Design Concept

            The virtual therapy software will run on a dedicated computer that will be controlled by the specialist. The participant will use a 3D glasses to give more realistic sensation, the specialist will have a monitor that will be showing exactly the same image as the participant and he will control the participant camera in order to get the therapy, also the participant heart beat will be monitored with an external heart beat monitor device and the measured value will be displayed to the specialist every time.
     

          To give good simulation of a real world environment we decided to use Blender 3D software. Our design concept is to design an environment that uses first person view to give more reality and feeling to the participant. The design consists on a 3D world where the patient will see plants, sun or lights, landscape, parking slots and a building with panoramic elevator. At the initial state of the therapy the patient will see the landscape and the building from the parking, this will help in the mental preparation of the patient before start gaining height inside the panoramic elevator, also, the patient can move inside the virtual world and look what is around. The main object on the design is the elevator that will make the patient confront the phobia in a safety way.

Virtual Reallity

Virtual reality (VR) is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds. Most current virtual reality environments are primarily visual experiences, displayed either on a computer screen or through special stereoscopic displays, but some simulations include additional sensory information, such as sound through speakers or headphones.

Virtual reality is often used to describe a wide variety of applications commonly associated with immersive, highly visual, 3D environments. The development of CAD software, graphics hardware acceleration, head mounted displays, database gloves, and miniaturization has helped popularize the notion. In the book The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality by Michael R. Heim, seven different concepts of virtual reality are identified: simulation, interaction, artificiality, immersion, telepresence, full-body immersion, and network communication. People often identify VR with head mounted displays and data suits. 

Previous work

           On the previous semester i was working with my partner Emmanuel Claudio making research about this kind of phobia.

          To archive virtual reality that a patient that is going to take a therapy session can feel the sensation of reality of the real world virtually. We contact through our mentor Prof. Alcides Alvear with the Department of Phycology in Universidad del Turabo to have a recommendations with professionals that bring therapy sessions to patients with problems with phobias. During the meeting we talk with the Director of physiological clinic Dra. Jessica Velasquez and Dr. Jorge Berrios both are professors in the university. The recommendations that they gave us are the following:

• ·      Make the virtual reality with an option of pause.
• ·      Use motivational effects like applause, voices, cheers, etc.
• ·      Read the heartbeat to measure the stress.

In that meeting we ask what would be the help to their work. If the virtual reality therapy can be an effective tool to use. Both says that this is a very new concept but they are certain that this kind of tool really works and can be used for their patients to test it.

            

Abstract

The goal of this project is to design and develop a tool than can be used to acrophobia treatment. The investigation consists on creating an innovative method that could be used on virtual reality therapy. As main tool we use Blender game engine; with this game engine we explore different ways to treat this phobia.

Acrophobia

Acrophobia is an intense fear to tall spaces. The Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders classifies it into the Anxiety Disorders as a Specific Phobia, defined as a marked and persistent fear of clearly circumscribed objects or situations.

DSM-IV presents four subtypes of specific phobia. Acrophobia belongs to the situational type because the fear is cued by specific situations. Concretely, acrophobia is a fear of tolled spaces. The situations that acrophobias tend to avoid are elevators, staircases, airplanes, tall buildings, etc. 

The incidence of acrophobia ranges from 2% to 5% in the general population and twice as many women as men suffer from this fear. Many people with the fear of heights experience breathlessness, dizziness, excessive sweating, nausea, dry mouth, feeling sick, shaking, heart palpitations, and the inability to speak or think clearly. Other symptoms of acrophobia also include a fear of dying, becoming mad or losing control, a sensation of detachment from reality or even a full-blown anxiety attack.

The treatments for acrophobia are drugs, hypnosis, positive thinking, gradual desensitization, psych education, breathing re-training, VR exposure, and relapse prevention.

           

            

Introduction

The project consists designing an application that simulates a virtual reality environment of the real world that can be used by therapist or specialist to bring therapy session to treat patients with acrophobia. This tool will be use to make that fists step of preparing the patient before a real confrontation of his phobia. The application has a great utility because can prepare the patient in safely way without any physical injuries. The investigation is really important because actually in Puerto Rico do not exist any tool of virtual reality to bring any kind of therapy.

            In Puerto Rico there is a high population that has problems with phobia. A phobia is defined as the unrelenting fear of a situation, activity, or thing that causes one to want to avoid it. The three types of phobias are social phobia (fear of public speaking, meeting new people, or other social situations), agoraphobia (fear of being outside), and specific phobias (fear of particular items or situations). For our investigation we focused on the specific acrophobia. Helping those who suffer from phobias is thought to be most effective when psychotherapy and medications that are specific to the treatment of phobia are both used. One form of psychotherapy involves the supportive and gradual exposure of the individual with phobias to circumstances that are increasingly close to the one they are phobia about (desensitization). These situations can either consist of actual exposure or virtual reality environment. The main goal of the virtual reality therapy is to expose the patient gradually to a virtual reality environment instead exposing the patient to a real world environment. At the final stage that the patient feel confortable with the exposure in the virtual reality environment then the patient will face the real world situation based on his phobia.