My graduate courses built the foundations of knowledge and experience to practice design research and development while I pursued Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Aging.
In this project, I worked with a group of graduate students on a virtual reality application. We divided up the work by our individual thesis interests. I worked on the environment in which the application would be based. This was created through the insertion of a 360-degree image in Unity, a virtual reality building program. Through this project, I learned about accessing codes from forums and applying them to achieve the intended outcomes. I also learned how accessible 360-degree videos or images may be viewed on smart phones through a virtual reality head-mounted device that doesn’t require the purchase of an expensive virtual reality console or equipment.
This is an ideation illustration of my progress and contribution in the team’s project. It begins with my progress and contribution to the project’s development as well as the implementation of the team’s ideation and implementation. The horizontal axis (individual and group) identifies the individual and group’s progress through the progress. The contributed work (time committed and production) are shown along the vertical axis. I wanted to identify and show the location of each step along the project’s progress. The most challenging portion of the project was implementing each member’s component to a working application before advancing and adding the next member’s work.
Through the exercise of mind mapping, I saw my thesis research topic begin to form and grow to include biophilic design, the aging population and wellbeing.
Components of social, emerging technology and nature deficit were connected through mindmapping. This exploration exercise revealed a variety of components within each of the three areas of interest (social, technology and nature deficit).
The existing emerging technology devices and tools are placed in the colorful ring in relation to the areas of interest they would apply. YouVisit is a mixed reality app that virtually transports the user to a location like a museum or historical landmark. An individual may use BikeAround to virtually travel to locations via GoogleEarth by physically peddling a virtual bicycle along roads. Revit promotes the vision of interior environments with 3D renderings. FeelReal is a multi-sensory virtual reality headset that can emit smells to enhance the user’s experience. Virtual Reality Therapy is currently used to build empathy for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and promote reminiscence for seniors.
This string model shows the relationship of several nodes within the three areas (social, technology and nature deficit). The model is visually representing a sphere with continuous connections and energy that is flattened to show all the connections; the top and bottom locations are the axes of the sphere. The colored threads distinguish the components’ areas. Red thread represents technology that includes You Visit, Bike Around, Revit, Feel Real, and virtual reality therapy. The green thread represents public solutions for nature deficit that include courtyards, farmers markets, gardens, parks, and co-housing. The blue thread represents the proposed applications and potential positive results of nature experiences.
Vis•āR contact lenses incorporate virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology to aid the user as they need. The VR may be used to manage anxiety or play games while the AR technology could be helpful for government intelligent agents to identify criminals through facial recognition.
Charlie received someone else’s prescription contact lenses by mistake. These are no ordinary lenses. They are equipped with advanced technology to scan faces and alert the wearer of persons of interest. Charlie enlisted the help of a friend to gain access to this prescribed user’s lenses, then she chose to wear them in public. In fear of exposing herself to trouble, Charlie returned the contact lenses to the optometrist, only to find that she may not be out of harm’s way.
The territory and stakeholders map shows the areas I plan to explore in my interests of researching the application of biophilic design to promote wellbeing in the aging population, especially individuals with dementia. This exercise helped me to identify areas in which existing research is lacking and helped me formulate the structure of my research.
My research is focused on sensorial stimulation experienced in the built environment from biophilic design elements and how it may improve the individual with dementia’s wellbeing with positive results. The individual’s wellbeing may promote engagement with the community and positively influence the completion of everyday tasks with caregivers.
Urban and senior living communities may be impacted the most by a nature deficit because their neighborhoods typically do not include or have access to a nearby greenspace. Bringing nature into the aging and urban communities is necessary to make healthy living attainable. Nature has been proven to improve health while reducing ailments and diseases.
Studies show there are cognitive and emotional benefits with the presence of nature that tend to have lasting positive effects. One’s mind is able to reset in nature because of the reduction of directed attention that is typically required for most tasks; as a result, reflection and mental bandwidth is available for processing. Urban areas and aging communities typically do not have greenspaces or nearby parks but have undesirable surroundings with hard surfaces primarily constructed of manmade materials.
Physical health has shown improvements resulting from walking outdoors in greenspaces and visual stimulation with the use of images of nature scenes and presence of real plants. Studies with olfactory stimulation also had positive effects on the physical health through the application of scents of Hinoki cypress wood oils, rose and orange essentials oils. The presence of natural elements and plants have been applied successfully in hospitals to promote healing and reducing the length of patients’ recovery time.
The nucleus diagram helps identify the foundations of my thesis research. Biophilic design is applied to the interior environment to stimulate the individuals’ senses that may encourage engagement and physical movement to promote wellbeing.
Interior Environment is the built space around the individuals.
Biophilic Design Principles are elements found in nature and applied within the built environment; such as water features, plants, natural finish materials, and more.
Sensorial Stimulation is experienced in the environment by sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch.
Wellbeing is achieved through various ways that may include finding a sense of purpose, physical health, emotional health, spirituality, and socialization.
Intergenerational population includes community centers providing day care for preschoolers and aging individuals.
Scent is a missing component in the immersion-experience in virtual reality. Visual, audio and haptic (touch) are present in today’s virtual reality experience; however, scent is not yet incorporated into it. I explored the available technology hardware and how it could be built into virtual reality programs to release the scent.
The hardware would require an Arduino or equivalent bluetooth-ready computer board, cables, transmitters, an actuator, and an aerosol fragrance. This device could be built without cables and operate through bluetooth signals. It could be worn on the waist of the user to eliminate tripping-hazards.
There are three different conceptual workflow diagrams that show the paths that connect the computer program to the scent-making device for the user to experience the smell. The paths would be determined by the computer program that was used to develop the experienced whether it is augmented, mixed, or virtual reality. The workflow would begin with the use of a computer program to create the application and incorporate the program building codes to trigger the release of the scent from the wearable device. This activation occurs when a target is recognized by the application, typically an image or location. The application will activate the scent-making component to deliver the scent into the air near the user. This could provide a nearly real experience in nature, other environment, or activity.
