myView: End-user Authoring of Virtual Environments for Therapy

Abstract

Virtual environments for therapy are scarce and lack personalization. The creation of these environments is done by specialists, is time-consuming, and expensive. We present a smartphone tool that allows non-specialists to create navigable virtual environments by taking and linking sequences of panoramic photo spheres, analogly to Google Street View. Editing the environments is then possible in a web platform, myView, where text, images, videos, sounds, and pick-up objects can be added. myView allows users to navigate their environments as well as sharing those environments with others. In a preliminary study with two psychologists, where myView was used as an elicitation probe, the approach was found to be useful for creating meaningful activities for reminiscence and cognitive training. The platform showed to be promising in the democratization of the crafting of virtual environments.