Adding autonomous virtual humans to the landscape allows therapists to begin
addressing some of the most complex problems of them all -- social ones. In
one continuing study at the University of California, Davis, for instance,
researchers are trying to improve high-functioning autistic children's
ability to think and talk about themselves while paying attention to
multiple peers.

The hope is similar for people with social anxiety: that practice
interacting with a virtual boss, suspicious strangers or virtual partygoers
who are staring as one enters the room will also lead to increased comfort,
with the help of a therapist. "The figures themselves don't even have to be
especially realistic to evoke reactions," said a psychologist, Stephane
Bouchard, who directs the cybertherapy program at the University of Quebec
in Ottawa. "People with social anxiety, for example, will feel they are
being judged by virtual humans who are simply watching them."

In the pilot study that included Gary, the University of Quebec researchers
tracked two groups of patients: one that received an hour of talk therapy
once a week for 14 weeks and another that got talk therapy with a virtual
component, practicing virtual interactions. Both groups showed improvement,
faring much better than a comparison group put on a waiting list,
preliminary results suggest. But those who got virtual therapy achieved the
same gains without having to practice interactions in the real world,
deliberately putting themselves in embarrassing situations or dreaded
encounters. The researchers are now working to identify which people benefit
most, and whether combining virtual and real-world experiences accelerates
recovery.

The face in the mirror does not look familiar; it has a generic,
computer-generated look. Yet it does appear to be staring out from a mirror.
Lift a hand and up goes its hand. Nod, wave, smile, and it does the same,
simultaneously. Now, look down at your own body: and there, through the
virtual reality headset, are a torso, legs, clothes identical to those in
the mirror.

In a matter of minutes, people placed in front of this virtual mirror
identify strongly with their "body" and psychologically inhabit it,
researchers at Stanford University have found. And by subtly altering
elements of that embodied figure, the scientists have established a
principle that is fundamental to therapy -- that an experience in a virtual
world can alter behavior in the real one.

"The remarkable thing is how little a virtual human has to do to produce
fairly large effects on behavior," said Jeremy Bailenson, director of the
Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford and the author, with James
Blascovich, of the coming book "Infinite Reality" (HarperCollins 2011).

In one recent experiment , Dr. Bailenson and Nick Yee, now at the Palo Alto
Research Center, had 50 college students enter a virtual environment and
acquire a virtual body, an avatar. Each student then participated in a
negotiation game with a member of the experimental team, who was introduced
as another student.

But all the avatars were not created equal. Some were four inches taller
than their human counterparts, and others were four inches shorter. The
participants didn't notice this alteration, but those made taller negotiated
in the virtual game much more aggressively than those made shorter. A later
study led by Dr. Yee found that this effect carried over into face-to-face
negotiations after the virtual headsets were removed.

The researchers have demonstrated a similar effect in the case of
attractiveness. In another experiment, they created generic avatars for some
participants that were about 25 percent "more attractive" than average,
based on features that the group had rated as attractive. Compared with
study participants whose avatars were made 25 percent "less attractive," the
virtual beauties were more socially confident, standing closer in virtual
conversation, revealing more about themselves -- an effect that also seeped
into social interactions after the headsets came off.

Again, no one noticed the manipulation; its effects were entirely
subconscious.

The authors argue that the participants, in effect, psychologically
internalized their virtual experience. "What we learn in one body is shared
with other bodies we inhabit, whether virtual or physical," they concluded.

It seems people will psychologically inhabit almost any virtual body if the
cues are strong. In recent research a team led by Mel Slater, a computer
scientist at the University of Barcelona, induced what it calls
body-transfer illusion -- showing that men will mentally take on the body of
a woman, for instance, if that's the body it appears they're walking around
in virtually. The experience is especially powerful, Dr. Slater said, when
the men feel a touch (on a shoulder, in a recent study) at the same time the
avatar is touched.

"You can see the possibilities already," said Dr. Slater. "For example, you
can put someone with a racial bias in the body of a person of another race."

These kinds of findings have inspired a variety of simple experiments.
Dropping a young man or woman into the virtual body of an elderly person
does in fact increase sympathy for the other's perspective, research
suggests.

"This is to me the most exciting thing about using virtual environments for
behavior change," Dr. Bailenson said. "It's not only that you can create
these versions of reality; it's that you can cross boundaries -- that you
can take risks, break things, do things you could not or would not do in
real life."

Mini-Me in Action

In the virtual studio at the University of Quebec, patients wearing a
headset can have a short conversation with a diminutive, attentive virtual
therapist. Except for slight stature, it is a ringer for Dr. Bouchard: the
same open face, the same smile, the same pelt of dark hair around a bald
pate.

"Mini-Me, we call it," Dr. Bouchard said.

The hologramlike figure seems at first to be minding its own business,
looking around, biding time. Then it approaches slowly, introduces itself
and kindly asks a question, like some digital-age Socrates: "What is the
best experience you've ever had?"

For now, Mini-Me cannot do much more than cock its head at the answer and
nod, before programmers begin to guide the conversation; the scientists are
adding more language-recognition software, to extend interactions. Yet
Mini-Me offers a glimpse of where virtual humans are headed:
three-dimensional forms that can be designed to resemble people in the real
world.

"You could scan in a picture of your mother or your boss or someone else
significant and, with some voice recording samples, use a system that would
automatically and quickly recreate a virtual facsimile of that person," said
Dr. Rizzo of U.S.C., where programmers have set up an Old West bar scene,
complete with a life-size, autonomous virtual bartender, a waitress and a
bad guy. "Then, perhaps, we'd be able to stage interactions that might
closely resemble those in a patient's life to help work through challenging
issues."

Anyone could rehearse the dance of social interaction, tripping without
consequence, until the steps feel just about right.

"The great thing about it," said Gary, the civil servant, referring to his
own virtual therapy, "is that you can do anything you want and just see what
happens. You get to practice."



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