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Translator: Megan Mrozek
Reviewer: Peter van de Ven
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Today, I'm here with you
to talk about virtual reality
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and how what happens
inside this headset
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has the power to change
what happens in the real world.
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By now, I'm guessing that most of you
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have had some sort
of experience with VR before,
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but for those of you who haven't,
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it can be hard to imagine
how strapping goggles onto your face
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could possibly make you feel anything,
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except socially awkward.
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(Laughter)
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That guy's worth a lot of money now.
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But looks can be deceiving,
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and how VR appears from the outside
can cause people to misjudge
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the impact that it'll have
on our long term future.
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The reality is that even with today's
rudimentary technology,
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people are constantly surprised
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at how real and how visceral
it already feels.
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And we're only starting to scratch
the surface of what's possible.
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The question that really seems
to get people thinking is,
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What's going to happen
when it gets to be so real, so advanced
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that we can no longer
tell the difference?
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But my point today isn't actually
about how fast technology is moving,
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because I think that's something
we already know.
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My point is that over the next five years,
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we're going to have to open up
our thinking in completely new ways
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in order to use these new capabilities
and move humanity forward.
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My name is Thong Nguyen,
and over the past few years,
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I've been applying VR
to help companies see and test the future.
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What this means is that we iterate in VR
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well before anything
is actually ever physically built.
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And this helps leaders learn faster
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and also make decisions
based not just on intuition
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but also empathy and data.
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In my work I get to introduce
a lot of people to VR for the first time,
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and what I've found is
that a lot of people have no idea
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that it's being used for things
other than games and entertainment.
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But what if I told you that the NFL,
NBA, and US Olympic Ski Team
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all use VR to train for competition?
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Or that Ford, BMW, and Volkswagen
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are using it not only to reinvent
the car buying experience,
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but how they design cars
in the first place.
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Or what if I told you that VR
can actually be used to help alleviate
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stress and anxiety for people
suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's?
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Or that VR is actually
an alternative to morphine?
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If any of these are surprising to you,
then you're definitely not alone.
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But I've got a handful of other examples
that I want to share with you today.
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But before I get into that,
let's take a quick step back
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so we can understand
why VR is able to do these things.
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A concept that's really important
to VR is called presence -
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not as in birthday presents,
but as in the feeling of being somewhere.
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It's not something that we
really think about on a day to day basis,
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but it's our brain's distinct way
of telling us that an experience is real
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and that we're not just looking
at a picture or a book.
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What VR does is activate
the motor cortex and our sensory system
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in a way that's similar
to a real life experience.
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As an outside observer,
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you might not be able to see
somebody experiencing presence,
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but what you can see
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are the physiological and emotional
reactions that occur as a result.
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Now, if any of you have done VR before,
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you may have felt something like this:
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[Oh my gosh]
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[No]
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[It's too real]
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[My palms are sweaty]
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[Oh, F---]
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[That is so cool]
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[I'll have to go back]
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[Nhah I don't want to]
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(Air rushing)
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(Car horn)
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(Fast breathing)
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(Gasp, oh my god)
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(Beep!)
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(Whimpering)
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(Oh, s---!)
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Thong Nguyen: (Chuckles)
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I've got that app if you want it.
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(Laughter)
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So aside from being able to make
people swear and sweat profusely,
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why is presence important
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and how is it actually
supposed to help people?
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Well, that's actually
a really interesting question
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that's bringing together
researchers from around the world
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and across a broad variety of disciplines.
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As it turns out, something that happens
when we achieve presence in VR
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is that our brains actually become
more accurate at encoding memories.
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There's been some interesting research
from the University of Maryland
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that shows that there's about a nine
percent improvement in memory accuracy
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when learning in VR
versus looking at a flat screen.
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In the meanwhile, a study
done by STRIVR, a VR startup,
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actually shows that recall and response
times are improved by 12 percent.
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Now on the surface,
those numbers may not seem huge,
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but in the right situations
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that can mean the difference
between winning and losing, easily.
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And in extreme circumstances,
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that could be the difference
between life and death.
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VR also gives people
a safe environment to practice things
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that could be otherwise expensive,
risky, or dangerous to replicate.
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And this could be for anything
ranging from operating heavy machinery
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to practicing life-saving surgery
to saving hostages,
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or even prepping for Black Friday.
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(Laughter)
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Interestingly enough,
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the VR training program at WalMart
has been so successful
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that since starting in 2016,
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they've expanded from using it
at 30 of their locations
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to almost all 200.
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And the feedback from employees
has been nothing but positive.
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Because of its ability
to tap into brain pathways,
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VR is also showing a lot of promise
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in the fields of cognitive
and behavioral therapy.
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To give you some context,
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an estimated one in five adults
in the United States
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has some form of mental disorder.
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This not only deeply impacts their lives,
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but it also impacts the lives
of the people around them.
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And it costs an estimated 467 billion
in lost productivity and medical expenses.
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And unfortunately,
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one of the most common solutions
that we have today is prescription drugs.
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Research has shown
that in a number of cases,
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VR can actually be
an effective alternative.
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Through several techniques
such as exposure therapy,
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distraction therapy, neurofeedback,
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virtual experiences can actually be
designed specifically
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to address a host of conditions,
including the ones that you see up here.
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The progress in some of these areas
is definitely further than in some others,
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but the fact that VR
can even be considered
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as a viable solution
for some of these health challenges
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can't be understated.
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And it just goes to show
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that there is still so much
we have to learn about the human mind.
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Needless to say, VR in healthcare
is definitely an area to watch.
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Another topic that's actually really
important to VR is called embodiment.
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But rather than just telling you about it,
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what would you all think
if I showed you instead?
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(Cheers)
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(Applause)
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Go, go, magic fingers!
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(Laughter)
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You guys ready?
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(Yeah!)
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Roomera, calibrate.
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(Chime sounds)
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Hi everybody.
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(Woah!)
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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In full disclosure, these gloves
use little magnets and accelerometers
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to detect the position of my fingers.
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So typically they are
really, really accurate,
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but with all the equipment on stage,
there may be some interference.
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So if, for some reason,
I give you a lewd gesture ...
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(Laughter)
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then please don't be offended.
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(Whispers) It wasn't me, it was my gloves!
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(Laughter)
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So embodiment can be described
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as the feeling of agency and control
that you have within your body.
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But like presence,
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it's not something that we're typically
conscious of on a day to day basis.
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And yet it has an enormous impact on
the perception of the world and ourselves.
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An example of this is called
the "rubber hand illusion,"
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which is a simple demonstration
that shows how your brain
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can actually change
what it perceives is part of you.
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And if you haven't seen this before,
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watch closely.
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Woman: Really weird.
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Man: What does it feel like?
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W: I'm not sure. (Laughs)
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W: I'm starting to feel
like that's my hand.
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M: Are you?
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W: Yeah.
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W: Oh my gosh.
What are you going to do?
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Man in background: Oh god.
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W: Oh my gosh.
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W: (Shrieks!) Oh my god!
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W: Feel my hands! Oh my god!
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Different Woman: Okay,
that's weird. That's really weird.
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[This is a famous scientific experiment.]
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[It's called the
"Body Transfer Illusion."]
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M: Tell me when you're there.
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DW: Yeah, I feel it.
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M: Feel it? Don't look.
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DW: Oh no. No, no, no, no!
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DW: Aah! F---!
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[They start to believe
the fake hand is their real hand.]
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(Laughter)
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Thong Nguyen: Come on, hand.
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This hand is feeling
really rubbery right now.
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(Laughter)
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Alright! At least it's not,
like, gesturing at you.
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So my hand's going to stay there
for a second here ...
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So with VR, researchers are able
to do that with not just one limb,
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but with your entire body.
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So after a few minutes in VR,
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your brain starts adapting
and thinking that it's your body.
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For example, studies from the
Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford
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suggest that even brief embodiment
inside the avatar of an elderly person
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has a significant impact
on their attitude towards the elderly.
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A different project from the Columbia
University called 1,000 Cut Journey
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actually lets you experience
racism firsthand
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from the perspective
of a black boy, as he grows up
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and experiences unequal treatment
through no choice of his own.
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There's still plenty of learning
and ongoing work being done in this space,
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but one thing is very clear:
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Embodiment in VR can induce
a level of empathy and understanding
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that's more effective than any other form
of communication that we have today.
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Yet another way that it can help us
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is to get a better understanding
of our own self-perception.
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So it's pretty well known
that people with eating disorders
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have a persistently distorted
representation of the size of their body.
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In a study done in 2016,
researchers from the Netherlands
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were actually able to show that by
putting people in a healthy sized avatar,
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it was possible to decrease
the overestimation of their own body size
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and thus improve their self-body image.
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Interestingly, it was found
that after the headset came off,
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the changes actually stayed.
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In yet a different study
out of the University of Barcelona,
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researchers studied
the effects of self-counseling in VR.
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Participants, in an avatar
that looked like themselves,
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were asked to share some issues
that they faced in real life.
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Then from the perspective of Freud,
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they would hear the recording
played back of themselves.
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And after responding
with advice, as Freud,
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they would swap back into their own body
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and hear their own advice
played back, but at a lower pitch.
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So the conclusion from this experiment
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was that stepping
outside of one's self in VR
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can provide enough of a perspective shift
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that can foundationally
change a person's thinking
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and that we do have the ability
to take our own advice,
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but sometimes it's more effective
when it's coming from somebody else.
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(Laughter)
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These types of findings -
along with my hand -
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(Laughter)
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are so important because,
as many of you know,
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our own perception and self-image
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can often be the most
difficult thing to overcome.
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There's still so much work
to be done in this space,
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but it is really exciting to see how VR
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can enable and accelerate
this type of learning.
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It gives us a tangible way
to begin to test and understand
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the discrepancies between
what we think, what we feel,
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and what we believe we already know.
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VR can accelerate new insights
and help usher change,
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not through force or coercion,
but through the power of perspective.
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Roomera, exit VR.
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(Poof!)
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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So today I've shared with you
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a few examples of how VR
is creating real world impacts,
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but what I'd like to do
is end with a personal story.
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As a kid, I used to love reading
"Choose your Own Adventure" books.
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And for those of you
who have never read them before,
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they're these paperback books
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that allow you to make choices
while you read,
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and assume the role of the protagonist.
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And each one of these choices can cause
the story to change in any number of ways.
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These choices can be anything like,
"Open the door and step through,"
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or, "Turn around and go the other way."
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What I would do,
when I was reading these as a kid,
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was go through and mark
all of the pages that had choices ...
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(Laughter)
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so that I could follow the branches
and understand the impact of my decisions.
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Back then I was just thrilled
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because I felt I was getting
40 books for the price of one,
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but in reality what I was doing
was testing all of my options
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so I could achieve the best outcome.
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We all choose our own adventures everyday,
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but sometimes, the choices that we make
are based on what's happened in the past.
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And that can prevent us from really,
really, really, finding our own futures.
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And unlike books, many of our stories
still have yet to be written.
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But what would happen if VR
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allowed us to experience
and try out different futures?
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And what if we had the ability,
not just conceptually,
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but to virtually walk a mile
in somebody else's shoes?
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And how will our lives change,
when we can see our own minds,
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our own egos, and our own vulnerabilities
from a different perspective?
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Because what happens inside this headset
will change the world.
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Thank you.
