Virtual Exposure Therapist

An irrational fear of any special object or situation is called Phobia. According to statistics, the most common anxiety disorder is phobia that approximately found in 15% of women and 7-8% of men [1]. For those who diagnosed with phobia multiple forms of treatment can be provided, but one o

Project Title

Virtual Exposure Therapist

Project Area of Specialization

Augmented and Virtual Reality

Project Summary

An irrational fear of any special object or situation is called Phobia. According to statistics, the most common anxiety disorder is phobia that approximately found in 15% of women and 7-8% of men [1]. For those who diagnosed with phobia multiple forms of treatment can be provided, but one of the most recent one is exposure therapy through virtual reality [2]. Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) is a technology based exposure therapy for phobia patients that lead patients to challenge their fear by immersing themselves in a computer generated 3D environments for gradual exposure to feared object or situation [3]. So we are introducing a Virtual Exposure Therapist (VET) which is an assisting system for psychologist help in curing specific phobia through VRET. It is hardware and software integrated system that features almost all major factors that involves in therapy. VET system features include realistic 3D environments with Artificial Intelligence embedded in 3D objects that reacts according to patient’s behavior along with 3D sound effects and automated specific levels that let patient to take decision on specific task to complete the entire therapy. It provides real hand interaction with objects in Virtual Environment through leap motion without any motion tracked handheld controllers or joystick. The system also generates smart report based on specified parameters after each therapy that help psychologist in analyzing patient. VET also have a fully integrated software that help in analyzing patient by providing a detailed summary of patient’s social/cultural history, medical history and family history on a click.This software also provides smart mailing feature so any specific query and any information will be send to patient’s concern person within the software. The Artificially intelligent decision making system VET continuously analyze Heart rate of patient by using pulse rate sensor and changes environment intelligently to relaxing environment when the heart rate will be out of range by making sure patient’s mental and physical health. We are working on four Phobias includes Arachnophobia (fear of spider), Acrophobia (fear of height), Claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces) and Seismophobia (fear of earthquake), from top 10 Phobias of world [4].

References

[1] Davey.A Handbook of Theory, Research 1997

[2] Choy,Fyer A.J & Lipsitz,JD Treatment of specific phobia 2007

[3] Foa & Kozak,M.J Emotional Processing of Fear 1986

[4] www.fearof.net

Project Objectives

A growing body of research indicates that anxiety disorders, specific phobias may lead to significant impairments in normal life functioning [1]. Having an extreme fear of some specific object or situation is called specific phobia [2]. Specific phobia is affecting around 9.1% of the adult population in USA alone with 22% severe cases [3]. WHO studies showed that about 3.6% of the world’s population, i.e. 264 million is suffering from anxiety disorders [4]. According to a study conducted in Karachi, Pakistan in November- December 2014, 79% of the respondents who participated in the survey had phobia and out of which 46% people are suffering from specific phobias [5].

To cure specific phobia, psychologists perform non-clinical therapies. Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) has proven significant effective results for curing specific phobias which includes computer generated 3D environments for gradual exposure to feared object or situation [6].

VET will be a modern day solution of a problem that affects life of vast number of population. It is a virtual reality exposure therapy based system which will assist the therapist in the therapy. It has proceeding exposure environments for therapy that will help more effective and convenient treatment. It provides systematic monitoring of treatment with different API. It also provides exposure therapy with low risk and manageable environment.

References:

[1] Fendt,  M., & Fanselow, M.  S. (1999). The neuro-anatomical and neurochemical basis of conditioned fear. Neuroscience and  Biobehavioral Reviews, 23, 743–760.

[2] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/

[3] https://www.verywellmind.com/

[4] WHO, 2017

[5] Sana A, N. S. (2015). Prevalence and Consequences of PHOBIAS, Survey Based Study in Karachi. Journal of Bioequivalence & Bioavailability, 07(03).

[6] Emmelkamp, P. M. (2005). Technological innovations in clinical assessment and psychotherapy. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 74(6), 336–343.

Project Implementation Method

Specific phobia is associated with impairment in a considerable percentage that is 34.2% [1]. 12-month prevalence estimates in representative population surveys ranging from 7.7% to 12.5% and from 2.0% to 8.8% respectively [2] and after that we conducted a survey in Karachi. The survey result showed that 99.94% of population is affected from specific phobia only in Karachi.

As VRET is proved to be very effective for the treatment of phobia [3]. We also considered a number of research papers based on VRET [4,5,6] to provide more intelligent exposure therapy through virtual reality to patients. From research papers [7,8] we concluded that for the treatment through VRET we required a Head-Mounted Display (HMD) which is HTC Vive and for intelligent therapy we also need Leap Motion Controller for hand tracking used to interact with 3D objects in virtual environments. We creatively developed virtual environments by considering research papers on virtual environments design assessment on specific phobias [9,10]. We also created specific tasks and artificially intelligent objects for patients. We visited different psychologists and couple of hospitals includes Karachi Medical Complex (KMC) to understand what parameters psychologists consider in therapy. For making a system risk manageable we used pulse rate sensor that take decision smartly based on AI to make sure patient's health safety. When the heart rate will be out of range the system automatically takes patient to relaxation environment through which patient can make himself/herself relax and feel peacefulness.

References:

[1] Magee et al.,1996.

[2] Kessler et al.,1994; 2005; Bijl et al, 1998;de Graaf et al., 2012; Stinson et al, 2007; Alonso et al, 2004; Grenier et al, 2011

[3] Emmelkamp, P. M. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 74 (2005).

[4] Powers, M. B., & Emmelkamp, P. M. G.  A meta-analysis. Journal of Anxiety Disorders,(2008).

[5] Parsons, T. D., & Rizzo :meta-analysis. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry,(2008).

[6] Opri?, Pintea,S,García-Palacios, A, Botella, C.,Szamosközi & David, D.a quantitative meta-analysis. Depression and Anxiety (2011).

[7] Christofi M, Michael-Grigoriou D.Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, IEEE, 2016

[8] Rothbaum & Hodges, L. F.The Use of Virtual Reality Exposure in the Treatment of Anxiety Behavior,(1999).

[9] Christofi M, Michael-Grigoriou D.2016

[10] Suyanto, E. M., Angkasa, D, Turaga:.Overcome Acrophobia with the Help of Virtual Reality(2017).

Benefits of the Project

Therapy of specific phobia in virtual reality by Morgan Bruce in 2009 [2], showed that at the beginning of the experiment patients need to be familiar with the virtual environment and head mounted display (HMD). After experiencing both conditions in one session the patients asked to complete the task of four rooms. Eighteen patients were participated (12 male and 6 female). All the patients have experience with computer systems but not with the use of HMD. The result indicates that the use of HMD is reported more efficacious, the level of fear experienced is slightly higher than those they experienced the monitor.

Maria Christo? in 2016 [3], determined a virtual reality application to analyze virtual environments for the treatment of specific phobia. Eighteen students (8 male and 10 female) were participated in the experiment. Before the start of the experiment they were asked to sign a consent form and fill a demographic questionnaire. Five environments were considered. The analysis of virtual environments was considered on the basis of color (pale or vivid), messy or tidy and close or open. The result showed that vivid color led to more anxiety than pale. Similarly mess in the room made people more anxious as compare to tidy rooms.

As compare from above research papers we developed our system more intelligent in the perspective of virtual environments and interaction in 3D world. We implemented AI embedded 3D objects that reacts according to patient's behaviour with them, hand tracking through Leap-Motion Controller rather than using motion tracked handheld controllers, software which includes (history report of patient, controller through which therapist control all levels of therapy, email option and generate smart report after each session of therapy) and also pulse rate sensor to check heart rate and provide risk manageable therapy.

References:

[1] BOTELLA, C., VILLA, H., BAÑOS, R., PERPIÑÁ, C., & GARCÍA-PALACIOS, A. (1999). The Treatment of Claustrophobia with Virtual Reality: Changes in Other Phobic Behaviors Not Specifically Treated. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 2(2), 135–141.  

[2] M. Bruce and H. Regenbrecht, “A virtual reality claustrophobia therapy system-implementation and test,” in Virtual Reality Conference, 2009. VR 2009. IEEE. IEEE, 2009, pp. 179–182.

[3] Christofi M, Michael-Grigoriou D. Virtual environments design assessment for the treatment of claustrophobia. In: 2016 22nd International Conference on Virtual System & Multimedia (VSMM). Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, IEEE; 2016. p. 1-8.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The final deliverable of Virtual Exposure Therapist (VET) will have following modules.

VET SOFTWARE

1. Registration:
   With the help of registration module, patient will be registered with complete details before therapy will begin,These details will help therapist to know about patient’s life.
   Registration module is further divided into following sub-modules
   Basic information: This sub-module will contain patient’s basic biodata and generate patient’s id. (Primary key) This id will further used for referring patient’s details.
   Emergency contact: Emergency contact information about patient’s emergency contact person.
   Social history: Social history take information about patient’s social history.
   Family history: Family history sub-module will store the details regarding patient’s family.
   Medical history: This sub-module take information about patient’s medical background.
   Educational background: Educational background take information about patient’s education time.
   Addiction: This module take information about any addiction of drugs, pills or tobacco intake by patient.

2. History:
   In this module, therapist will be able to view patient’s history that is stored in the database (MySQL) at the time of registration and a complete auto analyzed AI based report that help in analyzing patient.

3. VET Manager:
   This module contain all the executable files of exposure therapy of phobia and will contain Reality environment.
   -Each phobia has minimum 3 AI integrated virtual environments and under each virtual environment 2-3 levels are developed.
   -Scaling of each phobia depends on minimum 1-6 levels or maximum 1-8 levels of therapy in virtual environments.
   -4 virtual environments are developed for relaxation mood. 2 are interactable relaxing environments and rest of the 2 are playable environments.
   -Therapy environment can automatically change into relaxing environment on the basis of AI analyzation of patient's heartbeat

4. Report:
   Report generation module will generate smart report after each Therapy of patient on just a single click.
   -Panic graph: Software will measure patient’s head movement and pulse rate during therapy and generate graphical representation of patient’s panic.
   -Total time :Total time take by every therapy session

5. Contact to concern person:
   Therapist can contact to patient's concern person via email  through patient id in case of emergency

6. Pulse Sensor Module:

Pulse sensor  integrated VET that Smartly Analyze patient heart rate by our AI base analyzing API.

Final Deliverable of the Project

Software System

Type of Industry

IT , Health

Technologies

Artificial Intelligence(AI), Augmented & Virtual Reality

Sustainable Development Goals

Good Health and Well-Being for People

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com