Virtual environments for treating the fear of heights

Author

Hodges, Larry F. ; Kooper, Rob ; Meyer, Thomas C. ; Rothbaum, Barbara O. ; Opdyke, Dan ; De Graaff, Johannes J. ; Williford, James S. ; North, Max M.

Author_Institution

Graphics, Visualization & Usability Center, Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA

Volume

28

Issue

7

fYear

1995

fDate

7/1/1995 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

27

Lastpage

34

Abstract

Can virtual environments help elicit fearful feelings so they can be treated? This article shows how therapists and computer experts used them to do just that. We describe a pilot study that used virtual reality graded exposure techniques to treat acrophobia-the fear of heights. We specifically address two issues: the extent to which we were able to make subjects feel that they were actually present in height situations, and the efficacy of the treatment conducted using virtual height situations

Keywords

medical computing; patient treatment; psychology; virtual reality; acrophobia; fear of heights; fearful feelings; graded exposure techniques; patient treatment; therapists; virtual environments; virtual height situations; virtual reality; Application software; Computer graphics; Floors; In vivo; Medical treatment; Multimedia systems; Psychology; Springs; Virtual environment; Virtual reality;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computer

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9162

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/2.391038

Filename

391038