Avatar iTag Amp Suit virtual reality toy

James Cameron’s Avatar toys have a virtual reality component to them. View the toy at www.collectiondx.com

Virtual Reality in Medicine – many evolving uses and advantages

Virtual reality techniques, involving three-dimensional imaging and surround sound, are increasingly being used in diagnosis, treatment, and medical education. Initial applications of virtual reality in medicine involved visualization of the complex data sets generated by computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. A recent application of these techniques for diagnostic purposes has been the “virtual colonoscopy,” in which data from a contrast-enhanced abdominal CT scan is used to make a “fly-through” of the colon. Radiologists then use this fly-through for colon cancer screening. Recent improvements in methodology have brought the sensitivity and specificity of this technique closer to the levels of optical colonoscopy, and patients prefer the technique to the traditional method.

Virtual reality has also been used extensively to treat phobias (such as a fear of heights, flying and spiders) and post-traumatic stress disorder. This type of therapy has been shown to be effective in the academic setting, and several commercial entities now offer it to patients. In one of my projects using the multi-user virtual reality environment offered by Second Life, one of several easily available online virtual reality environments, we have used a virtual psychosis environment to teach medical students about the auditory and visual hallucinations suffered by patients with schizophrenia.

Virtual reality has been used to provide medical education about healthcare responses to emergencies such as earthquakes, plane crashes and fires. While the primary advantage in phobia treatment is a “safe environment” which patients can explore, the primary advantage in emergency preparedness is simulation of events that are either too rare or too dangerous for effective real-world training. The immersive nature of the virtual reality experience helps to recreate the sense of urgency or panic associated with these events.

Virtual reality programs have also been used for a variety of medical emergency, mass casualty, and disaster response training sessions for medical and public health professionals. One study developed a protocol for training physicians to treat victims of chemical-origin mass casualties as well as victims of biological agents using simulated patients. Although it was found that using standardized patients for such training was more realistic, the computer-based simulations afforded a number of advantages over the live training. These included increased cost effectiveness, the opportunity to conduct the same training sessions over and over to improve skills, and the ability to use “just-in-time” learning techniques and experience the training session at any time and location, while adjusting the type and level of expertise required to use the training for various emergency response professionals. Others have explored the potential for training emergency responders for major health emergencies using virtual reality. Their objective was to increase exposure to life-like emergency situations to improve decision-making and performance and reduce psychological distress in a real health emergency.

Experience with recent natural disasters and terrorist acts has shown that good communication and coordination between responders is vital to an effective response. In my work using Second Life to develop a virtual mass disaster emergency clinic to hand out antibiotics to the population following a massive anthrax bioterrorism attack, we have found a number of important advantages of the virtual world, over the real world, for training first responders.

Responders to such events come from many different organizations, including fire, police, military, and hospital personnel. There are three major difficulties in training and evaluating these first responders in the real world:
1. They have little or no chance to train together before the event occurs and hence lack teamwork skills.
2. What training they may have had comes at great cost, in large part due to the effort and need to transport so many people to a specific training site at a specific time.
3. The training sites frequently cannot be the most common targets – for example, one cannot shut down the Golden Gate Bridge during rush hour to train for an earthquake or terror scenario.

Virtual reality offers some intriguing advantages over the real world for these aspects of first responder training, as all of the above difficulties can be overcome. Virtual reality systems can support multiple simultaneous users, each connecting to the system using standard office personal computers and broadband Internet access. Lifelike models of buildings, roads, bridges, and other natural and man-made structures where the users can interact can be constructed. Finally, the whole scenario can be digitally preserved and a full workflow analysis can be performed retrospectively. Public health officials and first-responders can work through the scenarios as many times as they like to familiarize themselves with the workflow and emergency protocols, without encumbering the time and expense of organizing a mock emergency in real life.

Virtual Reality treatments are rapidly becoming more available. They are currently being used to treat post-traumatic stress disorders caused by wartime experiences, and US servicemen are now increasingly being offered such programs. Rather than the traditional method of confronting old nightmares, online technology is able to deliver treatment in a far more therapeutic and humane way. Patients are “transported” to the battlefront and fears and traumas are resolved in virtual place and real time. Virtual Reality is here to stay, and will increasingly be used widely in a number of areas of healthcare.

Projecting Virtual Reality with a Microvision SHOWWX

Projected virtual reality first person shooter, using a Microvision SHOWWX as the display method, a PNI SpacePoint Fusion for aiming, and a Wii Remote and Nunchuk for moving and shooting. The software is a hacked version of Cube, with libhid interfacing the SpacePoint and CWiid interfacing the Wiimote. A writeup and source code are on my blog: eclecti.cc

Staying in Touch With Your Partner With Virtual Reality Sex Toy

The world of cleaver gadgets grows everyday.  An ingenius new virtual reality sex device now makes it possible for sex partners to stimulate each other using any two internet connected computers from any where in the world.

The Internet Enabled Rabbit Vibrator is the world’s first sex toy that allows you to watch and control your partner’s pleasure over the Internet—perfect for long distance relationships.  Now you can drive your female lover wild as you watch and stimulate her from a control panel.

Ron Jacks, Managing Partner of www.PleasureMeNow.com, says, “We’ve gotten great response for the Internet Enabled Virtual Sex Rabbit Vibrator from lovers who are seperated, such as military people stationed in Iraq and other overseas assiagnments.  Although, some people just like the naughty nature of this virtual reality sex toy.”

The Internet Enabled Virtual Sex Rabbit Vibrator takes cybersex to the next level.  Doc Johnson, the manufacturer of this sex technology devise, teamed with Highjoy.com to produce a vibrator toy that allows you to watch and control your partner over the Internet from any PC.  The Rabbit Vibrator includes a multi-speed controller, swirling beads, pivoting head and independently controlled stimulator on the vibrator shaft.

HighJoy.com is an innovative online dating community that offers public lounges and private audio/video/text chat.  Using the Internet Enabled Rabbit Vibrator over Highjoy’s system allows the user to physically interact with their partner who is half-way around the world or just a few feet away.  You can watch your partner’s excitement over a video connection as you control the vibrator’s speed, rotation, and types of vibration (escalating, pulsating).  Of course, the vibrator can also be used conventionally with the user in control.

The Virtual Sex Internet Enabled Rabbit Vibrator requires Windows 98 or later operating system, a serial or USB port, and an internet connection.  The system includes a free membership to highjoy.com, software and connection cables for the vibrator to your computer.

Click here to see photos: http://www.pleasuremenow.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2914

Virtual Reality Sex Toy

Lance Russell is the author of the book “Recipes for Better Sex: 75 Delicious Ways to Spice Up Your Love Life” and he has lectured on human sexuality at Universities in California.  In addition, he is co-owner of the adult toy store http://www.pleasuremenow.com/index.asp?PageAction

Breakthrough Virtual Reality Sex Machine

The world of cybersex just took a step closer to enjoying virtual reality sex at home.  Adult toy maker Doc Johnson has just released the Virtual Sex Stroker sex machine with 3D cybersex.  This male masturbator toy connects with your computer through the USB port and allows you to have virtual sex with Naughty Nurse Nicci.

Nurse Nicci starts off with a sexy striptease just for you. As her clothes slowly come off, you can tease her and make her hotter and hotter. Once she’s fully naked, you choose what sex position you want her in.

The software for this virtual reality sex machine allows you to control sexy Nurse Nicci on your computer screen and enjoy 24 different sex positions with her—including kinkier lesbian and S&M encounters. Thrust in and out of the Virtual Sex Stroker cyberskin realistic vagina masturbator while your online 3D avatar counterpart has his way with sexy Nurse Nicci.  He matches your strokes so you feel like you’re part of the online action.  

This virtual reality sex machine uses Plug and Play technology, making it user-friendly even for novice computer users.  The Sex Stroker masturbator is 7 inches long x 2.75 inches wide and made of a life-like realistic skin substance called Cyberskin.  The sex machine includes the 3D Interactive Game Software, USB connection cable, game instructions, and information to download additional games.

The system requirements for the Virtual Sex Storker sex machine are: Windows 98/ME/XP or Windows2000, Directx 8.0 or higher (included on disk), Macromedia Flash Player (included on disk), Pentium II, 333 mhz or faster, 68 MB Ram or more, one free USB port, and at least 70MB of free hard disk space.  To see a photo of the Virtual Reality Sex Machine go to: http://www.pleasuremenow.com/