Transitional Online Post-deployment Soldier Support in Virtual Worlds

(TOPSS-VW)

The projects or efforts depicted were or are sponsored by the U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM) Simulation Training and Technology Center (STTC). The content or information presented does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the Government, and no official endorsement should be inferred.

Jacki Morie

USC Institute for Creative Technologies

“Coming Home”

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Wounds of War

Latest statistics indicate that more than 300,000 veterans who have returned from Iraq & Afghanistan are currently suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depression OR TBI

(Rand Corporation, 2008)

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Getting help

Only 1 in 3 Iraq war veterans seeks mental health services, according to an Army panel of experts last year.

Many of those never

complete their treatment.

WHY?

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Virtual Worlds

1 in 8 Americansuse

Virtual Worlds(GigOM research, 2009)

• They are a lot like games, but can serve more purposes.

• You can be anonymous.

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Questions: Can a VW

become part of a veteran’s reintegration process?

provide social support, stress relief & other therapies for veterans in the VW?

Can we make intelligent agents to serve as guides & helpers in the VW?

Our VW choice: Second LifeOur VW choice: Second Life

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“Coming Home” approach

Address re-integration issues via a specialized gathering space in a virtual world with resources for healing & transition.

Provide interactive Complementary & Alternative Medicine (CAM)-based interventions within the Virtual Space

Add virtual humans to keep the space from being confusing or empty & to direct people to activities

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The Veterans Center

Chicoma Lodge

Relaxing spaces: outside &

inside

Game rooms

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The Veterans Center

Enrichment activities

Labyrinth

Story Tower for Warrior’s Journeys

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Virtual Humans in Coming Home

The Greeter Guide (Island Caretaker)

Currently: Text-based question & answer

Future: Spoken conversation with appropriate gestures & animations

Currently: Text-based question & answer

Future: Spoken conversation with appropriate gestures & animations

…. helps to maximize each person’s experience.

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ICT makes Virtual Humans

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Marketing

TrainingResearch

Dr. PerezSASO-ST, SASO-EN

Elder-Al-HassanSASO-EN

MinorCharacters

C3ITCultural training

ELECTBi-Lat

JustinVirtual Patient

HassanEmotional Dialog Modeling

Virtual

Humans

RaedTactical Questioning

Sgt. BlackwellClinical

Diagnosis

RapportAgent Study

ICT’s Virtual Humans Portfolio

JustinaVirtual Patient

Gunslinger

RadiobotsJFETS Training

VeteransCenter

Sgt. Star

Museum Guide & Coach

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… can be summoned to explain how to walk a labyrinth.

The Labyrinth Guide

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The Storyteller Agent… answers questions about

The Warriors Journey

story

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CAM Therapies

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

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The Veterans Center’s Chicoma Exchange (Cx)

Resources

Events Board

V.O.I.C.E.S. (Veterans Online & Inworld Chicoma Services Exchange)

Orientation & Building Tutorials

Freebies (clothes, objects, avatars)

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The Veterans Center: Physical Activities

The Running Path

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Collaborations

• Support from Linden Lab

• SL Veterans’ group (~1000 members)

• Medical, CAM & military experts

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Future Plans

Resources

More CAM therapies)

AA and NA in-world groups

Art & music therapies

Career Center

Virtual Humans

Add voice functionality

Create MBSR helper agent

Storytelling agent to assist veterans in authoring their own Warriors Journey

2010: Pilot study with recently returned vets @ Ft. Sam Houston, TX

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VWs -> RW Benefits?

• Stanford group finds that effects experienced by avatars in the virtual

world spill into the real world. e.g. physical activities

Yee, N. & Bailenson, J. “The Proteus Effect: The Effect of Transformed Self-Representation on Behavior.” Human Communication Research 33(3), 271-290. (2007).

Fox, J. & Bailenson, J. “Virtual Exercise in the Third Person: Identification, Physical Similarity, and Behavioral Modeling”, May 22, 2008. Available at http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p230577_index.html

• Social activities are therapeutic – RW or VW

• CAM activities may mitigate declining health scores in

returned vets

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ICT’s Virtual Humans & Vet Center teams

Virtual Humans researchers

Dr. Bill Swartout

Dr. Jonathan Gratch

Dr. Stacy Marsella

Dr. Anton Lueski

Dr. Ron Artstein

Patrick Kenny

Susan Robinson Jillian Gerten

Dr. Paul Debevec & the Graphics Lab

Ed Fast

Matt Liewer

Brad Newman

Dusan Jan

Antonio Roque

Sudeep Gandhe

Ashish Vaswani

And thanks to our funders, the U. S. Army RDECOM, and the NSF.These opinions relayed here are my own and no official endorsement should be inferred.

… & many other talented artists & researchers through the years.

The Veteran’s Center team

Eric Chance

Kip Haynes

Sean Bouchard

Dr. Jacki Morie

Dinesh Rajapurohit

Dr. David Traum & the Natural Language Group