Sense of presence inside a feared (virtual) tunnel

• Virtual Reality in Exposure Therapy allows exposing patients to simulations of feared situations, even in cases where actual exposure is not possible or difficult. We have created a Web application that helps therapists performing this type of therapy when dealing with patients that suffer from anxiety of crossing road tunnels. The application contains a set of animations of virtual scenarios recreating a car journey across a tunnel visualized from the point of view of the traveler sitting beside the driver and exhibiting a set of potential anxiety inductors. In this paper we describe the application and report a user study to assess the adequacy of our application as a VRET tool and also to compare the impact of visualizing the animations resorting to two distinct low cost apparatus: a versatile immersive equipment and a big projection.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality in Exposure Therapy (VRET)

social anxiety

fearing of crossing tunnels

user study

sense of presence

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)