This
past April, intriguing ads appeared in reputable American
computer magazines. They promoted a multimedia software package
of a new class for Windows CD ROM "Mysteries of the Mind[2]," distributed on the
U.S. and Canadian market by Trans-Ameritech Systems, Inc., a
California based company.
After
PRICE NEWS featured an ad entitled "Do You Want to Delve
Into the Mysteries of the Mind?" our editorial board and the
authors who developed the system received an avalanche of letters
asking for more details about the capabilities and distinctive
aspects of the Mysteries of the Mind multimedia psychoplayer.
In
this issue, we are offering our correspondent's interview with Ye.V. Gavrilin,
holder of a Candidate of Technology degree and Director General
of the Psi-Effect Research Firm.
P.
According to our information, you are the ideological architect
and leading developer of the Mysteries of the Mind multimedia
psychoplayer. Could you tell our readers about the novelty of
this software product?
G.
The ideology of the Mysteries of the Mind system is the fruit of
a joint effort with Irina Miroshnik, holder of a Candidate of
Psychology degree. Experts have indeed defined it as a niche
product with a number of fundamental innovations. The Mysteries
of the Mind system is to provide its users with psychological
support, help them grasp and master mental opportunities and
enhance their intellectual and physical capacity for work.
P.
As far as I know, psychology related software products are widely
offered in the United States and other developed countries.
G.
They are indeed. However, those programs are designed for
professional psychologists and physicians and in fact operate as
their working tools. The salient aspect of our software product
is that is user-oriented. It is aimed at customers who have no
expertise in the field yet wish to engage actively in self-analysis,
self-regulation and self-development using the latest advances in
psychology and new computer techniques.
There
is another salient feature of the Mysteries of the Mind system a
Personification Intelligent Interface (PII, or PI-Interface) we
have developed for the user's interaction with the program.
Interactive
musical therapy is yet another innovation used in the system for
stress prevention and removal.
P.
What are the advantages of this PI-Interface?
G.
I think you will agree that the computer is not only the user's
working tool but also a partner in communication with you.
Personality-oriented, the personification Intelligent Interface
brings the process of interaction with a personal computer closer
to realtime communication with a partner you find pleasant.
Together with this partner, you tackle this or that problem,
accomplish this or that job or just relax.
P.
What means are used to realize the PI-Interface?
G.
Technologically, the PI-Interface uses multimedia means which
provide for simultaneous interaction with the user via several
channels for the input and output of audio and video information.
In
line with the ideology of personality-oriented human-computer
interaction, the PI-Interface synthesizes new information
technologies and advances in such fields of science as knowledge
engineering, the psychology of the personality,
psycholinguistics, the psychology of art, the psychology of
teaching and the like.
P.
How long have you been working on human-computer interaction
problems?
G.
My and I.M. Miroshnik's work to develop an ideology of
personality-oriented human-computer interaction (POHCI) began in
1989, at the Interdisciplinary Problem Research Laboratory of one
of Moscow's research institutes.
P.
Have you demonstrated your products at conferences or
exhibitions?
G.
Infrequently. For example, the TONIKA videomusical computer
psychotherapy system has only been on public display twice: at
the Human-Computer Interaction '92 international conference and,
in 1993, at one of the scheduled sessions of the International
Association to Combat Drug Addiction and the Drug Traffic (for
World Health Organization experts).
P.
Interactive musical therapy is the third salient feature of the
Mysteries of the Mind system. Could you tell us about it?
G.
Interactive musical therapy is one of the possible applications
of the ideology of personality-oriented human-computer
interaction. Interactive musical therapy enables one to select
computer-based musical and videomusical programs geared to the
personal psychological qualities and mood of the customer
and
to the desired result.
P.
"Desired result"?
G.
Such as, "I wish to sit back and relax" (relaxation),
or, "I've got to be more active" (mobilization), or,
"I want something to cheer me up so I feel better" (optimization).
P.
Is this really possible?
G.
Of course. Interactive musical therapy is based on a Human
Psychoemotional Condition Controlled Regulation Technique. Its
effectiveness is borne out by a Russian Federation patent. This
technique is fully activated in the TONIKA (IBM PC/DOS) computer
system which has been successfully used for therapeutic purposes
at the Psychosomatic Department of the Sklifosofsky Research
Institute of Emergency Medicine.
Let
me stress, however, that the Mysteries of the Mind system uses
only some of the elements of the interactive musical therapy
technique.
P.
Are you planning the production of a mass-market commercial
version of the TONIKA system?
G.
Yes, we do have plans for interactive musical therapy CD-ROM
production. We are prepared to offer our technology under license
to interested firms wishing to use it in multimedia software
products.
P.
Was your relationship with Trans-Ameritech Systems, Inc. also
based on a licensing agreement?
G.
Yes, we concluded a licensing agreement with Trans-Ameritech
Systems, Inc. and granted it the right to use some of our
research results in the Mysteries of the Mind, a software product
to be marketed in the United States and Canada. Under that
agreement, we provided Trans-Ameritech with a full set of
technical documentation necessary for the creation of the
software product, and we also rendered engineering services when
the licensee was beginning to work under our license at its
factories.
P.
Do you propose to market a Russian-language version of your
software product?
G.
We are now negotiating the development of a Russian-language
version of the Mysteries of the Mind system. If the negotiations
are successful, our software product may appear on the Russian CD-ROM
market as early as this coming fall.
P.S.
Unfortunately, an absence of financing has made it impossible for
the negotiations to produce any positive results so far.
[1] V. Polezay . In the
computer... on session to Freud. // COMPUTERRA, periodical,
*29 ( 109 ), 1995, pp. 20-21.
[2] CD-ROM Mysteries of the Mind:
Your Way To The Future, USA,
Trans-Ameritech Systems by licens Irina MIROSHNIK and Yevgeny
GAVRILIN, USA, Santa Clara, CA, 1995.