VR for Therapy, Overcoming Loss

One of the aspects of Virtual Reality that makes it so compelling and useful is it’s ability to fool your mind into believing that the simulated experience is real, or real enough.  In the demonstrations I’ve been doing with student’s I have them “Walk the Plank” virtually, and sometimes they have a real visceral reaction.  There were some folks who tried to walk the plank and couldn’t finish, they just could not overcome the fear that they felt.  To them that fear is real, even though the danger is not.

This past week this video kept popping up in my suggested feed and I kept ignoring it.  The video was about a mother who lost their child and was virtually reunited using VR technology.  I avoided watching the video at first, but since it kept popping up I relented and clicked.  To be honest, I found it too emotional and could only skip through.  It’s rather heart breaking, and here it is if you dare, I still haven’t watched the entirety myself.

I’m not going to break down the video, it’s not really my area of expertise, however here’s an article from VR Scout, an outfit my friend Bobby often writes for, that explains this better than I ever could.

If you take away anything from this I think it should be how VR can have a deep emotional impact on people.  At the end of the video, the woman’s daughter turns into a butterfly and flies away.  For someone who is having difficulty letting go, I can imagine that this could be an incredibly effective treatment.  As VR technology progresses I see more and more uses like this.

Remote Pilot Exam

Even though I’ve been “ready” for months, just yesterday I finally was able to fit taking the FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Exam and passed!  I started studying for this over the summer, and tried to fit this in all Fall Semester but just couldn’t find time to do it.  I considered doing it over the Holiday Break, but then decided that some time off without work would likely be better.  So, now it’s done and I don’t have to do it again for another 2 years.

Of course the weather didn’t want to cooperate, so I had to drive to the Northampton Airport in a pretty good storm.  The roads were snow packed most of the way, almost slid off the road once.   Then when I arrived to the Airport they had some troubles bringing up the exam.   Finally at about 12:10 the exam started, I was about as ready as I would ever be!

Results

FAA 107 Exam Results

The exam was hard — or at least the version of the exam I got was.  Some of the questions I had studied for, latitude and longitude for example, weren’t even on the test! There were other subjects that had questions which I wasn’t at all prepared for.  Overall, it went well, and in the end I scored an 80%, not as good as I had hoped but certainly high enough to pass.  The most difficult part was that the exam doesn’t tell you your score when you finish right away, and then it took another 15-20 minutes for them to figure out how to bring up the score… that was a hard 15-20 minutes to wait to see the results!

You can lookup the codes to see the questions I got incorrect on the FAA’s website.  I’m noticing that most of the questions that I got wrong were ones that I second guessed myself on when going back to review the exam.

In 2 years when I take it again I’m determined to do even better, but a Pass is a Pass!

 

Foggy Flight Makes Good Practice

Over this past weekend I was able to get a quick drone flight in Saturday morning.  I noticed that while it was foggy outside, it wasn’t windy or cold, which brought an opportunity for good practice.  I have never flown in fog before, and it was a worthwhile experience.  First, here’s the video.  You will notice that I performed a hand launch and landing since the ground was wet.  Yes, I did fly in my pajamas.

Everything in the flight went according to plan, the Mavic Mini performed as it typically does.  There was one point where I saw a notification in the app that I was having some signal issues, generally I get this notification whenever I fly in this area and get some distance away. According to the telemetry data, the signal reduction occurred when the drone was about 925 feet from my piloting location, likely just being jammed by other home wi-fi’s.  As per usual just be patient and the signal returns.

Condensation on the Mavic Mini.

Condensation on the Mavic Mini.

The only surprise in this flight was the amount of condensation that was on the drone when it returned.  I captured a photo to see.  It would have been great If I had though ahead of time and took a pre and post flight weight to see how much condensation was there.  As stated, the condensation didn’t effect the drone’s performance, however it does make one feel like flying through fog probably isn’t ideal, especially since you can’t really see anything special that you wouldn’t otherwise.  So, unless you are looking for fog in your shots, such as filming a documentary or movie, there’s really no reason to fly in fog when it comes to science. The more you know!