Recent years have seen a growing research interest towards designing computer-assisted health interventions aiming to improve mental health services. Digital technologies are becoming common methods for diagnosis, therapy, and training. With the advent of lower-cost VR head-mounted-displays (HMDs) and high internet data transfer capacity, there is a new opportunity for applying immersive VR tools to augment existing interventions. This study is among the first to explore the use of a Multi-User Virtual Reality (MUVR) system as a therapeutic medium for participants at high-risk for developing Eating Disorders. This paper demonstrates the positive effect of using MUVR remote psychotherapy to enhance traditional therapeutic practices. The study capitalises on the opportunities which are offered by a MUVR remote psychotherapeutic session to enhance the outcome of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Play Therapy and Exposure Therapy for sufferers with body shape and weight concerns. Moreover, the study presents the design opportunities and challenges of such technology, while strengths on the feasibility, and the positive user acceptability of introducing MUVR to facilitate remote psychotherapy. Finally, the appeal of using VR for remote psychotherapy and its observed positive impact on both therapists and participants is discussed.

Older adults with cognitive impairments may face barriers to accessing experiences beyond their physical premises. Previous research has suggested that missing out on emotional experiences may affect mental health and impact cognitive abilities. In recent years, there has been growing research interest in designing non-pharmacological interventions to improve the health-related quality of life of older adults. With virtual reality offering endless opportunities for health support, we must consider how virtual reality can be sensitively designed to provide comfortable, enriching out-world experiences to older adults to enhance their emotional regulation. Thirty older adults living with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia participated in the study. Affect and emotional behavior were measured. The usability and the sense of presence were also assessed. Finally, we assessed the virtual reality experiences based on physiological responses and eye-tracking data. The results indicated that virtual reality can positively enhance the mental health of this population by eliciting a positive affective state and enhancing their emotional regulation. Overall, this paper raises awareness of the role of virtual reality in emotion elicitation, regulation, and expression and enhances our understanding of the use of virtual reality by older adults living with mild cognitive impairments or mild dementia.

Virtual Reality is a computer-simulated 3-Dimensional technology in which the user interacts via different senses: visual, auditory, tactile, and/or olfactory. In the past decades, it has been argued that Virtual Reality as a technique could be applied in the clinical environment to successfully manage pain. This article provides a systematic review of research on Virtual Reality and pain management for patients who are suffering from cancer. More specifically, this article focuses on all types of Virtual Reality technologies (Non-Immersive, Semi-Immersive, Fully-Immersive) which has been developed and released to manage the pain which evokes from the treatment of cancer. An exhaustive search identified 23 relevant studies from 2010 to 2020. Overall, the identified studies indicated that Virtual Reality can improve the experience of pain for patients who are suffering from cancer. It was also found that, if Virtual Reality is appropriately designed, the pain which is arising from cancer treatments can be reduced. Even though some positive outcomes have been reported, overall, the results are inconclusive and studies that examine specifically the treatment of pain in cancer patients are limited. Further research needs to be conducted, to articulate clearly, under what circumstances Virtual Reality is an effective tool for cancer patients, and under what factors Virtual Reality can be the solution to the pain patients are experiencing.

The World Health Organization promotes healthy living through regular physical activities, such as exercise and sports, as well as access to healthcare and rehabilitation services for people with motor dysfunctions. However, there is a lack of specialized personnel and increased costs associated with such activities. These have led to the increased use of machine learning for the analysis and evaluation of human motion during exercise. To study the latest advancements in this area, a systematic literature review focusing on publications from 2017 to 2021 was performed. As a result, 88 relevant publications were identified, which developed both shallow machine learning and deep learning algorithms. The results indicated that algorithms for human motion assessment should provide personalized and informative assessments, with explainable and interpretable outcomes, that can be computed in real-time or concurrently with the execution of an exercise. Furthermore, they should be easy to adapt based on the needs of applications and should be able to perform with different motion capture systems. This has been challenging because of the usually small amount of collected data, the lack of large open datasets, and the unique characteristics of exercise motions. Based on the above findings, guidelines for the development of such algorithms are proposed and discussed. They relate to the selection of the type of assessment, handling data imbalances, selecting of motion capture technologies, balancing between accuracy and speed, selecting the right algorithm, performing concurrent assessment during an exercise, personalization and scalability, and evaluation.

Emerging research confirms the need for technologically enhanced solutions to support non-pharmacological interventions which can improve the quality of life, the mental and physical health of demented people. Several types of research examined if virtual reality can be an effective solution. This paper aims to present the cyclic process of prototyping, testing, analysing, and refining the VR system in real-world clinical settings. Seven people with moderate to severe dementia were recruited. The experiment required the patients to attend three virtual reality iterations of rapid prototyping with user testing. All three iterations involved training activities with upper body movements similar to their usual physical training. A mixed-methods design measured affect and emotional behaviour using the Observed Emotion Rating Scale and the Visual Analog Scale. Content analysis was conducted following observations and interviews. During each iteration of rapid prototyping with user testing, quantitative measurements of performance, independence and time were recorded. Eye tracking and movement information were captured by the system. Finally, a simplified version of the presence and usability scales evaluated the system. The results of this study provide further evidence that virtual reality can play a significant role in the improvement of people’s with dementia physical training and emotional health when is appropriately designed. The results present the vital factors which should be incorporated in a virtual reality system which are: 1) a simple interactions modality; 2) visible visual targets and continuous feedback; 3) personalized virtual environments; 4) personalized range of movements.