Virtual Reality as a Transformative Technology to Develop Empathy

Welcome to the 2018 International Summer Symposium "Virtual Reality as a Transformative Technology to Develop Empathy" at #LaCristalera, in Miraflores de la Sierra, Madrid.

We wish you a a happy and successful experience, and you are able to improve your knowledge of empathy and it´s future.

Please enjoy and share your insights in social media with #EmpaticaXR2018 #OptimalXR.

EmpaticaXR Teaser: http://www.empaticaxr.com/

Estudio Future VIVO Reactive VR Tech: https://youtu.be/uDscpxxk91o

Virtual Bodyworks VR Tech: http://www.virtualbodyworks.com/

Neurons Inc. Biometric VR Tech: https://youtu.be/ZDJnMJoDQ7s

iMotions Biometric VR Tech: https://youtu.be/DXQ9cFBaCL4

Woolax Mindfulness: http://woolax.com/

+other curated empathic VR Experiences DEMOS

This International Summer Symposium "Virtual Reality as a Transformative Technology to Develop Empathy" arises as a result of the incredibly favorable reception by students that took place in the School of Medicine at UAM University, during the Workshops "Virtual Reality monitored with Biofeedback", taught by the Department of Psychiatry alongside Optimal XR (Subject "Medical Psychology", First Semester, Academic Course 2017-18).
The recently created research line, "empathic Reactive Media Lab" (eRMLab) of the “Education, Development and Health” Research Group (UAM), considers technology, specially Virtual Reality technology, as a positive instrument capable of facilitating more efficient and healthy interpersonal communication.

The “empathic Reactive Media Lab (eRMLab)” is created with the mission to do research and application on the progressive adaptation and personalization of VR experiences via biometric technology and deep data gathering to read and react to users based on their body rhythms, emotions, preferences, and data points.

Customization range from the interchange of the visual aspect of embodied avatars to induce psychological improvements, personalization of the contextual VR environment to adapt to different cultures, the emotional tone of the music that is playing during the experiences, to different narrative endings…

The line of research includes scientific disciplines such as neurocinematics, neuromarketing, biometric tech, virtual reality and machine learning algorithms in conjunction with the storytelling narrative and visual arts to be applied in disciplines such as education in healthcare, general well-being, interpersonal and intrapersonal emotional education.



PROGRAM

DAY 1. Monday, June 18th

• MODULE 1. INTRODUCTION
• MODULE 2. REACTIVE MEDIA FOR A HEALTHIER LIFESTYLE

DAY 2. Tuesday, June 19th

• MODULE 3. DESIGNING TOWARDS EMPATHY. THE NARRATIVE SELF
• MODULE 4. DESIGNING TOWARDS EMPATHY THE EXPERIENCING SELF

DAY 3. Wednesday, June 20th

• MODULE 4. AI & MACHINE LEARNING FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

CONTEXT FOR DISCUSSION

Module 1. Introduction



Module 2. Reactive Media for a Healthier Lifestyle

“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” -Joseph Campbell

Emotional Intelligence has been ingrained in storytelling since the dawn of time. You are using your face to express emotion but you are also looking at your audience facial expressions and adapting the story in real time. If they are interested you keep going, if they are not you change the curse of the narrative. In the past storytelling was very fluid, but today most of the content we consume is not adaptive. Today’s technology has lots of IQ but no EQ, lots of cognitive intelligence but no emotional intelligence. So, what if the media we consume could sense our emotions in real time?What if two people had entirely different experiences watching the same content, all based on how they felt or who they are? That’s where reactive media comes in. Could we create VR worlds that adapt to you and could provide you with the emotional comfort and support that your inner reality could be yearning for?




Module 3. Designing Towards Empathy. The Narrative Self

“Sapiens rule the world, because we are the only animal that can cooperate flexibly in large numbers. We can create mass cooperation networks, in which thousands and millions of complete strangers work together towards common goals. This mysterious glue is made of stories, not genes. We cooperate effectively with strangers because we believe in things like gods, nations, money and human rights. Yet none of these things exists outside the stories that people invent and tell one another.” -Yuval Noah Harari


Since the dawn of times, human beings have used stories and art to understand the world we live in. VR is the first medium that actually makes the jump from our internalization of an author's expression of an experience, to our experiencing it firsthand. In all other mediums, your consciousness interprets the medium. In VR, your consciousness is the medium.
¿Could we use the power of VR storytelling and immersion to induce healthy positive changes in behaviour?
¿Could we encode positive psychological hacks in stories so media could expose the best side of our human condition?
¿Is VR the ultimate “empathy machine”? ¿How could we redirect the power of literature into shaping our future VR lives?
¿Could we create VR characters that reflect different personality patterns so we could use them in storytelling to foster empathy and better understand ourselves and others?





Module 4. Designing towards Empathy. The Experiencing Self

“The experiencing self lives its life continuously. It has moments of experience, one after the other.” -Daniel Khaneman
¿What is the relationship between the stories we tell ourselves and the physiology that our bodies experience?
Biometrics is the measurement of human characteristics that shape our identity and our behaviour. Self-tracking biometric technologies capable of measuring different signals (brainwave activity, facial expressions, emotional tone of voice, skin conductivity, muscle tension, heart rate variability…) are becoming readily available to the mainstream consumer.
¿What information could we gather about our inner lives just by making use of these technologies? ¿Could we redirect their insight away from marketing manipulation and more into self-awareness and personal development?





Module 5. AI & Machine Learning for Human Development

“Technology is that force that can make something scarce into abundant” -Peter Diamandis

Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning are revolutionizing the way we understand what technology is capable of. We’ll explore the latest developments in technology that are impacting the VR industry:
1) Brain-Computer-Interfaces (BCI’s) that allow the user to interact with the VR environment just with thoughts.
2) Advanced machine learning and biosignal processing algorithms to decode real-life facial expressions tens of milliseconds before they appear on a user’s face, and instantly replicates that expression on their avatar
 And 3) AI-generated virtual environments that generate in real time in front of the user. The latest AI developments that the industry is generating in the fascinating world of Virtual Reality.

What is the future of human flourishing and what role does VR play as a Transformative Technology in it? How can VR optimize our mental models and ability for imagination? How can VR show us our better selves? How can VR increase the ego-dissolution typically associated with flow states and the emotion of awe? What is the emergent field of neurocinematics showing us about the effect of shared narratives and stories in the brain? Will “shared stories that reflect our personality patterns” play a major role towards the creation of a meta-intelligence? Will this new altered states economy be the gateway to the redefinition and optimization of the the notion we all have about our own selves and others? 

Virtual Reality IntegrationSeamlessly record biometric data while interacting with VR devices.
Measure immersion in VR headsetsNow you can test VR environments from Oculus, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR and others directly in iMotions and track EEG, GSR, ECG and get insights into physiological reactions. Test the direct impact of your immersive VR experiences directly in iMotions with all biosensors.

Validate Emotional Impact
Quantify Interaction Experience
Measure Overall Immersion
Pin-Point Nausea Triggers

Measurements integrated:

• EEG – Measures: Motivation, Engagement, Cognitive Workload
  Get insights into brain reactions and arousal by measuring  electrical activity along the scalp.
• GSR – Measures Emotional Arousal, Stress, EngagementGet insights into human arousal and stress by measuring skin conductance.
• ECG – Measures Emotional Arousal, Stress
  Records electrical impulses associated with heart contractions.
• EMG – Measures Tension, Stress
  Records the spatio-temporal characteristics of electrical impulses associated with muscle contractions.

• Videoconference. "Technology and its Global Impact for Peace". Ramiro Jordán.                                                     We are defining Peace Engineering as the application of science and engineering principles to promote and support peace. Peace Engineering envisions and works towards a world where prosperity, sustainability, social equity, entrepreneurship, transparency, community voice and engagement, and a culture of quality thrive. Engineers have the power to play a vital role delivering creative solutions that can radically transform and improve human and natural wellbeing.
  At the core of Peace Engineering is our planet’s sustainable future, which is calling its leaders to act in concert. We must actively develop solutions by collaboratively addressing known problems, integrating transdisciplinary education programs, technology, ethics, empathy and policy – all based around the language of technology. The biggest asset in a business is the human capital and we must all contribute in the development of the next generation leaders.
  We should create a movement and you should be part of that with ownership and sense of belonging. A small list of questions/challenges follows. Help us expand and we invite you to propose a process using technology to tackle a solution:
  -  How do we develop the next global generation of engineers (curriculum reform, socratic method in engineering, executive programs in engineering, joint and cross disciplinary programs, ethics, social responsibility, etc.)?
  -  How do we create and bring into the classroom and our daily lives Peace Engineering content? We have to walk the talk.
  - How do we deal and live with transparency?                                                                                              - How do we reduce the gap between the do-haves and do-not-haves?
  -  How do we spread wealth and wellbeing?
  -  How do we make people, institutions (local, national, global, public, private) accountable?        -  What does Industry 4.0/5.0 - Circular Economy really mean and its impact in local, national, global contexts?
  -  Let’s talk about ethics by design, employability, policy, mobility (displaced people), social responsibility.                                                                                                                                                      -  What can we do to contribute to the global challenges (food, water, air quality, smart cities, security, food security, climate change, health, security).
  -  How do we establish and address sustainable development goals? Are the United Nations sustainable goals realistic? How about the NAE challenges?
  -  How do we address diversity? (political, geographical, gender, religious, culture, ethnicity, socio-economic status, refugees, people reintegrating to society, other)
  -  How do we deal with disruptive and complex thinking?
  -  What to do with global engineering innovations and ventures (social and business innovation and ventures)
  -  Creation of global natural ecosystems for innovation and entrepreneurship
  -  Transdisciplinary academic programs to foster innovation, ventures, internationalization and impact
  -  International systems to measure the impact of innovations and ventures
  -  How do we embrace culture of quality: teaching, accreditation, research, innovation?
  -  How can we create a forum where academia, industry, governments, banks, NGOs, multilateral organizations, R&D centers, concerned citizens and leaders interact to continue the conversation/action on Peace Engineering?
  -  How do we live and deal with the xeno and phobia in us, example aporophobia?                            -  How can we embrace Empathy?
   All with a focus on the concept of sustained growth.                                  
• "Audiovisual Media as an Impact Tool for Interpersonal Change". Miguel Ángel Tobías. YOUR DECISIONS TRANSFORM YOUR FUTURE
  "LIFE is on the other side of fear"
  It seems clear to all of us that depending on what we decide at a certain moment, our future will go in one or the other direction ... It is a linear and deterministic thinking concept that we have all accepted and therefore we have not questioned again. If I do not study to be a pilot, I will never be at the controls of an airplane. But there is another possible paradigm that allows us to reflect and deepen not on how our decisions determine our future, but on how they TRANSFORM a future that already existed in our present. Imagine now that since childhood, we have dreamed that when we were adults, we would be airline pilots. We saw each other in uniform, talking to passengers, traveling the world, etc ... That future was already in us !! It was already a certain and possible future in our present. But at the moment we had to start studying the pilot career, our family, friends, told us that this was not realistic, that it was very difficult, that we would not get it, etc ... and we believed it. We were afraid, and we left ... We just TRANSFORM the future that had to be in another. We were never pilots, even though that possible future was already in us forever. And it is the fear of fear, the fear of failure, ridicule, fear of rejection, fear of trust, the one that prevents us many times in our life from reaching where they were already waiting for us. The audiovisual and virtual reality can allow us to visualize and anticipate that future that was ours, help us overcome our fears and give us the conscience and the tools to achieve it.
• "Global Room and Work Network: Shaping the Future of Lifestyle". Shengwei Zhao.
  
  

We are defining Peace Engineering as the application of science and engineering principles to promote and support peace. Peace Engineering envisions and works towards a world where prosperity, sustainability, social equity, entrepreneurship, transparency, community voice and engagement, and a culture of quality thrive. Engineers have the power to play a vital role delivering creative solutions that can radically transform and improve human and natural wellbeing.
At the core of Peace Engineering is our planet’s sustainable future, which is calling its leaders to act in concert. We must actively develop solutions by collaboratively addressing known problems, integrating transdisciplinary education programs, technology, ethics, empathy and policy – all based around the language of technology. The biggest asset in a business is the human capital and we must all contribute in the development of the next generation leaders.
We should create a movement and you should be part of that with ownership and sense of belonging. A small list of questions/challenges follows. Help us expand and we invite you to propose a process using technology to tackle a solution:
-  How do we develop the next global generation of engineers (curriculum reform, socratic method in engineering, executive programs in engineering, joint and cross disciplinary programs, ethics, social responsibility, etc.)?
-  How do we create and bring into the classroom and our daily lives Peace Engineering content? We have to walk the talk.
- How do we deal and live with transparency?                                                                                              - How do we reduce the gap between the do-haves and do-not-haves?
-  How do we spread wealth and wellbeing?
-  How do we make people, institutions (local, national, global, public, private) accountable?        -  What does Industry 4.0/5.0 - Circular Economy really mean and its impact in local, national, global contexts?
-  Let’s talk about ethics by design, employability, policy, mobility (displaced people), social responsibility.                                                                                                                                                      -  What can we do to contribute to the global challenges (food, water, air quality, smart cities, security, food security, climate change, health, security).
-  How do we establish and address sustainable development goals? Are the United Nations sustainable goals realistic? How about the NAE challenges?
-  How do we address diversity? (political, geographical, gender, religious, culture, ethnicity, socio-economic status, refugees, people reintegrating to society, other)
-  How do we deal with disruptive and complex thinking?
-  What to do with global engineering innovations and ventures (social and business innovation and ventures)
-  Creation of global natural ecosystems for innovation and entrepreneurship
-  Transdisciplinary academic programs to foster innovation, ventures, internationalization and impact
-  International systems to measure the impact of innovations and ventures
-  How do we embrace culture of quality: teaching, accreditation, research, innovation?
-  How can we create a forum where academia, industry, governments, banks, NGOs, multilateral organizations, R&D centers, concerned citizens and leaders interact to continue the conversation/action on Peace Engineering?
-  How do we live and deal with the xeno and phobia in us, example aporophobia?                            -  How can we embrace Empathy?
 All with a focus on the concept of sustained growth.                                  

"LIFE is on the other side of fear"
It seems clear to all of us that depending on what we decide at a certain moment, our future will go in one or the other direction ... It is a linear and deterministic thinking concept that we have all accepted and therefore we have not questioned again. If I do not study to be a pilot, I will never be at the controls of an airplane. But there is another possible paradigm that allows us to reflect and deepen not on how our decisions determine our future, but on how they TRANSFORM a future that already existed in our present. Imagine now that since childhood, we have dreamed that when we were adults, we would be airline pilots. We saw each other in uniform, talking to passengers, traveling the world, etc ... That future was already in us !! It was already a certain and possible future in our present. But at the moment we had to start studying the pilot career, our family, friends, told us that this was not realistic, that it was very difficult, that we would not get it, etc ... and we believed it. We were afraid, and we left ... We just TRANSFORM the future that had to be in another. We were never pilots, even though that possible future was already in us forever. And it is the fear of fear, the fear of failure, ridicule, fear of rejection, fear of trust, the one that prevents us many times in our life from reaching where they were already waiting for us. The audiovisual and virtual reality can allow us to visualize and anticipate that future that was ours, help us overcome our fears and give us the conscience and the tools to achieve it.

We can now adopt radically different visual or auditory systems, spend time out of body, in the macroscopic view, in the 3rd person, we can body swap, gender swap or remain focused in peripheral vision. How can this pursuit of new forms of experience and states of perception lead to cognitive and creative insights into the nature of empathy? The key to the effective design of empathy tech is realising that the tools we create, shape us, and our resulting understanding of reality. Using this knowledge as the basis for action, how do we design and use technology to effectively augment the human condition? Can these new mixed realities and resulting sensory augmentations actually make us feel more human?
 
In contrast, if our sensory inputs were transformed to more closely match those of other species, how long would it take for neuroplasticity to decode such new representations? Can the Umwelts of other creatures, brought to us in greater detail than ever before through Mixed Reality, help induce a deeper empathy across Earth’s species and beyond? The core question to ask is, do we need to embody other creatures in order to be able to feel the full dynamic range of compassion for them?
In order to achieve such empathy engineering we need to apply an appropriate framework….  ‘Contextology’ is the study of context or the science of ‘Context Engineering’. Context Engineering focuses less on engineering content and instead attempts to manipulate and create context directly. Context Engineering tools allow us to reconfigure our own perception directly as the primary content. This means that the lenses through which we experience the world are becoming more adjustable than ever. Contextology allows us to develop new forms of perception to explore an entirely new type of self and society.

This talk will be structured through the following projects and concepts: Umwelt Hacking, Virtual initiation, Double Consciousness, Wearable Experience, Natural Media, TeleExistence, the Proteus Effect and the Overview Engine.

“See, if you sense animals, their intelligence becomes yours. So if you sense animals and animals, for example, can tell when an earthquake is coming? You can tell when an earthquake is coming. Not maybe. Not in fantasy. You can sense what the animals are doing, why, and what you might want to be doing along with them. Animals are extensions of your own intelligence, unless you fail to establish such relationships. So, too, living places.” – Darin Stevenson.

Empathy as a human trait has been a bit of an enigma to characterize from a socio-neurobiologic perspective. The debate of nature vs. nurture has been at the heart of this discussion and now science has turned this debate on its head with the new understandings of epigenetics. Epigenetics has demonstrated that empathy has not only a genetic role but also involves the dynamics of pre-conception, in-utero, early life, and even transgenerational. From hard coded genes, to DNA methylation patterns, to RNA’s (lnc-RNA, miRNA, and others) passed parentally. In addition, we are finding that our DNA is a memory bank of generations before us and carries memories of life events of our ancestors that impact the expressions of our genes. Just as ancestral, pre-conception, in-utero, and early life events all play a role in stress responses, these can also impact our ability to experience empathy and other positive human emotions. Additionally it is important to delineate a practical plan to leverage the power of epigenetics to strategically promote enhanced and expanded empathy pre-conception to create a rapid shift in human evolution within two to four generations.

• "Relational Intelligence and Personality Patterns". Isabel Salama.
• "The Creation of Characters in Stories for Empathy Development". Cristina López Barrios.
• "Aesthetics and Empathy in Literature". Petra Pappová, PhD.

Perception is an active process, where we use our whole bodies to perceive – turning the head and body, accommodating and moving the eyes, reaching out, bending down, peering around an object, and so on. To the extent that these natural sensorimotor contingencies are afforded for perception in virtual spaces, so we will have the illusion of being there (in virtual reality).

Of particular interest in virtual reality is what happens when you look towards yourself.
If it has been so programmed, you will see a life-sized virtual body that is coincident in space with your (wholly occluded) real body, and which can move synchronously and correspondingly with your movements. In other words the virtual body substitutes your real one. You will likely and quickly have the perceptual illusion that the virtual body is your own (even though you know that it is not).

In this talk I will explore three illusions of virtual reality: the illusion of being in the virtual place, the illusion that what is happening is real, and the illusion of body ownership.  I will give examples of how body ownership over a body that is quite different to your own (e.g., age, race, gender, size) can lead to changes in physiology, behaviour, attitudes and cognition. I will give examples of where these illusions have been used to positive effect such as in clinical psychology, and a particular example of self-to-self interaction.

Mel Slater is Director of the Event Lab (Experimental Virtual Environments for Neuroscience and Technology). He has been Professor of Virtual Environments at University College London since 1997 in the Department of Computer Science. He has been involved in research in virtual reality since the early 1990s, and has been first supervisor of 38 PhDs in graphics and virtual reality since 1989. In 2005 he was awarded the Virtual Reality Career Award by IEEE Virtual Reality ‘In Recognition of Seminal Achievements in Engineering Virtual Reality.’  He has been involved in and led several international projects in this field. He held a European Research Council Advanced Grant TRAVERSE 2009-2015 and has recently started a second Advanced Grant MoTIVE 2018-2022. He is Field Editor of Frontiers in Robotics and AI, and Chief Editor of the Virtual Environments section. He has contributed to the scientific study of virtual reality and to technical development of this field including its applications in clinical psychology and the cognitive neuroscience of how the brain represents the body. His publications can be seen on http://publicationslist.org/melslater. He is a Founder of the company Virtual Bodyworks S.L.

The presentation is about EMOTIVE CINEMA project, which I have developed as an author and a filmmaker since 2014 and that is currently in progress in a VR experimentation, EMOTIVE VR. This is an art-science project of neuro-interactive films, in which the audiences brain waves are caught by EEG headphone sensors, which give the machine an interpretation of their emotions and interact in real time with the editing of the film and the soundtrack. The specific experience of EMOTIVE CINEMA and VR spectators lead us to consider more accurately what is happening in the body and brain whilst viewing a film and to question how the viewer relies to the fictional characters.

To assess the market success of VR, we cannot just rely on what consumers tell us. So to find out, Neurons Inc dives deep in their unconscious minds and looks directly at their brain responses. In this session you will discover how the big brands are applying VR to market research. For example, Facebook wanted to know how virtual reality facilitates social connection. So we went to the lab and tested some people while they meet for the first time inside a virtual environment. Introverts felt more engaged when meeting in VR while extroverts preferred meeting face to face. We will explain these results and explore their huge implications. Finally, we will unveil for you some of the ethical concerns of how VR can influence our behavior and attitudes.

•  "Reinventing the Language Initiated by the Lumière Brothers". Jorge Esteban Blein. The objective of this presentation is to reflect on the challenges posed by Virtual Reality when designing immersive experiences in which the storytelling is the main core. The 4 functions that the user can assume will be defined first and then the existing challenges will be exposed, among which the following will be analyzed: The difficulty to identify with characters represented in first person view and the responsibility that it puts in place, the handling of the distractions and the environment so that they do not overshadow the storytelling, the return to a slower narrative rhythm than the one used today, and the user's freedom of movement.
• "The Importance of Feeling Perceived. Designing Reactive Characters in VR". Joaquín Ruipérez.
• "Extended Reality: The Continuous Reality-Virtuality and the Amplification of Human Experience". Alejandro Sacristán and Carlos Peña. In the Electric Era we have portrayed Humanity as a second skin: the telephone, the mass media, the Internet, intelligent mobility. Now is the historical moment of the Virtual Reality that is developing as a new immersive communication tissue in which we begin to relate to other people in the form of avatars but also with machines, systems, robots, bots and artificial intelligences, evolving our collective intelligence and immersing ourselves in something bigger than ourselves. The overlap of the digital world and the real world is taking place, where the virtual amplifies and influences the reality, the real virtuality, and where the physical persists in the virtual space. We extend our collective nervous system.

The goal of this presentation is to reflect on the challenges posed by Virtual Reality when designing immersive experiences in which the storytelling is the main core. The 4 functions that the user can assume will be defined first and then the existing challenges will be exposed, among which the following will be analyzed: The difficulty to identify with characters represented in first person view and the responsibility that it puts in place, the handling of the distractions and the environment so that they do not overshadow the storytelling, the return to a slower narrative rhythm than the one used today, and the user's freedom of movement.

In the Electric Era we have portrayed Humanity as a second skin: the telephone, the mass media, the Internet, intelligent mobility. Now is the historical moment of the Virtual Reality that is developing as a new immersive communication tissue in which we begin to relate to other people in the form of avatars but also with machines, systems, robots, bots and artificial intelligences, evolving our collective intelligence and immersing ourselves in something bigger than ourselves. The overlap of the digital world and the real world is taking place, where the virtual amplifies and influences the reality, the real virtuality, and where the physical persists in the virtual space. We extend our collective nervous system.

• "Artificial Intelligence for Human Development". Ángeles Manjarrés, PhD.

Since the birth of AI, healthcare has been one of its main application domains. AI is currently taking on a greater role in technologies for mental health and personal development. We can cite, in particular, the use of expert systems, virtual assistants, robots -- used for diagnosis, treatment and therapy, clinical training as well as in the robotization of care --, computational psychiatry, and mobile applications for coaching or stress management.
These applications incorporate the most relevant paradigms of modern Artificial Intelligence: decision systems, environmental intelligence based on biometrics, data mining, user modeling and personalization, virtual agents, natural language processing, artificial vision, robotics ... Along with their potential benefits, these technologies pose serious dilemmas in the philosophical, ethical and socio-political domains.
The integration of Artificial Intelligence techniques enriches Virtual Reality applications, enabling, among other things, interactive and customized immersion experiences.

• "Machine Learning for Emotional Detection with the MASK technology". Fabien Bourban.

MindMaze builds intuitive human machine interfaces through its breakthrough neuro-inspired
computing platform, which captures brain activity upon intent, and a new generation of brain computer interface products, using virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and machine learning. Based on a decade of rigorous testing in the healthcare industry, the company has designed intuitive mind-machine interfaces, which utilize real-time decoding of brain signals and is able to track fine movements and gestures. Its innovations are poised to transform industries, starting with healthcare and gaming.
Recently, MindMaze introduced MASK the first-ever bio-signal approach to translate expressions into VR and AR experiences for gaming and social networking for trans-media consumption. MASK brings
emotion and a novel input mechanism with the goal of evolving VR/AR beyond novelty and into
mainstream applications.
Humans love to communicate, joke and share experiences together, but effective communication is
more than only the voice, since we also transmit a lot of non-verbal information. Our facial expressions
are a major part of that non-verbal communication; therefore MindMaze introduced MASK as the gate
to transpose that non-verbal communication to any virtual world adding the human touch to VR and AR.
The patented MASK technology embedded in any head mounted display (HMD) allows the
instantaneous detection of facial expressions. Those are identified not by looking at the visual
appearance, but instead on the underlying muscular activity from the facial muscles which are used to
trigger these expressions. To do so, tiny electrodes are placed on the foam of the HMD to capture the
muscular activity. The activities are then analyzed with high sophisticated signal processing and machine learning technologies to identify a set of expressions. Finally, the expressions can be used to animate the face of the avatar and convey the emotions of the participant in VR.

• "Automatic Content Creation for Virtual Environments based on Emotions". Luis Peña Sánchez, PhD.

The user's interaction with a virtual environment is a huge source of information that allows intelligent systems to create content derived from these interactions. The contribution of studies of cognitive psychology and analysis of emotions to interactive virtual environments will allow the creation of contents adapted to the emotions that the user is experiencing, so we can maintain a level of tension, attention or entertainment appropriate to the environment to achieve a richer experience.

Since the birth of AI, healthcare has been one of its main application domains. AI is currently taking on a greater role in technologies for mental health and personal development. We can cite, in particular, the use of expert systems, virtual assistants, robots -- used for diagnosis, treatment and therapy, clinical training as well as in the robotization of care --, computational psychiatry, and mobile applications for coaching or stress management.
These applications incorporate the most relevant paradigms of modern Artificial Intelligence: decision systems, environmental intelligence based on biometrics, data mining, user modeling and personalization, virtual agents, natural language processing, artificial vision, robotics ... Along with their potential benefits, these technologies pose serious dilemmas in the philosophical, ethical and socio-political domains.
The integration of Artificial Intelligence techniques enriches Virtual Reality applications, enabling, among other things, interactive and customized immersion experiences.

MindMaze builds intuitive human machine interfaces through its breakthrough neuro-inspired
computing platform, which captures brain activity upon intent, and a new generation of brain computer interface products, using virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and machine learning. Based on a decade of rigorous testing in the healthcare industry, the company has designed intuitive mind-machine interfaces, which utilize real-time decoding of brain signals and is able to track fine movements and gestures. Its innovations are poised to transform industries, starting with healthcare and gaming.
Recently, MindMaze introduced MASK the first-ever bio-signal approach to translate expressions into VR and AR experiences for gaming and social networking for trans-media consumption. MASK brings
emotion and a novel input mechanism with the goal of evolving VR/AR beyond novelty and into
mainstream applications.
Humans love to communicate, joke and share experiences together, but effective communication is
more than only the voice, since we also transmit a lot of non-verbal information. Our facial expressions
are a major part of that non-verbal communication; therefore MindMaze introduced MASK as the gate
to transpose that non-verbal communication to any virtual world adding the human touch to VR and AR.
The patented MASK technology embedded in any head mounted display (HMD) allows the
instantaneous detection of facial expressions. Those are identified not by looking at the visual
appearance, but instead on the underlying muscular activity from the facial muscles which are used to
trigger these expressions. To do so, tiny electrodes are placed on the foam of the HMD to capture the
muscular activity. The activities are then analyzed with high sophisticated signal processing and machine learning technologies to identify a set of expressions. Finally, the expressions can be used to animate the face of the avatar and convey the emotions of the participant in VR.

The user's interaction with a virtual environment is a huge source of information that allows intelligent systems to create content derived from these interactions. The contribution of studies of cognitive psychology and analysis of emotions to interactive virtual environments will allow the creation of contents adapted to the emotions that the user is experiencing, so we can maintain a level of tension, attention or entertainment appropriate to the environment to achieve a richer experience.

Experiments in cognitive neuroscience have recently dissociated neural pathways underpinning the experience of empathy from that of compassion. Namely, whereas the experience of empathy involves neural activations regarding an affective pain resonance with the distress or suffering of the target, compassion is correlated to reward centers and positive affect regions of the brain. The import of this finding is that empathy may in some instances lead to a withdrawal reflex if there is excessive sharing of distress with the target, whereas compassion appears to involve a care for the welfare of another and an approach motivation. Within the last five years, virtual environments (VEs) have been increasingly researched and developed towards the goal of enhancing users’ social intelligence, self-compassion, positive attitudes towards out-groups, and empathy. However, most of these VEs do not help the user to become more aware of his or her own emotional and psychological states in response to another person or persons, arguably a crucial step in the recovery from empathic distress or over-arousal. Biofeedback training has also been used for improving social cognition skills, but only a few projects have incorporated biofeedback into empathy-enhancing virtual environments.  Recovery from empathic distress as a skill trained through biofeedback VEs could enhance interpersonal connectedness, quality of life, and social cohesion.