KIT208 Assignment 3 - VR Nyctophobia Exposure Therapy

Introduction

This is a virtual reality application that aims to assist people who suffer from Nyctophobia or a fear or the dark. It does this through a method called exposure therapy, which has been proven to improve recovery rates for PTSD and phobia sufferers (Lely et al. 2019).

 

Application Description

The application forces the participant to be exposed to their fear of the dark in a manner that attempts to be as safe as possible while still taking them out of their comfort zone. This way, the participant is forced to experience their fear of the dark, while still remaining safe. Exposing people in this way to their phobia has been proven in previous trials to speed up the process of beating their phobia in comparison to traditional methods such as just simple therapy sessions (Krzystanek M, et al. 2021).

This application takes advantage of Meta’s Quest Pro and its implementation of eye tracking. The application uses the eye gaze data from the headset to point a spotlight in the direction that the participant is looking in. This way, there is always a light in the user’s fovea, limiting their exposure to their fear to just their peripheral vision. While using the eye tracking data in this way has not been tested, this application could be used to test such a use case for eye tracking in a head mounted display (HMD).

Using an HMD for this virtual reality application is advantageous because it limits the user’s perception of the world around them, like they would have if conducting this experience on a 2D display. The HMD greatly increases immersion, and the user is forced to face their fear, instead of being able to look away from the screen or ground themselves with the space around a computer monitor (Rothbaum et al. 2000). For these same reasons, this application is more suited to virtual reality with an HMD instead of augmented reality with a mobile device or HMD.

 

Interaction Development

The eye tracked spotlight is important to the application because it allows the user to face their fear with control and not be completely exposed to the dark. The light slowly fades over time, forcing the participant to move to the next flashlight to reset its power. While the application does not currently support any user controls over the rate at which the spotlight fades or the size of the spotlight with each reset, these could be features that could be easily added to the application in the future in the form of sliders. Finally, if the user finds the experience too much for them, they can simply close their eyes for 2 seconds and the lights will come back on in the environment.

Storyboard

Technical Development

The application is designed to run on the Meta Quest Pro, as this application requires eye tracking to be present on the headset in use and it uses Meta’s sdk, this application is only compatible with headsets from Meta that have eye tracking built into them. Currently the only headset from Meta that has eye tracking capabilities is the Meta Quest Pro. Additionally, the application takes advantage of Metas “Eye Tracked Foveated Rendering” to reduce the work load on the GPU but only rendering where the user is looking at full resolution, this can increase battery life and FPS. The application is designed to run as a standalone application on the quest pro and does not require a PC to run. The application should be relatively straight forward to run, when you first load into the application you should be presented with some text indicating what needs to be done.

 

Resources Used

House

This is a simple model of a small house, it includes the main room, a bedroom and a bathroom. It is used as the environment for the experience.

The 3D model and textures were both obtained from this source:

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/urban/furnished-cabin-71426

 

Flashlight

This is a simple model of a flashlight; it represents the goals for the participant.

The 3D model and textures were both obtained from this source:

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/tools/sci-fi-flashlight-w-237948

 

Chime Sound

This is the sound that plays when the participant closes their eyes to turn the lights back on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO9i8FbseK8

 

References

Krzystanek M, Surma S, Stokrocka M, Romanczyk M, Przybylo J, Krzystanek N & Borkowski M 2021., 'Frontiers | Tips for Effective Implementation of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy in Phobias—A Systematic Review', Frontiers in Psychiatry, viewed 20 September 2023. < https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.737351/full >

Lely J C.G, Smid GE, Jongedijk RA, Knipscheer JW & Kleber R J 2019., 'The effectiveness of narrative exposure therapy: A review, meta-analysis and meta-regression analysis'. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, viewed 20 September 2023. < https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20008198.2018.1550 >

Rothbaum, BO, Hodges, L, Smith, S, Lee, JH & Price, L 2000., 'A controlled study of virtual reality exposure therapy for the fear of flying'. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, viewed 22 September 2023. < https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2001-17092-007 >

ChatGPT was not used at all for this assignment.