KIT208 Assignment 2 Report

Introduction:

This application is intended to assist in the treatment of claustrophobia by distraction therapy. This is achieved by immersing the user into an environment with varying room sizes. The objective is to find and turn off all lights from within the confined spaces. This concept channels the user’s attention to the task at hand rather than the size of the room, allowing them to feel more comfortable (Johnstone and Page, 2003).

Description of the Application:

This simulation was created to aid in the treatment of claustrophobia by tasking the user with finding and turning off all of the lights within a confined space. The prototype for this application contains four rooms that progressively get smaller as you move forward within the simulation. Once all of the lights for a room have been found, the user is teleported back to the main room, allowing them to progress to a smaller room if they feel comfortable.

Exposure therapy is used to help treat phobias by placing the patient in a safe and controlled environment with their phobia. Distraction therapy has been proven to help reduce a patient’s anxiety levels by taking their mind away from their phobia and partially directing it to something else (Johnstone and Page, 2003). This application applies distraction therapy by dropping the user down into a small room and getting them to find and turn off all of the lights. This redirects the user’s attention to the lights rather than the room size. While distracting the user can aid in making them feel more comfortable, it is still possible that the user may feel overwhelmed within the simulation. This is counteracted by allowing the user to teleport back to the starting area by pressing the ‘X’ button on the left controller. This prototype can be built upon and used to help treat, minimise and potentially cure claustrophobia within some patients.

In some cases, desktop and AR applications can be used to help treat phobias, however, in a situation such as claustrophobia, VR tends to be the better option. This is because VR can be used in a more immersive manner, closing off from the outside world and placing the user in a completely virtual world. This prototype fully immerses the user in an environment that can be manipulated to be very small and realistic, allowing for the treatment of claustrophobia. Using AR and desktop applications to treat claustrophobia would be less immersive and therefore less beneficial.

Interaction design: The ability to teleport back to the main room is an important feature within this prototype because it allows the user to be in control of the situation. Allowing the user to remove themselves from an overwhelming scenario reassures them that they are safe and can help reduce anxiety. This provides a helpful way to safely manage claustrophobia.

The interaction between the user and the lights is also an important feature within this prototype as it gives the patient a reason to place themselves in a situation where they may not feel comfortable. By distracting the user with the lights, their attention is shifted slightly away from the room size, aiding in reducing anxiety and helping them deal with their phobia (Johnstone and Page, 2003).

Technical development:

The specific interface technology used for this simulation was Oculus VR and all testing for the program was completed with an Oculus Quest 1.

There are two major interactions present within this simulation, one is the ability to interact with the lights that are present within each room and the other is the ability to teleport back to the starting room if the user becomes overwhelmed.

In order to interact with the lights situated throughout the simulation, the user needs to point the index finger on the controller and touch the cylinder. This will then deactivate the light and increase the counter for that room.

If the user becomes overwhelmed in the environment and wishes to leave the current room, then they can press the ‘X’ button on the left oculus controller and be teleported back to the starting room.

Descriptions of 3D models:

All of the 3D objects present within this simulation were constructed by me using some custom-made materials as well as the inbuilt 3D shapes and materials within unity.

Getting the user to find all of the lights within each room provides them with a reason as to why they are there and helps direct thoughts away from the confined space. The material used for the light object was a predefined material from within Unity.

Throughout the different rooms there are also various items such as beds, desks, tables, toilets and showers to aid in the distraction process and help the user feel more comfortable within the confined spaces (Johnstone and Page, 2003).

Desk: 

Second desk: 

Toilet:

Bed:

References:

Johnstone, K. and Page, A., 2003. Attention to phobic stimuli during exposure: the effect of distraction on anxiety reduction, self-efficacy and perceived control. Behaviour Research and Therapy, pp.1-24.

The Oculus Integration Package:

Oculus, 2022. Oculus Integration. Oculus. Available at: <https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/integration/oculus-integration-82022#description>

Code snippet used to fix an issue with the teleporting interaction:

Zarenityx, 2022. Teleporting Character - issue with transform.position in Unity 2018.3. [online] Unity. Available at: <https: answers.unity.com="" questions="" 1614287="" teleporting-character-issue-with-transformposition.html=""> [Accessed 12 August 2022]. </https:>

Code used for the light interactions, provided during a tutorial:

Unknown, 2022. ToggleLightSwitchBehaviour.