Now, you can get into the mind of schizophrenic with the latest thing to hit the market - virtual hallucination goggles. If any of you have experienced the Adlabs 3600 experience of seeing something and being in it, well these goggles seem to be something on that level.
These goggles were created to recreate the mental state that schizophrenics undergo. The target users for these goggle are people like cops, psychiatrists, healthcare workers, and others who work with schizophrenic. You could say they are walking in their shoes.
The goggles are the product of psychiatrists at Janssen L.P. (formerly known as Janssen Pharmaceutica Products). Founded in 1953 by Belgian emigre Dr. Paul Janssen, Janssen became part of Johnson & Johnson in 1961. It develops and markets a variety of prescription drugs for its parent, Johnson & Johnson; and its main focus is on mental health treatments.
Currently the goggles come with two interactive scenarios. In one, you’re riding a bus in which other riders appear and disappear, birds of prey claw at the windows, and voices hiss, “He’s taking you back to the FBI!” The other features a trip to the drugstore, where the pharmacist seems to be handing you poison instead of pills, and hostile customers stare at you in disgust.
The goggles remind me of the movie Strange Days in which Ralph Fiennes plays this shady dealer, Lenny Nero, who sells dreams and hustles nightmares, dealing in real-life experiences through a new technology that makes every sensation immediate. Who knows perhaps we are living in strange days.
