Presented at Mae Fah Luang University in Thailand by Dr Jim Ang from the University of Kent, UK

1. Video game, violence and
dementia
Jim Ang
University of Kent
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2. 2

4. Canterbury

5. School of Engineering
and Digital Arts
University of Kent

6. University of Kent

7. 7
Canterbury: 40,000
Chiang Rai: 70,000

8. Kent’s Engineering and Digital Arts
• A coherent and distinctive blend of technology and design expertise
• Dedication to “advancing technology for humanity”, centred around
social and environmental sustainability
• Addressing the increasing more complex challenges facing humanity
(including healthcare) through multidisciplinary approach
• involving experts from diverse fields such as health, bioscience, psychology,
sociology, and (digital) arts
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9. About me
• Video game enthusiast
• Email junky
• Senior lecturer in multimedia and digital systems
• Backgrounds in computer science specialising in human computer
interaction
• Recent research focus has been in digital health focusing on mental health
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https://jimmybbq.wordpress.com/

10. Intelligent Interactions Group
• Intelligent Interactions Group: all aspects of information engineering,
multimedia systems and human-machine interactions
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Computer vision Pattern recognition Human-computer
interaction
Ubiquitous computing

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12. 70s 80s 90s
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13. On 1 Dec. 1997, 14-year-old Michael Carneal shot
to death three students in Heath High School. The
parents of the victims sued multiple organisations,
including game companies.
The lawsuit contends that Michael was influenced
by several violent games: Doom, Quake, and
Mortal Kombat. 13

14. Do video games cause violence?
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16. Video games coming of age
GPU Sensors VR/AR
Design
principles
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17. Let’s gamify it!
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18. Bulimia
• Incidences of Eating Disorders are
occurring at alarming rates among
younger women
• The average cost of treating a patient is
estimated at £8,850 per annum
• At risk individuals are usually reluctant to
engage in treatment due to stigma and
anxiety of dealing with body image issues
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19. Multi-User VR remote psychotherapy
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20. Multi-User VR remote psychotherapy
• 14 females deemed at high risk for Eating Disorders, with an
average age of 20 years participated in the study.
• We found a significant reduction in the scores on troubling
thoughts about weight and body image after the VR
Psychotherapy.
• Two months follow up analysis showed that patients with
Eating Disorders diagnosis benefited from the program.
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21. “I felt uncomfortable in front of the VR Mirror. Trying to
create yourself – not who you want to be but who
you really are is not just uncomfortable, is
miserable…”
“However, I really – really liked it. It was a great
experience and it helped me a lot, it helped me to
understand several things about myself and my body
and all the concerns I have. I enjoyed it and it made
me think, it made me think a lot… “ [p12]
Mirror Exposure Therapy
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22. Exercise pain
• Exercise is essential in helping to maintain a healthy
way of living
• But intense or prolonged exercise can cause discomfort
and pain
• What if pain perception could be offset during
exercise? Can this lead to increased willingness to
increase exercise intensity?
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23. Exercise pain
• We ran a study trying to answer this question: can VR be designed to “trick”
people’s into exercising more and experience less pain?
• 30 participants were recruited to go through some basic weight lifting
training with a VR headset
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24. VR Exercise
• We used a smart wristband to track
the movement of their physical hand,
so that the virtual hand moved
according to their physical hand
• The trick: the visual weight as
presented in the VR, understated or
overstated the real weight by 50%. The
real weight that was actually lifted
remained the same
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25. • We found that this VR trick appeared to be effective!
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Overall our participants lasted approximately two
minutes longer during the understate session
During the understate session, the participants’ heart
rate was significantly lower by 5-7 bpm, than during
the control and overstate session
During the understate session, the mean rate of pain
intensity in the first minute was approximately 50%,
lower than the control and overstate sessions

26. Dysphagia
• a swallowing disorder, refers to difficulty or
impossibility in swallowing food or liquid
• Exercise-based rehabilitation can serve as an
effective method by restoring their independence
and quality of life
• However, trained clinicians are needed to monitor
the exercise
• Patient adherence to rehabilitation programmes is
frequently low - often due to low motivation
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27. Game control via swallowing
using skin sensors
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28. Game-based swallowing therapy
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30. Game based cognitive assessment
• To explore if user-game interaction behaviour can be used to infer
cognitive abilities
• Focus on touch and device motions patterns
• Employ existing mobile games on the market
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Game based cognitive assessment

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Game based cognitive assessment
Swipe speed Cognitive performance
Cognitive performanceSwipe length
Cognitive performanceDegree of movement
Tetris: A significant correlation between max score and visuospatial
abilities suggests that high demands are placed on visuospatial.
Fruit Ninja: Mean time to cut items was positively correlated with
increases in visuospatial ability.

33. Aggression and dementia
• Can VR be used to reduce challenging behaviour
among people with dementia in secured psychiatry
setting?
• A pilot study: 24 participants were recruited (8
individuals with dementia and 16 caregivers)
• A mobile based VR system was used to stream
audial and visual 360 content
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34. Aggression and dementia
• Pleasure significantly differed between
before, during and after VR exposure
• Ratings of general alertness significantly
differed between before, during and
after VR exposure
• We found no adverse effects in the form
of fear/anxiety, sadness and anger,
which differs from previous findings
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“The patient at the beginning was verbally
aggressive, swearing at the researchers
[…] asking them to leave the room,
however when the caregiver
demonstrated the VR, even though he was
still verbally aggressive and unsettled, he
was interested. When the patient was
using the VR, he appeared to enjoy being
in his own world. We were later told that
this patient could become agitated easily,
and yet surprisingly, he tolerated VR and
used it for the maximum period.”[PWD7,
Observations, 12 ]

35. What about the Heath High School case?
• In 2002, the court ruled that it was “simply too far a leap from shooting
characters on a video screen to shooting people in a classroom.”
• Subsequent research has found little to no evidence that playing video
games cause real world violent behaviour.
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36. In fact, violent crime rates in the US dropped through the 90s and 2000s, the
time period video games were becoming mainstream.
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37. “young men are too busy playing video games, this
keeps them off the streets and committing crimes”
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38. Thanks!
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Jim Ang
https://jimmybbq.wordpress.com/
csa8@kent.ac.uk
Research programmes in Electronic Engineering
or Digital Arts
MSc by Research (1 year)
PhD (3-4 years)
Remote/online study mode possible