Skip to main content

A VR System for Alleviating a Fear of Heights Based on Vital Sensing and Placebo Effect

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 1036))

Abstract

Acrophobia is a phobia that persons fear for heights and tend to have negative images like falling down from their standing positions. Persons in acrophobia avoid going high places, so they have little experience in such places. Making them experience high places as much as possible is an effective treatment to improve the symptoms. Placebo effect is a well-known phenomenon that person’s psychological belief influences his/her physical and mental status. In this paper, we propose a VR simulation system to overcome acrophobia based on a placebo effect by making persons virtually experience high places. We show a method for effectively presenting the heights to viewers according to their fear strength and elaborate our implementation approach of the proposed system.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Krijn, M., Emmelkamp, P.M., Biemond, R., de Wilde de Ligny, C., Schuemie, M.J., van der Mast, C.A.: Treatment of acrophobia in virtual reality: the role of immersion and presence. Behav. Res. Ther. 42(2), 229–239 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Rothbaum, B.O., Hodges, L.F., Kooper, R., Opdyke, D., Williford, J.S., North, M.: Virtual reality graded exposure in the treatment of acrophobia: a case report. Behav. Ther. 26(3), 547–554 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Donker, T., Van Esveld, S., Ficher, N., Van Straten, A.: 0Phobia – towards a virtual cure for acrophobia: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials 19(433), 1–11 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Chardonnet, J.-R., Di Loreto, C., Ryard, J., Rousseau, A.: A virtual reality simulator to detect acrophobia in work-at-height situations. In: Proceedings 2018 IEEE International Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, pp. 747–748 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Yamamoto, J., Kawazoe, M., Nakazawa, J., Takashio, K., Tokuda, H.: MOLMOD: analysis of feelings based on vital information for mood acquisition. In: MobileHCI 2009 Measuring Mobile Emotions, Bonn, Germany, 15 September 2009. ACM (2009). ISBN 978-1-60558-281-8

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ikeda, Y., Okada, Y., Horie, R., Sugaya, M.: Estimate emotion method to use facial expressions and biological information. In: 10th International Conference on Foundations of Augmented Cognition: Neuroergonomics and Operational Neuroscience, AC 2016 and Held as Part of 18th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCI International 2016, Toronto, Canada (2016)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Iku Kitanosono .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Kitanosono, I., Haramaki, T., Kagawa, T., Nishino, H. (2020). A VR System for Alleviating a Fear of Heights Based on Vital Sensing and Placebo Effect. In: Barolli, L., Nishino, H., Enokido, T., Takizawa, M. (eds) Advances in Networked-based Information Systems. NBiS - 2019 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1036. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29029-0_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics