Week 2 Discussion: Virtual Environment for Treating the Fear of Heights

By on January 16th, 2013

The 3 papers below are attempts at providing psychotherapy using Virtual Reality.
They explore the different VR approaches and types of psychological disorders that can be treated.

Virtual Environment for Treating the Fear of Heights

Larry F. Hodges, Rob Kooper, Thomas C. Meyer, Barbara O. Rothbaum, Dan Opdyke, Johannes J. de Graaff, James S. Williford and Max M. North

Link

The paper explores the possibility of treating Acrophobia using Exposure Therapy with the help of Virtual Reality while collecting analytical data. They created 3 virtual environments, each with varying levels of height and used a HMD along with some real physical cues to provide tactile sensations to increase “presence”. They used PRE and POST assessment to evaluate the progress and generated some very positive results.

QUESTIONS:

  1. Can we avoid HMDs?
  2. How can we create a feeling of falling?
  3. In the paper they emphasized a lot on presence. But can we do the same without presence and just immersion?
  4. What do you think of VR as a tool for psychotherapy?
  5. Why have we not heard a lot about VR as the #1 choice of therapy?

 

A Physical Workstation, Body Tracking Interface, and Immersive Virtual Environment for Rehabilitating Phantom Limb Pain

By
Andrea R. Zweighaft, Greta L. Slotness, Alisha L. Henderson, Leland B. Osborne, Sarah M. Lightbody, Lauren M. Perhala, Paris O. Brown, Nathaniel H. Haynes, Steven M. Kern, Pooja N. Usgaonkar, Maximilian D. Meese, Scott Pierce, and Gregory J. Gerling, Member, IEEE

Link

This paper was chosen to explore the applications of not using an HMD while curing problems by messing with the brain using VR. I also wanted to explore other readings and talks about VR Therapy for treating problems other than only phobias. It is also an interesting distinction between presence and immersive experience.

QUESTIONS:

  1. 53% of the people who suffer from PLP do not seek help. Why? Would having VR techniques help because current solutions are mainly pain alleviators?
  2. HMD-based vs non-HMD-based VR Systems. What works and what does not?
  3. They are not using a well rendered, animated hand. How important do you think it is to have those for an immersive experience?
  4. Is it possible to maybe holographically project images at the end of the amputated limb? This would even take away the entire workstation and just let you be in the room with your apparatus.
  5. Immersion is more important than presence. Agree or disagree?

 

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy Application for Iraq War Military Personnel with PTSD

By
Albert Rizzo, Jarrell Pair, Ken Graap, Brian Manson, Peter J. McNerney, Brenda Wiederhold, Mark Wiederhold, James Spira

Link

This paper was chosen because I wanted to explore the applications that relied more on visual cues and emphasized presence while treatment. It is a relatively new study and wanted to see if any changes have been made to the approach both clinically and technology-wise.

QUESTIONS:

  1. Can we create a virtual environment with our eyes closed by using the other senses?
  2. This is a relatively cheap solution with HMDs as the most expensive component. Would products like Occulus be enough to make it mainstream?
  3. Is a gamepad a good enough to create an immersive experience with presence?
  4. Can we prepare people for traumatic scenarios like war using VR and avoid traumas. Be more preventive than reactive?
  5. In class we discussed how during the Vietnam War PTSD study at Georgia Tech, the rumbling seats were the tipping point after which the users felt they were present in those locations again. These guys seem to be working with smell. What else can we use to increase the presence?
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