Fear of Heights

Virtual environments (VEs) provide a unique environment to study and treat a variety of phobias in the field of virtual therapy. In particular, the ability of immersive VEs to induce a sense of feeling present in a computer-generated virtual scene is important in order to cause reactions of users or patients as in a corresponding real-world situation. We have used immersive VEs in the following fields:

We have analyzed subjective, physiological and behavioral reactions of users during fully-immersive phobia experiments. For instance, we have designed and evaluated a virtual flight environment, and have developed a gradual transition approach to the VE via a transitional environment to increase the efficiency of the simulation to stimulate the user's sense of presence. We evaluated the effectiveness of different virtual reality display systems (including head-mounted displays and projection walls) and virtual body feedback in the field of social phobias (in particular, fear of public speaking). Moreover, we analyzed presence in a virtual pit environment based on cutting away parts of the floor in a virtual replica of our virtual reality laboratory, revealing a steep drop (cf. the virtual pit environments at the UNC in Chapel Hill, and UMN Twin-Cities).