Adding autonomous virtual humans to the landscape allows therapists to begin   
   addressing some of the most complex problems of them all -- social ones. In   
   one continuing study at the University of California, Davis, for instance,   
   researchers are trying to improve high-functioning autistic children's   
   ability to think and talk about themselves while paying attention to   
   multiple peers.   
      
   The hope is similar for people with social anxiety: that practice   
   interacting with a virtual boss, suspicious strangers or virtual partygoers   
   who are staring as one enters the room will also lead to increased comfort,   
   with the help of a therapist. "The figures themselves don't even have to be   
   especially realistic to evoke reactions," said a psychologist, Stephane   
   Bouchard, who directs the cybertherapy program at the University of Quebec   
   in Ottawa. "People with social anxiety, for example, will feel they are   
   being judged by virtual humans who are simply watching them."   
      
   In the pilot study that included Gary, the University of Quebec researchers   
   tracked two groups of patients: one that received an hour of talk therapy   
   once a week for 14 weeks and another that got talk therapy with a virtual   
   component, practicing virtual interactions. Both groups showed improvement,   
   faring much better than a comparison group put on a waiting list,   
   preliminary results suggest. But those who got virtual therapy achieved the   
   same gains without having to practice interactions in the real world,   
   deliberately putting themselves in embarrassing situations or dreaded   
   encounters. The researchers are now working to identify which people benefit   
   most, and whether combining virtual and real-world experiences accelerates   
   recovery.   
      
   The face in the mirror does not look familiar; it has a generic,   
   computer-generated look. Yet it does appear to be staring out from a mirror.   
   Lift a hand and up goes its hand. Nod, wave, smile, and it does the same,   
   simultaneously. Now, look down at your own body: and there, through the   
   virtual reality headset, are a torso, legs, clothes identical to those in   
   the mirror.   
      
   In a matter of minutes, people placed in front of this virtual mirror   
   identify strongly with their "body" and psychologically inhabit it,   
   researchers at Stanford University have found. And by subtly altering   
   elements of that embodied figure, the scientists have established a   
   principle that is fundamental to therapy -- that an experience in a virtual   
   world can alter behavior in the real one.   
      
   "The remarkable thing is how little a virtual human has to do to produce   
   fairly large effects on behavior," said Jeremy Bailenson, director of the   
   Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford and the author, with James   
   Blascovich, of the coming book "Infinite Reality" (HarperCollins 2011).   
      
   In one recent experiment , Dr. Bailenson and Nick Yee, now at the Palo Alto   
   Research Center, had 50 college students enter a virtual environment and   
   acquire a virtual body, an avatar. Each student then participated in a   
   negotiation game with a member of the experimental team, who was introduced   
   as another student.   
      
   But all the avatars were not created equal. Some were four inches taller   
   than their human counterparts, and others were four inches shorter. The   
   participants didn't notice this alteration, but those made taller negotiated   
   in the virtual game much more aggressively than those made shorter. A later   
   study led by Dr. Yee found that this effect carried over into face-to-face   
   negotiations after the virtual headsets were removed.   
      
   The researchers have demonstrated a similar effect in the case of   
   attractiveness. In another experiment, they created generic avatars for some   
   participants that were about 25 percent "more attractive" than average,   
   based on features that the group had rated as attractive. Compared with   
   study participants whose avatars were made 25 percent "less attractive," the   
   virtual beauties were more socially confident, standing closer in virtual   
   conversation, revealing more about themselves -- an effect that also seeped   
   into social interactions after the headsets came off.   
      
   Again, no one noticed the manipulation; its effects were entirely   
   subconscious.   
      
   The authors argue that the participants, in effect, psychologically   
   internalized their virtual experience. "What we learn in one body is shared   
   with other bodies we inhabit, whether virtual or physical," they concluded.   
      
   It seems people will psychologically inhabit almost any virtual body if the   
   cues are strong. In recent research a team led by Mel Slater, a computer   
   scientist at the University of Barcelona, induced what it calls   
   body-transfer illusion -- showing that men will mentally take on the body of   
   a woman, for instance, if that's the body it appears they're walking around   
   in virtually. The experience is especially powerful, Dr. Slater said, when   
   the men feel a touch (on a shoulder, in a recent study) at the same time the   
   avatar is touched.   
      
   "You can see the possibilities already," said Dr. Slater. "For example, you   
   can put someone with a racial bias in the body of a person of another race."   
      
   These kinds of findings have inspired a variety of simple experiments.   
   Dropping a young man or woman into the virtual body of an elderly person   
   does in fact increase sympathy for the other's perspective, research   
   suggests.   
      
   "This is to me the most exciting thing about using virtual environments for   
   behavior change," Dr. Bailenson said. "It's not only that you can create   
   these versions of reality; it's that you can cross boundaries -- that you   
   can take risks, break things, do things you could not or would not do in   
   real life."   
      
   Mini-Me in Action   
      
   In the virtual studio at the University of Quebec, patients wearing a   
   headset can have a short conversation with a diminutive, attentive virtual   
   therapist. Except for slight stature, it is a ringer for Dr. Bouchard: the   
   same open face, the same smile, the same pelt of dark hair around a bald   
   pate.   
      
   "Mini-Me, we call it," Dr. Bouchard said.   
      
   The hologramlike figure seems at first to be minding its own business,   
   looking around, biding time. Then it approaches slowly, introduces itself   
   and kindly asks a question, like some digital-age Socrates: "What is the   
   best experience you've ever had?"   
      
   For now, Mini-Me cannot do much more than cock its head at the answer and   
   nod, before programmers begin to guide the conversation; the scientists are   
   adding more language-recognition software, to extend interactions. Yet   
   Mini-Me offers a glimpse of where virtual humans are headed:   
   three-dimensional forms that can be designed to resemble people in the real   
   world.   
      
   "You could scan in a picture of your mother or your boss or someone else   
   significant and, with some voice recording samples, use a system that would   
   automatically and quickly recreate a virtual facsimile of that person," said   
   Dr. Rizzo of U.S.C., where programmers have set up an Old West bar scene,   
   complete with a life-size, autonomous virtual bartender, a waitress and a   
   bad guy. "Then, perhaps, we'd be able to stage interactions that might   
   closely resemble those in a patient's life to help work through challenging   
   issues."   
      
   Anyone could rehearse the dance of social interaction, tripping without   
   consequence, until the steps feel just about right.   
      
   "The great thing about it," said Gary, the civil servant, referring to his   
   own virtual therapy, "is that you can do anything you want and just see what   
   happens. You get to practice."   
      
      
      
   Jeff Snyder, SysOp - Armageddon BBS  Visit us at endtimeprophecy.org port 23   
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