Distance, isolation, and trauma are all too real for many, especially over the last year and a half. From physically isolated elders living in senior care to emotionally isolated veterans back home from deployment, there are so many people Kyle Rand, co-founder and CEO at Rendever, and psychologist, Dr. Skip Rizzo, are looking to help. Tune in to learn more about their vision for changing how we can move forward through connections – with the limitless possibilities of VR. 

Key Takeaways:

[1:11] For Skip, the key to using Virtual Reality is engaging people in things they can benefit from. Kyle saw VR as an opportunity for empowering seniors and to help broaden their world, especially those in long-term care facilities.

[4:23] Skip discusses his work with people who needed cognitive rehabilitation from traumatic brain injuries. He experimented with the game SimCity and found great opportunities in gamifying cognitive rehab even just with the emerging technology in the 1990s. He feels now as though VR’s vision has finally caught up to the technology.

[6:26] What exactly can VR do for us? It can provide a whole lot more than just entertainment. Kyle’s technology helps seniors cross off bucket list items, even visit their childhood home and gives them the opportunity to access memories that can help raise their mood and fight off the doldrums of isolation.

[10:15] Kyle shares a story of how VR helped rehab a dementia patient and bring back her happiness and upbeat personality.

[13:04] Skip and his colleague Barbara had already built a virtual Vietnam simulation in the late nineties, where patients could go into the environment with supervision from a professional at a pace they can handle.

[16:39] Social isolation is as detrimental to one’s health as smoking 15 cigarettes and is terrible for all of us, especially in the aging demographic. The pandemic gave many of us a feeling for the first time of being isolated, and VR can act as a tool to allow us to connect with each other, friends, family, and even caregivers. Kyle and his team at Rendever are launching a new study that pairs residents of senior living communities with family members with family members that live at a distance to see how we can better use technology for social health.

[18:53] Another profound opportunity is helping those in professions that come with a high amount of stress. Doctors and nurses have the highest suicide rate of any profession, and Skip believes we can take what we have learned from working with veterans and expand it to others.

[20:28] Virtual humans? Yes, Skip believes that AI-powered pseudo-people can be placed in VR simulations, and that may be the next step in virtual reality treatment. This can provide all the elements of talking to a real person without any of the judgement or time constraints.

[22:18] This industry really takes the mindset that all ships rise together. It’s a very collaborative industry and one that is full of creativity.

[23:36] We see a future in which virtual reality technology can empower communities to thrive way past the four walls of any building.

[24:33] VR isn’t just about anywhere, it’s about anyone.

Quotes:

[1:50] “The key here was engagement, engaging people in things they could benefit from.” - Skip

[4:06] “We looked at this technology as this incredible tool that really allows people to connect with the world outside of the four walls that they are confined within.” - Kyle

[5:05] We could get multiple seniors to put on these headsets together and share an experience and have that moment of joy, have that moment of happiness together, that gives us a really exciting opportunity to build a relationship and build a conversation, get people to talk and connect through these experiences.” - Kyle

[15:50] “There’s a lot of power here, and a lot of potential to do good and improve the human experience.” - Skip

[22:22] “I think VR will never be as natural as breathing, but VR will be as natural as jumping into a Zoom meeting or turning on Netflix.” - Kyle

[23:36] We see a future in which virtual reality technology can empower communities to thrive way past the four walls of any building. - Kyle

[24:33] Because VR isn’t just about anywhere. It's about anyone. - Jo

Continue on your journey:

pega.com/podcast

Mentioned:

• Rendever
• Kyle Rand
• Dr. Skip Russo
• USC Institute for Creative Technologies