Ricerc@Sapienza

ICTs are today frequently used in the communication of cultural heritage. Among these Mixed Virtuality offers a visualization system on smart devices where, depending on the needs of dissemination, the reconstructions of objects and spaces can be viewed in Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality mode. As a case study, an application is proposed in the archaeological area of the Acropolis of Volterra.

In recent years, the contribution of various disciplines and professionals (i.e., from marketing, computer science, psychology, and pedagogy) to museum management has encouraged the development of a new conception of museology. Specifically, psychology has affected the overall conception of museum and the visitors toward a more holistic vision of the museum experience as a complexity of memory, personal drives, group identity, meaning-making process, as well as leisure preferences.

In recent years and with its accessibility, the use of online shopping for clothing has increased. Virtual Dressing Rooms (VDRs) represent an effective way to enact the ability to "try before buying, thus removing an important obstacle for online shopping.

One of the most challenging aspects of the implementation of Virtual/Mixed reality training systems is the effective simulation of real-world manipulation of the physical devices included in control interfaces like buttons, sliders, levers, knobs, etc. In this paper we describe a mockup airplane cockpit (XR-Cockpit), featuring interactive components of this kind that demonstrate the feasibility of effective simulations of device manipulation using low cost hand tracking technology and gesture recognition.

Psychological distress is a common consequence of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment and could further exacerbate therapy side effects. Interventions increasing treatment tolerance are crucial to improve both patients' quality of life and adherence to therapies. Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as an effective distraction tool for different medical procedures. Here, we assessed the efficacy of immersive and interactive VR in alleviating chemotherapy-related psychological distress in a cohort of Italian breast cancer patients, also comparing its effects with those of music therapy (MT).

Objectives: This review aims to provide a framework for evaluating the utility of virtual reality (VR) as a distraction intervention to alleviate pain and distress during medical procedures. We first describe the theoretical bases underlying the VR analgesic and anxiolytic effects and define the main factors contributing to its efficacy, which largely emerged from studies on healthy volunteers.

Abstract: Increasingly, refined virtual reality (VR) techniques allow for the simultaneous and coherent
stimulation of multiple sensory and motor domains. In some clinical interventions, such as those
related to spinal cord injuries (SCIs), the impact of VR on people′s multisensory perception, movements,
attitudes, and even modulations of socio‐cognitive aspects of their behavior may influence
every phase of their rehabilitation treatment, from the acute to chronic stages. This work describes

The vision of an art masterpiece is associated with brain arousal by neural processes occurring quite spontaneously in the viewer. This aesthetic experience may even elicit a response in the motor areas of the observers. In the neurorehabilitation of patients with stroke, art observation has been used for reducing psychological disorders, and creative art therapy for enhancing physical functions and cognitive abilities.

During a non-invasive procedure, participants both helped and helped by a confederate with features that create social distance (membership in an ethnic outgroup or another social group). For this purpose, we created a set of virtual scenarios in which the confederate’s ethnicity (white vs. black) and appearance (business man vs. beggar, with casual dress as a control condition) were crossed.

We combined virtual reality and multisensory bodily illusion with the aim to characterize and reduce the perceptual (body overestimation) and the cognitive-emotional (body dissatisfaction) components of body image distortion (BID) in anorexia nervosa (AN). For each participant (20 anorexics, 20 healthy controls) we built personalized avatars that reproduced their own body size, shape, and verisimilar increases and losses of their original weight. Body overestimation and dissatisfaction were measured by asking participants to choose the avatar that best resembled their real and ideal body.