Coming Home Jacki Morie USC Institute for Creative

“Coming Home” Jacki Morie USC Institute for Creative Technologies 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.

Wounds of War Latest statistics indicate that more than 300, 000 veterans who have returned from Iraq & Afghanistan are currently suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depression OR TBI (Rand Corporation, 2008) 2

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? 3

Virtual Worlds • They are a lot like games, but can serve more purposes. • You can be anonymous. 1 in 8 Americans use Virtual Worlds (Gig. OM research, 2009) 4

Questions: Can a VW § become part of a veteran’s reintegration process? § provide social support, stress relief & otherapies for veterans in the VW? § Can we make intelligent agents to serve as guides & helpers in the VW? Our VW choice: Second Life 5

“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 6

The Veterans Center Chicoma Lodge § Relaxing spaces: outside & inside § Game rooms 7

The Veterans Center Enrichment activities § Labyrinth § Story Tower for Warrior’s Journeys 8

Virtual Humans in Coming Home The Greeter Guide (Island Caretaker) …. helps to maximize each person’s experience. Currently: Text-based question & answer Future: Spoken conversation with appropriate gestures & animations 9

ICT makes Virtual Humans 10

C 3 IT Cultural training ICT’s Virtual Humans Portfolio Minor Characters Radiobots JFETS Training Elder-Al-Hassan SASO-EN Dr. Perez SASO-ST, SASOEN ELECT Bi-Lat Training Research Virtual Hassan Emotional Dialog Modeling Raed Tactical Questioning 11 Rapport. Agent Study Marketing Humans Clinical Diagnosis Justin Virtual Patient Sgt. Blackwell Gunslinger Justina Virtual Patient Museum Guide & Coach Veteran s Center Sgt. Star

The Labyrinth Guide … can be summoned to explain how to walk a labyrinth. 12

The Storyteller Agent … answers questions about The Warriors Journey story 13

CAM Therapies Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction 14

The Veterans Center’s Chicoma Exchange (Cx) Resources 15 § Events Board § V. O. I. C. E. S. (Veterans Online & Inworld Chicoma Services Exchange) § Orientation & Building Tutorials § Freebies (clothes, objects, avatars)

The Veterans Center: Physical Activities The Running Path 16

Collaborations • Support from Linden Lab • SL Veterans’ group (~1000 members) • Medical, CAM & military experts 17

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 18

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/p 230577_index. html • Social activities are therapeutic – RW or VW • CAM activities may mitigate declining health scores in returned vets 19

ICT’s Virtual Humans & Vet Center teams Virtual Humans researchers The Veteran’s Center team Dr. Bill Swartout Ed Fast Dr. Jonathan Gratch Matt Liewer Eric Chance Brad Newman Kip Haynes Dr. Stacy Marsella Dr. Anton Lueski Dusan Jan Antonio Roque Sean Bouchard Dr. Jacki Morie Dr. Ron Artstein Sudeep Gandhe Patrick Kenny Ashish Vaswani Dinesh Rajapurohit Susan Robinson Jillian Gerten Dr. David Traum & the Natural Language Group Dr. Paul Debevec & the Graphics Lab … & many other talented artists & researchers through the years. 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. 20