The world through a child's eyes

When you're a kid, everything seems huge. Teachers tower over you; playgrounds stretch on to infinity. Now, researchers have found a way to make grownups feel the same way. By placing volunteers in virtual reality, scientists are helping adults see the world through the eyes of a child.

Virtual reality is more than an illusion. To enter, people put on full-body suits that track their movements and goggles that display an artificial world in which they have a virtual body. If their virtual and real movements sync up, their computer-generated bodies start to seem real.

Previous research has shown that subjects begin to feel like their body has changed into the simulated figure, even if it is different from their own body; volunteers placed into the body of a teenage girl,real time Location system, “felt it” when her mother slapped her computer-generated representation.

But scientists did not know how this virtual body “ownership” affected people's perception of the world around them and whether this could help people relate with others unlike themselves.

To find out, computer scientist Mel Slater of the University of Barcelona in Spain and colleagues placed adult volunteers into a virtual outdoor scene in which they did not have a computer-generated body. They were asked to estimate the sizes of six different cubes within the scene and were told whether their guesses were too big, too small, or correct. Later, they reentered the scene and repeated the exercise with three cubes, without feedback from the researchers. Their size estimates without a virtual body were noted.

After this training exercise, the researchers placed the subjects in two different avatars, virtual characters controlled by participants. One was a four-year-old child of the same gender as the participant. The other was an adult who was the same height as the child. While standing in a virtual living room, the participants again gauged the size of the cubes without feedback.

Adults stated that they felt the two virtual bodies were equally real, and they misjudged object size in both avatars. But those in the child avatar rated the cubes about twice as large, rtls, as did those in the adult bodies, Slater's team reported online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In a test after the simulation, participants who had been in the virtual child body were quicker to mischaracterise themselves with childlike traits than their actual ones. For example, someone who had embodied the virtual four-year-old was more likely to identify themselves as attending primary school than someone who had embodied the scaled-down adult.

When movements of the virtual and real bodies did not match, participants no longer felt their avatars were real. They still overestimated the size of the cubes, but there were no differences between the adult and child avatars. The researchers conclude that the type of avatar can affect how people see their virtual environment only if they feel connected with their virtual body.

Slater notes that the experimental setup in this study could be used to help people empathise with others who are unlike themselves, for example by putting criminal offenders in the virtual body of the victim at the crime scene to help them see the event from the other perspective.

The study demonstrates that we may need to think harder about the implications of spending time in a digital world, says cognitive psychologist Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford University. He describes a hypothetical danger of Google Glass, a pair of glasses that gives users hands-free access to the Internet.

The Big Vanilla originally opened in Arnold in 1977 as  a tennis and racquetball club.  Since its inception, Big Vanilla has transformed into a multi-purpose, family-focused, sports, wellness and recreational club.

The Y will continue to provide high-quality programs and membership experiences while maintaining a commitment to the community and dedication to promoting a health-centered lifestyle, which Big Vanilla and the Y share as common values.

There will be several changes made to align the center with the Y’s quality standards (in effect in all Family Center Ys across the region) and to reflect the Y’s core mission. The changes include special member discounts on youth development programs, scholarships for those who can otherwise not afford Y services, opportunities for volunteerism, access to the entire network of Family Center Ys throughout Central Maryland and many free programs, services, special events and activities.

The Y currently operates four summer camps and eight before and after school enrichment program sites in Anne Arundel County. With the addition of the Greater Annapolis Family Center Y, the Y will now have a hub from which to fully deliver Y programs and services that support its charitable mission and provide full access to Y services for the surrounding community.

As part of the transition process, current staff of the Arnold location will be offered the opportunity to become Y employees and it is the Y’s desire that they will decide to stay on and join the Y team.

“The Y and Big Vanilla share many of the same values.  This was a great opportunity to join forces with an organization that is community-centric and will continue to support families in the area,” said Larry Ray, owner of Big Vanilla Athletic Clubs in Arnold and Pasadena in a release.  “As someone who has been in the health and wellness business for a very long time, I have a great deal of respect for the Y and I know that I am leaving the business I built in the hands of an organization that will do good for the community.”

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