By Heather Somerville, The Fresno Bee
In a dark room lit only by the razor-thin beams of infrared cameras, University of California at Merced graduate student Carlo Camporesi spends most days — and many nights — in the company of avatars. This isn’t the next big sci-fi movie in the making or the latest Nintendo Wii video game. Camporesi is part of a research team working to solve a very real problem — how to overcome an expected shortage of physical therapists who will work with aging baby boomers. UC Merced received a $75,000 grant through the UC system for five graduate students to begin creating a software program this year that uses avatars to provide physical therapy to the elderly. Professors say the project has the potential to improve the health of thousands of people. It offers a blueprint for future projects that college administrators hope will bolster UC Merced’s reputation as a research institution and help it compete better for its share of the dwindling supply of federal research dollars.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/10/24/2589488/uc-merced-students-develop-avatar.html
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