimensional graphic-arts   
   quality.   
      
   But the faces are mobile, blinking, alive, the body language and gestures   
   seemingly natural; in some cases, the voice recognition and choice of   
   replies are good enough to conduct a stiff but convincing conversation. The   
   result is a living presence that is responsive but not judgmental.   
      
   In a recent study using this virtual confidant, researchers at U.S.C. have   
   found that Angelina elicits from people the crucial first element in any   
   therapy: self-disclosure. People with social anxiety confessed more of their   
   personal flaws, fears and fantasies to virtual figures than to live   
   therapists conducting video interviews, the study found.   
      
   The researchers are incorporating the techniques learned from Angelina into   
   a virtual agent being developed for the Army, called SimCoach. Guided by   
   language-recognition software, SimCoach -- there are several versions, male   
   and female, young and older, white and black -- appears on a computer screen   
   and can conduct a rudimentary interview, gently probing for possible mental   
   troubles.   
      
   Using SimCoach on a laptop, veterans and family members would anonymously   
   ask about difficulties they're having, whether due to post-traumatic stress   
   or other strains of service.   
      
   "It does not give a diagnosis," said Jonathan Gratch, a co-author of the   
   Angelina study with Sin-Hwa Kang, also of U.S.C. "But the idea is that the   
   SimCoach would ask people if they would like to see a therapist; and if so,   
   could then guide them to someone in their area, depending on what it has   
   learned."   
      
   Once people are in treatment, therapists can use virtual technology to   
   simulate threatening situations -- and guide patients through them,   
   gradually and incrementally, calibrating the intensity of the experience.   
      
   In person-to-person sessions to address anxieties or phobias, for instance,   
   therapists may have patients do this in their imaginations. Revisit a   
   dreaded experience -- say, a rooftop party, for a person afraid of heights   
   -- while defusing the physical reactions to the memory in the office. Out in   
   the world, patients then practice the same techniques, gradually increasing   
   their exposure, beginning with modest heights, for instance, and working up.   
      
   Using virtual environments, therapists can run this entire drill in their   
   offices. At the Virtual Reality Medical Center in San Diego, psychologists   
   have treated hundreds of patients using gradual virtual exposure, for   
   post-traumatic stress and agoraphobia, among other anxieties. At U.S.C., Dr.   
   Rizzo has designed a program specifically for veterans of the Iraq war.   
      
   In one scenario, wearing a headset, the patient is in a virtual Humvee,   
   motoring along a desert road toward a small Iraqi village. To the right is a   
   passenger, another soldier; behind and above rides a gunner; in front is   
   another Humvee. As the motorcade approaches the village, engines rumbling,   
   there is a flurry of gunfire, and more. A roadside bomb goes off, bullets   
   pierce the window -- your fellow soldier on the right is wounded badly, now   
   dying -- all of it under control of the therapist.   
      
   "We can control the intensity of the experience, and then work on the   
   patient's response," Dr. Rizzo said.   
      
   When it works, the therapy breaks the association between reminders of an   
   upsetting experience and the racing heart, the flushing, the panic that the   
   person has been struggling with.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
      
   Jeff Snyder, SysOp - Armageddon BBS  Visit us at endtimeprophecy.org port 23   
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