Yahoo – AFP,
Jo Biddle, November 19, 2017
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A Dutch non-profit has developed virtual reality glasses to enable the
disabled to feel close to dolphins for therapeutic purposes |
Swimming
with wild dolphins is something most can only dream of, and jumping into pools
with captive animals has become increasingly controversial with
environmentalists condemning it as cruel.
But a Dutch
non-profit believes it has found a way to bring people, especially the
disabled, closer to such a joyful experience through the technological,
immersive advances offered by virtual reality (VR).
The Dolphin
Swim Club is the realisation of a more than two-decade journey by artist
Marijke Sjollema, who had her first chance encounter with a dolphin in 1993
while snorkeling off the coast of Mexico.
"I saw
this grey shadow under the water and my first thought was this is the end. I
thought it was a shark," she told AFP.
She tried
to stay calm "but this shadow was following me. And then there was this
split second that I realised that it wasn't a shark. It was a dolphin."
"I
didn't know anything about dolphins, but I instinctively knew, 'Oh a dolphin,
I'm fine. This is a good thing'."
From that
moment on, Sjollema's love of dolphins and all cetaceans was born.
"We
know that there is something magical about dolphins. We think of joy, and
playfulness and happiness and innocence when we meet dolphins. And this is even
a healing quality," she told AFP.
She and her
business consultant husband, Benno Brada, have devoted their spare time, energy
and personal resources to their mission of enabling people to discover their
own encounter with dolphins.
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The VR
dolphin therapy is designed as an alternative to dolphin-assisted
therapies
using dolphins in captivity
|
Healing
qualities
Their first
project using normal VR headsets playing a film of the dolphins launched in
late 2015.
But last
month they went a step further, unveiling waterproof VR glasses, which allow people
to drift around a pool watching bottlenose and spinner dolphins playing around
them in virtual reality.
This VR
dolphin therapy in a pool, still at the trial stage, is thought to be a world
first.
"The
dream was to find an alternative to dolphin-assisted therapies using dolphins
in captivity," Brada told therapists at a residential community for
disabled people run by the 's Heeren Loo organisation who were testing out the
waterproof goggles in the pool.
The centre
has been using the land version of the VR glasses since 2016, and has seen
noticeable benefits.
"Some
82 percent of our clients feel actually relaxed by seeing the films," said
the organisation's policy advisor Johan Elbers.
"It
takes them away from the world they are in, they enter a new world in another
mindset, think differently, feel differently, see differently, and relax
completely."
He recalled
how one young woman, who had long had trouble sleeping, now watches a VR film
of the dolphins swimming at night, and falls quietly asleep.
Another man
is able to completely forget an agonising pain in his arm.
Dion, a
21-year-old resident of the community, said watching the film made him feel
"peaceful."
"The
dolphin noises and the water calms me down, that calms me from all the noises
that there are, then you're zen," he said.
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The VR
glasses allow people to float around a pool watching dolphins playing
around
them in virtual reality, helping people relax and enter another world
|
Sharks
next?
The
pool-safe VR goggles, developed thanks to 50,000 euros ($59,000) grant from the
Dutch government, consist of a waterproof Samsung smartphone in a waterproof
backing mounted on a special 3D-printed rig made of recycled plastics.
"Stress
is very important as a driver of all kinds of psychiatric problems,"
explains psychiatrist Wim Veling, from the University of Groningen.
"So we
are trying in therapy to make people more relaxed," said Veling, who has
been studying the use of VR to help people with mental health disorders.
"The
power of virtual reality is in the immersion" into another world, he says
on the Dolphin Swim Club site.
For
Sjollema, the VR glasses offer huge advantages. Not only can they bring the
dolphins to disabled people, who would not be able to travel to see them, but
they also avoid the use of captive dolphins.
"Right
from the beginning we wanted to make this an alternative for existing therapies
with dolphins in captivity," she said.
The films
were made during a 10-day shoot in December 2015 at the Red Sea, by a
specialist VR team Viemr, using free divers capable of holding their breath for
up to five minutes so as not to scare away the dolphins.
The dry
version glasses are already being used in more than 150 universities, hospitals
and community centres around the world.
And the
hope is that the waterproof ones will prove equally beneficial. Sjollema and
Brada are looking for a partner to launch their commercial production.
But Dion is
ready for something a little more exhilarating.
He would
like to watch "a film with sharks" or lions "where the animal is
hunting a prey. It would be fun to see a little bit of action."
