Great social strides

For housebound individuals, conventional communication media can prove limiting and lacking in rich conversational opportunities.

But now, researchers at the University of Nottingham have found that what communicating partners need to really stimulate such remote conversations is the chance to build on a regular and vivid shared experience. And they are hoping that their latest development project will provide just such an experience.

Exploring new opportunities

The Virtual Walking project sets out to implement and evaluate an internet technology that allows housebound individuals to converse with a walking friend or partner, while viewing what that mobile partner sees.

With support from Nominet Trust, the project aims to ultimately enable isolated individuals to engage with and explore alongside, albeit virtually, the travels and changing settings of a mobile, conversational partner.

The benefits of a ‘virtual walk’

The futuristic ‘virtual walk’ experience will be achieved with everyday technology – a two-way audio connection for conversation and a simultaneous one-way video signal for sharing what the mobile partner is seeing. 

The initial aim of the project will be to assess the conditions required for arranging and conducting this ‘walking conversation’, and to understand how and to what degree this will benefit the increasing number of individuals living in solitary or isolated circumstances in the UK.

Re-discovering the local community

The University of Nottingham teams hopes that the service they are intending to provide will not only enable housebound individuals to enjoy one-to-one conversation that is strongly contextualised, but also allow them to recover a degree of re-engagement with their local community.

By creating a distinctive new form of communication to support a neglected group within society, the project has the potential to make a very positive impact on quality of life by providing housebound individuals with opportunities for both social conversation and cultural participation.