Assignment 2/3 Report

Chosen Theme for Assignment 2 VR: 3, Fear/Phobia (Fear of the dark)

The goal of my application is to allow users to experience an environment designed to trigger a fear of the dark, and allow them, via exposure therapy, to increase their ability to function in the dark and reduce their fear of it.

My application attempts to simulate an environment that stimulates the fear of the dark. The user has a panic button on their left hand index trigger, and a torch attached to their right hand, which can be toggled with the right hand index trigger. The environment contains safe zones, areas lit and containing a checkpoint for the users panic button. The panic button allows the user to instantly teleport back to their latest safe zone they have visited, meaning should their experience become too intense, they have an in-application way of escaping. Between safe zones are “challenges,” paths that contain monsters. The monsters in the current build are nothing more than inanimate sprites that emit a growling noise and teleport you back to your safe zone checkpoint if you get too close with your torch on.

My application allows for the use and experience of a fear-inducing environment. For facing the fear of the dark, first there is the requirement of darkness, along with potentially desired aspects: emergency escape, tasks to preform to potentially increase the positive impact of exposure, tangible sources of fear. These aspects of the environment can be time consuming, expensive and impractical, e.g. the facing of the fear of the dark when outside requires nighttime. My application is designed to provide all of these aspects and allow them to be modelled and altered at will to improve performance amongst patients.

The significance of being able to run my application in a virtual reality environment allows for a far more immersive and stimulating environment than other interfaces provide, e.g. desktop. A virtual reality headset’s ability to simulate darkness, as well as 3D spatial sounds, allows for the creation of an environment that is able to stimulate the fear of the dark anywhere, at any time. The virtual reality headset also allows for the user to move by moving their body (instead of using the joystick), however spatial constraints are a hinderance for that particular aspect. An article on the use of augmented and virtual reality to induce anxiety for exposure therapy focused on the anxiety response from participants when exposed to claustrophobia inducing environments. The experiment was conducted with the idea that using augmented reality and virtual reality to provide physicians and patients a way for exposure therapy that is safer, more comfortable and less resource-intensive. While their experiment was conducted for the purposes of exposure to claustrophobia, the same principals can be applied sufferers of the fear of the dark.

The interactions within my application consist of player movement and position, as well as the pointing and toggling of a flashlight, and the activation of a panic button to teleport the user to safely. The option to toggle the flashlight was implemented because one of the goals of my application was to force the user to traverse a “challenge” in the dark. More interactions and new concepts would improve the application, such as a retrieval task where the user must obtain and travel with an object, requiring the implementation of grabbing objects. More focus on the monsters would improve the application, as currently they act only as obstacles for travel and sources of fear. The introduction of movement (for the monsters) and a better exploration of the safe distance from the monsters.

The interface technology used: Oculus Quest 2

Panic button activation: left hand index finger trigger

Flashlight toggle: right hand index finger trigger

3D Models Used:

A campfire, to provide light in each safe zone

A fir tree to create the bounds of the environment for the application

A simple cube model shaped into a rod acting as the flashlight

An orc model, as the "monster"

A simple terrain model for the ground

External Assets Used:

Campfires: Campfires & Torches models and FX, by Piloto Studio, https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/campfires-torches-models-a...

Fir Trees: Free Trees, by Ada_King, https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/vegetation/trees/free-trees-103208

Orc: Monster Orc, by VK GameDev, https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/humanoids/monster-orc-146616

Ground Texture: Outdoor Ground Texture, by A Dog's Life Software, https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/textures-materials/floors/outdoor-groun...

Growling Noise: Angry Beast, by Pixabay, https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/search/growling/

Chai-Fen Tsai, Shih-Ching Yeh, Yanyan Huang, Zhengyu Wu, Jianjun Cui, Lirong Zheng, "The Effect of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality on Inducing Anxiety for Exposure Therapy: A Comparison Using Heart Rate Variability", Journal of Healthcare Engineering, vol. 2018, Article ID 6357351, 8 pages, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/6357351

I used ChatGPT to generate all scripts in my application. Multiple of the chats have been deleted, and the website will not let me share their link. Here is the one I can access:

https://chat.openai.com/share/e2d3f500-df7a-4b6b-a61e-f6828fab55ea