Collaboration, Therapy and Support, VR-Related

Unleashing Joy and Healing: Foretell Reality’s Dog Park

by Pia Behmuaras

August 31, 2023

One unique application of VR is found in Foretell Reality’s virtual dog park—a digital haven designed to combine the therapeutic benefits of social recreational activities and the unconditional love of our furry friends: Crumb Bun, Gooby, and Mabel!

A “Pawsitive” Approach to Recreational Therapy

Recreational therapy has long been recognized as an effective way to enhance physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. Its goal is to help individuals cope with challenges, improve their quality of life, and achieve a sense of joy and accomplishment. With the advent of virtual reality, this therapeutic approach has taken a giant leap forward, allowing users to engage in activities that transcend the limitations of the physical world.

Step into the Virtual Dog Park

Imagine putting on a VR headset and finding yourself standing at the entrance of a picturesque dog park with an urban background, bathed in warm sunlight. Lush greenery surrounds you, and the air is filled with the joyous barks and playful antics of virtual dogs of different breeds and sizes. This is the virtual dog park offered by Foretell Reality—a digital space where users can immerse themselves in an oasis of serenity and happiness.

The Healing Power of Interaction

The heart of the virtual dog park lies in its lifelike interactions. Users can approach the virtual dogs, kneel down, and even pet them using VR controllers. They can also give them treats, throw them toys, and play games with them and their peers. Studies have shown that physical interaction with animals can lead to reduced stress, lowered blood pressure, and increased release of oxytocin—the “bonding hormone.”

A Sense of Presence and Belonging

For those who may be physically restricted or unable to access traditional outdoor spaces, our virtual dog park offers a unique opportunity to connect with nature and animals as well as bond with other people. The immersive environment fosters a sense of presence and belonging, allowing users to temporarily escape from the confines of their physical limitations and experience the joys of being outdoors and surrounded by the companionship of dogs.

Tailoring the Experience

Foretell Reality’s virtual dog park allows users to customize their surroundings, choosing from various interactive elements like a hot dog cart, a swing set, and a dock on a lake. You can sit in a semicircle and have a discussion while the dogs come to you to play or choose a more active setting to play around with the dogs and chase them around.

The Therapeutic Potential

While the virtual dog park undoubtedly offers moments of fun and delight, its potential for therapeutic use is profound. Research has demonstrated that interactions with animals, even in virtual environments, can help alleviate symptoms of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Moreover, the sense of accomplishment that comes from bonding with virtual dogs and engaging in playful activities can boost self-esteem and overall mental well-being.

Closing Thoughts

As technology evolves, so too does our understanding of its potential to improve our lives in unexpected ways. Foretell Reality’s virtual dog park is a shining example of how virtual reality can be harnessed for recreational therapy, offering individuals a chance to experience the joys of canine companionship and the healing power of nature, regardless of their physical circumstances. With each interaction, users can find solace, happiness, and a renewed sense of connection—one virtual dog park visit at a time.

Coaching, Collaboration, Other, Soft Skills, Therapy and Support, VR-Related

Explore Foretell Reality’s Accessibility Features

by Pia Behmuaras

July 26, 2023

At Foretell Reality, our mission has always been to create inclusive and immersive experiences that enhance human interaction. We believe that emerging technology should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their abilities or preferences. This month, we are thrilled to showcase our commitment to accessibility and highlight the various options we have integrated into our platform to enhance user experiences for individuals with diverse needs.

1. Closed Captioning for a Seamless Visual Experience

Understanding the importance of accessibility in media content, we have taken significant steps to ensure no one is left out of the experience. With the addition of closed captioning, our users can now enjoy private and group conversations, irrespective of hearing impairments. Whether it be a group conversation or a one-to-one private chat, closed captioning ensures that the narrative reaches everyone.

2. Enlarged Text for Improved Readability

We recognize that users may have varying visual capabilities, and reading small text can be a challenge for some. To address this, we’ve introduced an option to enlarge text across our entire UI system, including notifications, closed captioning, and tooltips. By making text size customizable, users can adjust it to suit their comfort and avoid eye strain, providing a more enjoyable reading experience for all.

3. Real-Time Spoken Notifications for Visual Impairments

For individuals who face difficulties in visually identifying notifications, we’ve incorporated a spoken notification feature. Users now have the option to receive the notifications in spoken form, ensuring they never miss an essential update.

4. Optimized App for Colorblindness

Accessibility shouldn’t be limited to 95.5% of the population with great color vision. Color plays a significant role in design and user interfaces, especially in VR. Foretell’s new design ensures that vital information is conveyed through visual cues such as tooltips, icons, and animations, allowing colorblind users to engage seamlessly with the platform. We have also redesigned the color scheme to be higher in color contrast, accommodating the potential needs of those who are colorblind.

5. Single-Hand Mode for Different Levels of Mobility

For individuals with both temporary and permanent mobility issues, we’ve implemented a single-hand mode feature. Navigating through our platform using just one hand is now possible, providing greater convenience to those who may have limited mobility.

At Foretell Reality, accessibility is an ongoing journey, and we remain committed to continuously improving and expanding our features to cater to diverse needs. We firmly believe that everyone should have the opportunity to explore and enjoy the wonders of virtual reality and related technologies.

VR is a technology that can unite people from all walks of life but is still behind on some critical accessibility features offered in other devices like phones and computers. At Foretell, we are mindful of the different population segments, as we enhance our platform to foster a culture of inclusivity and empowerment.

Stay tuned for more updates on accessibility and other exciting features from Foretell Reality!

Coaching, Collaboration, Industry News, Soft Skills, VR-Related

Foretell Reality for Co-Existence Through Co-Education in Israel Schools

by Pia Behmuaras

May 26, 2023

In the classrooms of Israel’s middle schools, an extraordinary revolution is happening. This isn’t your typical lesson plan or group project, but an innovative and immersive journey into history using virtual reality (VR). Foretell Reality, a leading virtual reality platform, is the exciting vehicle driving this educational transformation.

Imagine Jewish, Muslim, and Christian students embarking on a virtual journey together. They explore historically significant sites, like Jerusalem, Haifa, Jaffa, Beth Shean, and Ramla, without leaving their classrooms or homes. Yet, they do so as avatars that transcend their personal backgrounds, making them immune to the conventional stigmas and prejudices that could cloud their real-life interactions. This digital exercise levels the playing field, fostering an open exchange of perspectives, and encouraging a deeper understanding of each other’s cultural narratives.

The power of Foretell Reality’s immersive environments lies not only in the ability to show panoramic pictures of these historic sites but also in the unique social interactions they facilitate among the students who are represented as avatars they customized themselves. In Foretell, students gathered around a virtual campfire, sharing PowerPoint presentations about the history of real locations that are related to their heritage. These virtual settings became platforms for playful engagement, whether it’s tossing around a virtual ball, splashing in a digital pool, or simply engaging in one-on-one conversations in various virtual settings.

Click here for more information on the project, and visit our website to learn more about Foretell Reality or to schedule a demo.

Coaching, Collaboration, Industry News, Soft Skills, VR-Related

Foretell Reality’s Conversational AI

by Pia Behmuaras

April 20, 2023

Generative AI-powered language models have exploded in popularity and entered the mainstream in recent months, with the most notable mention being ChatGPT from AI research and deployment company OpenAI.

The new conversational AI feature in Foretell Reality utilizes GPT-3 to enable VR experiences to respond to natural language inputs from users. With this integration, users can communicate with virtual characters in a conversational manner on the Foretell VR platform, similar to real-life interactions. This AI integration could revolutionize the way users interact and engage in virtual environments across multiple industries, including healthcare, education, training, and marketing.

The functionality will provide a higher level of engagement in virtual environments, creating a more realistic and lifelike experience. Applications for the new technology could include soft skills training and enable employees or students to simulate professional and social interactions with customers, partners, and each other.

Foretell Reality General Manager, Dror Goldberg said: “The integration of AI into our VR platform and experiences will help accelerate the adoption of VR technology and make it a more effective medium for our key customers in the education and healthcare sectors. AI can also be used to assess trainees’ performance and provide feedback and analytics.”

Virtual being Jessica listens to voice prompts in VR to answer a user’s questions. The Glimpse Group’s President & CEO, Lyron Bentovim, commented: “This AI integration is expected to be a game changer for the industry driving a much more engaging, realistic, and effective immersive experience. Not only will it enhance the overall user experience but also open up new avenues for interaction and exploration within virtual environments. We are proud to be at the forefront of this technological evolution and will continue to focus on building and implementing the opportunities AI offers across our companies and technologies.”

Foretell Reality’s integration of GPT-3 is certainly another inevitable step towards creating more realistic immersive experiences and is just one of many examples of recent AI integrations that could mark an inflection point for the XR industry in terms of enhanced interactions with virtual beings powered by sophisticated AI models.

For more information or to schedule a demo, please visit our website.

Coaching, Collaboration, VR-Related

Industries Using VR for Employee Training

by Pia Behmuaras

December 28, 2022

Learning in VR

The ability to embody a role in learning experiences has proven to speed learning. Virtual Reality (VR) technology allows for completely immersive and engaging training experiences where learners are not just observers or note-takers, but become active participants in their training. At the same time, VR has a unique ability to surround the learner with content, guidance, and feedback that offers a different way of learning than any other technology or toolkit (Adept XR).

Training Solutions

Training is shown to be one of the factors that influence new employee happiness and retention (Lauhman, 2020). In fact, organizations with a strong onboarding and training process improve new hire retention by 82% and productivity by over 70% (Gayatri, 2020). In contrast to in-person and online training, new employee training in VR can be done at any given time or location, without any external distractions. With remote jobs rising in number, VR is in a unique position to help thousands of employers and employees worldwide.

In manufacturing companies, employees who received training in VR or AR produced 30% more goods that met quality standards, made nearly 40% fewer errors than traditionally trained employees, and completed tasks 3.25x faster than traditionally trained employees. (Zawadski, 2020). Plus, by investing in VR headsets for employee onboarding, technology services company Accenture reduced their onboarding costs by an estimated 96.4%. This goes to show that VR can revolutionize not only training programs and their satisfaction but also the future performance of a company.

Just a few other commercial companies that use VR training for their employees are Goodway, Walmart, Porsche, KFC, Lufthansa, and H&R Block. The returns that they are seeing are incredible: After implementing VR training to improve the customer experience, H&R Block employees reported learning essential skills to manage difficult conversations. As a result, the company saw a 50% decrease in dissatisfied customers, a 9.9% decrease in customer handling times, and significantly faster issue resolution times among the representatives who completed the program.

The best part is that VR training can be adapted to any company and need. Without the need for extra personnel, gathering everyone together in a physical space, or programming activities for each new cohort, VR training solutions create a fun and effective learning experience that can be tailored to any company and training. The sky is the limit in terms of physics, equipment, and environments that can be featured in an experience. Not only do you feel like you are meeting new people, but thanks to the practice you get, your confidence increases as well.

Summary

VR provides a fun and immersive way to start learning a new skill, a new job, or even an entirely new career. It has shown benefits across manufacturing, service, and healthcare companies, as well as the military. By taking away the pressure of failure, VR training eases the learning curve. Plus, it drastically reduces the time, effort, and capital required from companies, and increases employee satisfaction.

Foretell Reality

Foretell Reality offers customized training solutions for educational institutions, enterprises, and hospitals. The Foretell platform supports as many as 25 learners at once, so your teams can learn from each other, and get to know their coworkers. We provide detailed analytics and feedback based on body language and speech, as well as performance improvements over time. Please visit our website for more information or to schedule a demo.

Collaboration, Industry News, Other, Soft Skills, VR-Related

A Guide to Education in VR

by Pia Behmuaras

November 1, 2022

Introduction

Right after telelearning comes learning in virtual reality (VR). And before you say I have Zoom fatigue, we can assure you that this will be different. Rather than interacting with teachers and classmates through a screen, you will feel immersed and engaged in learning. You can have your next science class underwater and learn about the animals swimming around you– All while seeing and hearing your classmates through your headset. VR creates a sense of social presence that telelearning lacks, and a level of immersion that beat in-person classes.

Effectiveness

Experimental learning, simulations, and role-play all have a large place in VR. It is less about passive learning, like listening or reading, and more about active learning, like practice and discussion. With VR learning, your information recall and retention rates will be higher. The benefits of VR usage in classrooms also include raising students’ success and enabling collaboration across remote participants from different backgrounds. Finally, in areas like language learning, VR can help expose students to the language and culture repeatedly, increasing the depth and breadth of practice (VRScout).

Virtual reality promotes learning by doing. Researchers suggest that increased levels of immersive content stimulate multisensory engagement and can ultimately lead to more effective learning outcomes (Webster 2016). As an extension, an experiment conducted with over 1000 undergraduate STEM students found that VR education improved grades by a full letter grade (DeHart, 2018). The improvement is primarily related to increased engagement and motivation. In addition, VR was found to be more effective in improving knowledge compared to non-VR scenarios like simulations or traditional learning (Chen et al.).

A review found VR education to be particularly effective in STEM, architecture, and medicine, as well as more fundamental skills and knowledge like learning how to organize thoughts (Hamilton et al., 2020). “A relatively small VR device can even act as a whole science lab.” writes Adobe. Think about reduced safety concerns, increased lab capacity, and an end to those nighttime lab sessions. Students are not limited in what they can create, and teachers are not required to have long hours of preparation. And for those who get queasy dissecting a frog, there are simplified simulations.

Accessibility

One way that VR helps level the playing field is by making field trips accessible to all. This is especially relevant for k12 students whose parents often have to pay extra for more engaging learning opportunities (Maristute, 2020). For example, students can travel to recreations of Ellis Island in the 19th century, meet the Egyptians who built the pyramids or go to the moon in a spaceship. Furthermore, many prominent museums and galleries have their exhibitions available in VR for students to explore and interact with at their own pace.

In addition, VR can recreate physically impossible scenarios for students to experience. For example, students can learn history surrounded by the remains of the Acropolis in Athens while conversing with animated gods and goddesses. As a result, VR is spreading among virtual campuses like Edstutia, as well as in brick-and-mortar universities like Harvard University, Nova Southeastern University, and Fordham University. Some institutions, like Harvard University, have also started giving certifications in VR education to teachers.

Implementation

Just like remote work and therapy have not gone anywhere after the pandemic, remote learning is here to stay, taking education to the next level. In fact, a study published in 2018 that VR technologies are now mature enough to be integrated into education as much as any other computing technology (Elmqaddem, 2018). At Foretell Reality, we provide widespread education solutions, from virtual campuses to small discussion rooms and classrooms just like in a traditional school or university. On top of that, our users can customize their avatars, play games, collaborate on whiteboards, and explore 3D objects with their virtual bodies.

Collaboration

Virtual Reality (VR) Collaboration with More Expressive Avatars Enhances Productivity

by Jillian Renken

June 25, 2021

As social Virtual Reality (VR) continues to evolve, the ability to render more expressive avatars has become more of a focal point. But do more expressive avatars really enhance the sense of presence and connectedness?

To answer that question, researchers behind a recent study published by “Frontiers in Virtual Reality” compared a set of collaborative experiences in a consumer level VR headset and an ‘Highly Expressive Avatar Control System’ (HEACS) developed specifically for the study.

To render more expressive avatars, the HEACS used a set of rendering techniques to mimic facial expressions and synchronized lip movements and a set of external Kinnect cameras to track body and hand movements. The consumer level VR headset did not have these enhancements.

To analyze the effectiveness of avatars, participants played a game of charades with another participant through each of the two avatar systems.

The results showed “that participants interacting with highly expressive avatars felt more social presence and attraction and exhibited better task performance than those interacting with partners represented using low-expressive avatars.”

Additionally, the study found that “participants prefer using the highly expressive avatar control system, which improves the task performance.”

While avatars available today through consumer headsets are able to convey expression through head and hand movements, this study indicates that further improvements to avatar expressiveness will continue to enhance the sense of presence, empathy, and connectedness.

Foretell Reality is a social virtual reality platform that supports many different types of avatars with varying degrees of realism and expression for different use cases including VR group therapy and support, soft skills training, and business collaboration. To schedule a demo, click here.

Collaboration, Soft Skills

Virtual Reality (VR) Soft Skills Training More Effective Than In-Person – PWC Study

by Max Ross

May 19, 2021

A Harvard Business Review survey finds that “89% of executives reported difficulty recruiting candidates with the requisite soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, and leadership”. Traditionally, in-person programs helped employees develop these vital skills, but the increase in remote working, accelerated by the pandemic, has made in-person training difficult to impossible.

With remote work here to stay for many people, Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC) set out to determine whether the use of Virtual Reality (VR) could improve employee competence in two important soft skills areas – public speaking and collaboration. Through a pilot study, PWC sought to answer two specific questions:

1. Is VR soft skills training more effective than traditional training methods?

2. Is VR soft skills training more cost-effective to deploy than traditional training methods?

For the study, PWC developed a virtual reality (VR) training program for diversity and inclusion. The company’s original in-person class was used as a control variable. After implementing their VR program, PWC drew the following conclusions:

VR participants were up to 275% more confident to act on what they learned after VR soft skills training, which is a 40% improvement over traditional classroom training.
VR learners were up to four times more focused than classroom learners—VR learners also completed training four times faster than classroom learners.
VR participants were nearly four times more emotionally connected to the content they were learning.

VR-based learning can yield higher confidence and improved ability to apply the learning on the job because of the ability to practice in an immersive, low-stress environment. VR-based learning can also be more cost effective at scale, as the time required to complete a VR course is substantially lower than in-person courses.

Foretell Reality is a social VR enterprise platform that enables authentic human interactions in immersive environments designed for soft-skills development and other use cases. Click here to schedule a demo.

Collaboration, Soft Skills

How does collaboration in VR stack up to in person? A new study aims to find out.

by Max Ross

April 30, 2021

Zoom fatigue is real and face-to-face meetings are still rare. Can Virtual Reality (VR) offer a viable alternative to both?

A recent study set out to answer the question by comparing the effectiveness of group collaboration through multi-user immersive virtual reality (IVR), face-to-face (FTF) meetings, and video conferencing (VR).

The study included a final sample size of 174 participants from secondary schools, a vocational college, and a university. Groups of three participants were assigned the task of deciding on the most favorable candidate for a position out of four choices.

In the FtF condition, participants were seated together around a circular table and their discussion was captured by a webcam. For the VC condition, group members were displayed on a 19” screen and used headphones. For the IVR condition, participants sat at a virtual table, using avatars to mask their true identities. Group communication and collaboration was then recorded, along with observations in social pressure and cognitive load.

The following are some of the key findings of the study:

IVR provided comparable multisensory inputs that mimicked face-to-face interactions. Participants demonstrated similar communication patterns in both IVR and face-to-face environments

Higher degrees of virtuality and engagement led to pooling of otherwise unshared information. This pooling was most likely due to the degree of spatial interactivity and social presence provided through VR environments.

No evidence was found for differences in extraneous cognitive load in IVR. Participants were not overwhelmed with remembering discussed information in virtual reality environments.

The study concluded that “Multi-user IVR can help bridge the gap between the main advantages of IVR (simulation and manipulation of immersive three-dimensional objects) and the growing demand for effective collaboration of spatially distributed teams. This creates new opportunities for remote work that rely on spatial interactivity within a virtual environment.”

Even after the pandemic subsides, it is estimated that at least 16% of workers will continue to permanently work remotely and about 80% of employers plan to allow remote work at least some of the time after things return to normal.

Foretell Reality is a social Virtual Reality (VR) platform that enables authentic human interactions in immersive environments designed to promote communication, collaboration, and learning.

Collaboration

Zoom Fatigue is real. VR is here to help.

by Jonathan Collins

March 5, 2021

The term ‘Zoom Fatigue’ was coined over the past year to describe the general malaise associated with constantly being on video calls throughout the day.

Now researchers say that it is a real phenomenon and have identified four main causes including “excessive and intense eye contact, constantly watching video of yourself, the limited mobility of being stuck at your desk, and more energy spent identifying social cues you’d otherwise pick up on intuitively in person.”

Virtual Reality (VR) offers an alternative to video by addressing some of the root causes of Zoom Fatigue.

Excessive and intense eye contact – While eye contact is an important aspect of communication, staring at a panel of faces for prolonged periods of time on a flat screen is simply not natural. VR replaces the flat screen with a shared 3D environment in which participants are spaced naturally apart and conversations mimic those of the real world.

Constantly watching video of yourself – It is natural for humans to fixate on our own appearance and this can distract from natural conversation with others. In VR, everyone is represented as an expressive avatar. This lowers self-judgement and allows for less inhibited conversation.

Limited mobility of being stuck at your desk – Sitting in one place for long periods of time is not healthy mentally or physically. Current VR headsets are not tethered to a computer allowing you to take meetings from anywhere, standing or sitting.

More energy spent identifying social cues – Non-verbal communication can be equally important as speaking and listening. With video calls, those cues typically only happen from the shoulders up and within the confines of a 2D box. In VR, hand gestures, gaze direction, and overall body posture are observable in a 3D environment giving a more complete sense of how someone is reacting to and absorbing information and conversations.

Foretell Reality is a VR platform for remote communication that offers all of the benefits of 3D environments and avatars. We work with our clients to design experiences that fit their use cases in areas like group therapy and support, soft skills training, and business collaboration. Interested in a demo? Click here.

Virtual Reality (VR) Collaboration with More Expressive Avatars Enhances Productivity

Virtual Reality (VR) Soft Skills Training More Effective Than In-Person – PWC Study

How does collaboration in VR stack up to in person? A new study aims to find out.

Zoom Fatigue is real. VR is here to help.

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

About Exponent

Recent Posts

Subscribe Now