eTher – An Assistive Virtual Agent for Acrophobia Therapy in Virtual Reality

Bălan, Oana; Cristea, Ștefania; Moise, Gabriela; Petrescu, Livia; Ivascu, Silviu; Moldoveanu, Alin; Moldoveanu, Florica; Leordeanu, Marius

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-59990-4_2

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The design of VRET, as with other healthcare technologies, is optimized most reliably through iterative collaboration with direct stakeholders (Tabbaa et al, 2020). Numerous case studies and design reports have described user-centered development processes for self-led VRET (North et al, 1997;Hartanto et al, 2016;Bălan et al, 2020). Others have reported on remote VRET user interfaces codesigned with mental health providers and patients (Brinkman et al, 2010;Kornarakis, 2017;Salkevicius and Navickas, 2018;Šalkevičius et al, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Symbiosis of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy and Telemental Health: A Review

Ong¹,

Wilczewski²,

Soni³

et al. 2022

Front. Virtual Real.

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Phobias and related anxiety are common and costly mental health disorders. Experts anticipate the prevalence of phobias will increase due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Exposure therapies have been established as effective and reliable treatments for anxiety, including recent innovations in virtual reality-based exposure therapy (VRET). With the recent advent of telemental health (TMH), VRET is poised to become mainstream. The combination of VRET and TMH has the potential to extend provider treatment options and improve patient care experiences. In this narrative review, we describe how recent events have accelerated VRET + TMH, identify barriers to VRET + TMH implementation, and discuss strategies to navigate those barriers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Symbiosis of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy and Telemental Health: A Review

Ong¹,

Wilczewski²,

Soni³

et al. 2022

Front. Virtual Real.

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“…EEG signals are nonstationary and, unlike ECG signals that can be used in the stress analysis process both in the long run and in the short run, are much more dynamic. Several studies, such as, 32,33,45,46,59 employ statistical-analytical methods to assess the stress level, where prediction capability for new subjects with MS disease who deal with different disease severity levels is complicated computationally complex. Authors in Reference 46 compared the EEG signals of healthy individuals and MS patients and use VR to stimulate subjects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…30 The optimal effect of the virtual environment has been widely considered in the state-of-the-arts. 31,32 Therefore in many applications, it is claimed that virtual environments can be used successfully for therapeutic purposes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A direct classification approach to recognize stress levels in virtual reality therapy for patients with multiple sclerosis

Rezaee

Zolfaghari

2021

Computational Intelligence

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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, debilitating, and often progressive inflammatory disease of the nervous system. The disease is highly stressful, which accelerates the risk of depression in people diagnosed with it and possibly exacerbates MS activity. One approach to reducing stress levels in such patients is to utilize virtual reality (VR). Using VR technology and recording physiological signals before and after displaying different environments to the individual, this article proposed a novel therapy procedure for improving stress levels. In the first phase, by distinguishing the stress level obtained from each environment watched by the patient, their corresponding labels are determined by two psychiatrists. Accordingly, the automated model is designed based on the analysis of VR scenes and can accurately classify MS patients' stress levels after watching the 3D environment. The proposed model consists of a fractal descriptor and SVM-RBF classifier to recognize VR scenes that can significantly reduce the stress level in MS patients. The accuracy of estimating MS patients' stress levels after watching different simulated VR environments is higher than 97%. By employing this method to classify VR scenes better and rehabilitate MS patients, it will be possible to significantly reduce their stress levels.

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“…The virtual agents who, through the use of artificial intelligence, have the capability of engaging in humanlike conversations are referred to as conversational agents (Yildirim, 2021). In some examples, agents are used to help, guide, encourage, and motivate the patient, replacing the human therapist (Bălan et al, 2020), while sometimes replacing patients in training scenarios for doctors and therapists (Lok et al, 2006;Rizzo and Talbot, 2016), or motivating other patients (Najm et al, 2020). Agents are used as healthcare assistants (Kim et al, 2019) to support registered healthcare professionals in conducting clinical tasks and providing care to the patients.…”

Section: Agentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Interaction With Agents and Avatars in Immersive Virtual Environments: A Survey

Kyrlitsias

Michael-Grigoriou

2022

Front. Virtual Real.

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Immersive virtual reality technologies are used in a wide range of fields such as training, education, health, and research. Many of these applications include virtual humans that are classified into avatars and agents. An overview of the applications and the advantages of immersive virtual reality and virtual humans is presented in this survey, as well as the basic concepts and terminology. To be effective, many virtual reality applications require that the users perceive and react socially to the virtual humans in a realistic manner. Numerous studies show that people can react socially to virtual humans; however, this is not always the case. This survey provides an overview of the main findings regarding the factors affecting the social interaction with virtual humans within immersive virtual environments. Finally, this survey highlights the need for further research that can lead to a better understanding of human–virtual human interaction.

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eTher – An Assistive Virtual Agent for Acrophobia Therapy in Virtual Reality

Cited by 9 publications

References 23 publications

The Symbiosis of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy and Telemental Health: A Review

The Symbiosis of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy and Telemental Health: A Review

A direct classification approach to recognize stress levels in virtual reality therapy for patients with multiple sclerosis

Social Interaction With Agents and Avatars in Immersive Virtual Environments: A Survey

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