Technologies such as metaverse and VR have great potential not only for the entertainment industry, but also for human "care".
What made you decide to combine the fields of welfare and nursing care with VR and the metaverse?
Kenta Toshima (Toshima): Originally, my previous job was in the welfare industry. At the facility, I often worked as a caregiver and a rehabilitation worker, or a so-called “functional training instructor,” working one-on-one with each elderly person or person concerned.
I thought about motivating them to rehabilitate and to keep coming to the facility without a break, and at first I did an activity for about a year in which I used photos and videos to show them places they remembered from their old days.
Many of the participants wanted to go back to their old scenery and places they had experienced in the past. In reality, it is difficult for them to go there due to physical problems, so we came up with a project draft that suggested using the media instead.
As we continued our activities, while they were happy to see us, there was a discrepancy between the photos and videos and their own memories. I thought this was the difference between “memory” and “experience.
That is why we started a project around 2014 called “VR Travel,” in which “memorable places” are filmed from 360° angles, and the viewer can “experience” the images by changing the angle and perspective of the viewer using a head-mounted display while in the facility.
I believe that some elderly people are not comfortable with digital tools.
Toshima: In general, it is often thought that “the elderly are not good with digital tools. However, I have seen many people over the age of 65 who have smartphones and enjoy playing games on them.
In addition, the elderly are the generation that watches a lot of TV, and recently VR is being introduced on TV more and more, so I think there is a background of less resistance due to that influence. Of course, there are those who are resistant. I don't suddenly bring VR goggles and ask everyone to try it either.
I may start by having those who are actively interested experience it, and then mirror the images on a TV so that others can step back and watch from a different position.
In fact, some people who are experiencing a gradual limitation on their physical functions and energy, or who have been in the facility for a long time, have a desire to get out. We want to encourage that feeling.
If we talk about how digital tools are 'tools to make that feeling come true,' you will understand. We will start with such communication.
