Exposure therapy (ET) is an extensively studied and supported treatment for anxiety and trauma-related disorders. ET works by exposing the patient to the feared object or situation without any danger in order to overcome the related anxiety. Over the past few years, various technologies including head-mounted displays (HMDs), scent machines, and headphones have been used to augment the exposure therapy process by presenting multi-sensory cues (e.g., sights, smells, sounds) to increase the patient*s sense of presence. While studies have shown that scents can elicit emotionally charged memories, no prior research could be identified that examined the effect of olfactory stimuli upon the patient*s sense of presence during exposure tasks. In this study, the effect of olfactory stimuli on subject*s sense of presence was assessed via psychophysiological response (electrodermal activity), visual scanning, and self-report measures. Linear Mixed Modeling showed relationships between olfactory stimuli and presence ratings as well as self-reported anxiety levels, but not visual scanning or physiological arousal. Recommendations were made for continued research in the union of olfactory stimuli, presence, and exposure therapy.

Objective: Two significant challenges for the dissemination of social skills training programs are (a) the need to provide sufficient practice opportunities to assure skill consolidation and (b) the need to assure skill generalization (i.e., use of the skills outside the clinic setting). In the case of social anxiety disorder, virtual environments may provide one strategy to address these issues. This investigation describes the development of an interactive skills-oriented virtual school environment and evaluated its utility for the treatment of social anxiety disorder in preadolescent children (Study 1). This environment included both in-clinic and at-home solutions. In addition, a pilot replication/extension study further examined preliminary treatment efficacy between children who received a standard multi-component treatment and children who received the modified treatment with social skills practice in a virtual environment (Study 2). Method: Eleven children with a primary diagnosis of social anxiety disorder between 7 to 12 years old participated in the initial feasibility trial (Study 1). Five additional children participated in the replication/extension study (Study 2). To investigate preliminary treatment efficacy, clinical outcome measures for the Study 2 sample were compared to a comparison sample who received the standard treatment. Results: Overall, the virtual environment program was viewed as acceptable, feasible, and credible treatment components to children, parents, and clinicians alike but modifications would likely improve the current version. Additionally, although preliminary, children who received the modified treatment with virtual environment practice demonstrated significant improvement at post-treatment on clinician ratings but not parent or self-reported measures. Conclusion: Virtual environments are feasible, acceptable, and credible treatment components for clinical use. Future investigations will determine if the addition of this dose-controlled and iv intensive social skills practice results in treatment outcome equivalent to traditional cognitivebehavioral programs.

Virtual Reality is a technology that has long held society's interest, but has only recently began to reach a critical mass of everyday consumers. The idea of modern VR can be traced back decades, but because of the limitations of the technology (both hardware and software), we are only now exploring its potential. At present, VR can be used for tele-surgery, PTSD therapy, social training, professional meetings, conferences, and much more. It is no longer just an expensive gimmick to go on a momentary field trip; it is a tool, and as with the automobile, personal computer, and smartphone, it will only evolve as more and more adopt and utilize it in various ways. It can provide a three dimensional interface where only two dimensions were previously possible. It can allow us to express ourselves to one another in new ways regardless of the distance between individuals. It has astronomical potential, but with this potential we must first understand what makes it adoptable and attractive to the average consumer. The interaction with technology is often times the bottleneck through which the public either adopts or abandons that technology. The goal of this project is to explore user immerision and emotion during a VR experience centered around creating a virtual world. We also aimed to explore if the naturality of the user interface had any effect on user experience. Very limited user testing was available, however a small user group conducted in depth testing and feedback. While our sample size is small, the users were able to test the system and show that there is a positive correlation between influence on the virtual environment and a positive user emotional experience (immersion, empowerment, etc.), along with a few unexpected emotions (anxiety). We present the system developed, the user study, and proposed extensions for fruitful directions for this work by which a future project may continue the study.

No / The very word "digital" has acquired a status that far exceeds its humble dictionary definition. Even the prefix digital, when associ­ ated with familiar sectors such as radio, television, photography and telecommunications, has reinvented these industries, and provided a unique opportunity to refresh them with new start-up companies, equipment, personnel, training and working practices - all of which are vital to modern national and international economies. The last century was a period in which new media stimulated new job opportunities, and in many cases created totally new sectors: video competed with film, CDs transformed LPs, and computer graphics threatened traditional graphic design sectors. Today, even the need for a physical medium is in question. The virtual digital domain allows the capture, processing, transmission, storage, retrieval and display of text, images, audio and animation without familiar materials such as paper, celluloid, magnetic tape and plastic. But moving from these media to the digital domain intro­ duces all sorts of problems, such as the conversion of analog archives, multimedia databases, content-based retrieval and the design of new content that exploits the benefits offered by digital systems. It is this issue of digital content creation that we address in this book. Authors from around the world were invited to comment on different aspects of digital content creation, and their contributions form the 23 chapters of this volume.

This study was conducted to assess the validity and reliability of the Virtual Build methodology for ergonomics design and analysis. Thirty-six human subjects participated in this study and performed a set of six tasks. The tasks were performed twice in both real and virtual environment. The subject?s motion in performing tasks was analyzed by ergonomics assessments by using Virtual Build methodology. Criteria-related validity was evaluated by comparing the Virtual Build ergonomic assessment results with manual calculation. Test-retest reliability was evaluated by correlating ergonomics assessment results between two trials. The result shows that the Virtual Build methodology is reliable for ergonomic assessments. 48 out of 51 reliability index scores are higher than 0.8. The Virtual Build with virtual environment has lower over-time reliability performance than the real environment. The t-test shows that the Virtual Build is valid for 1991 NIOSH lifting equation assessment when using real environment. Some improvements in enhancing human perception need to be done to make Virtual Build valid when using virtual environment.

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Virtual Reality (VR) is a growing frontier of immersive consumable content. It provides an additional layer of immersion, namely presence, which can be described as the feeling of being somewhere, in this case, inside a virtual environment, thus accepting it as real. We utilise existing game design, VR, and perception models and theories to create prototypes that test the effect of realism in the representation of the player avatar on the felt presence in VR. We consider the concepts of “game feel”, “presence”, “scales of realism” and the “Uncanny Valley” theory when building the framework for this study. Furthermore, we create three prototypes with increasing levels of visual polish and three test groups (N = 36 adults) are made to play through one of the prototypes each. Galvanic skin response (GSR) is used to measure arousal response, a measure used to quantify degrees of presence. Participants are instructed to interact with two stimuli that share the same behaviours, first a virtual toy car and then a virtual spider. The instructions for the interactions with each stimulus are identical. Results from t-tests and linear mixed-effects modelling (LMM) show indications of effectiveness of increased player avatar visual polish on producing higher arousal response readings, suggesting an increased sense of presence. Additionally, some behavioural patterns that emerged suggest a heightened sense of embodiment. We argue that the findings validate the implementation of higher visual fidelity in player avatars, in pursuit of impacting a subject’s level of arousal when exposed to a virtual spider. This has implications for game designers, psychotherapists, and researchers who aim to use VR to induce an immersive state in individuals. / Virtuell verklighet (engelska: “Virtual Reality”) är ett växande område av konsumerbara innehåll som medverkar till att användaren ska kunna försvinna bort i en artificiell verklighet. Den engelska termen “immersion” är välanvänd inom speldesign och syftar inom denna kontext på ett uppslukande av användarens uppmärksamhet när de interagerar med ett datorspel. Virtuell verklighet bidrar med ytterligare ett lager av “immersion” nämligen genom närvaro (engelska: “Presence”). Närvaro hänvisar till känslan att befinna sig på en viss plats, i detta fall i en virtuell miljö. Vi har nyttjat sedan tidigare kända modeller och teorier relaterade till speldesign, virtuell verklighet och kognitiva förmågor som utgångspunkt för att utveckla tre prototyper. Målet med dessa prototyper är att testa vilken effekt en mer realistisk representation av en användares virtuella kropp (engelska: “Player Avatar”) kan ha på den upplevda närvaron i en virtuell verklighet. De tre prototyperna har avsikten att öka den visuella detaljrikedomen (engelska: “Polish”) på en skala från en abstrakt representation av en mänsklig kropp till en mer realistisk och faktisk representation. Deltagande i experimenten bestod av N = 36 vuxna individer, uppdelade i tre testgrupper. Vi använder galvanisk hudrespons (“GSR”) för att mäta fysiologiska responser, vars data vi använder för att kvantifiera olika grader av närvaro. Deltagarna är instruerade att interagera med två olika stimuli, som innehar samma beteendemönster, först en virtuell leksaksbil och sedan en virtuell spindel. Resultaten från t-testerna och de linjära modellerna med blandade effekter (engelska: “Linear Mixed-Effect Modelling” eller “LMM”) gav indikationer på att en högre visuell trofasthet av deltagarens virtuella kropp resulterade i en större fysiologisk respons vilket kan tolkas som att deltagarna upplevde en större närvaro. Vidare upptäcktes vissa upprepade beteendemönster som kan tolkas som indicier på att deltagarna upplevde en högre nivå av förkroppsligande i korrelation till de mer visuellt imponerande prototyperna. Vi lägger fram argumentet att fynden i denna studie validerar implementationen av en högre visuell trofasthet i spelarnas virtuella kroppar med syftet att påverka deltagarens fysiologiska respons när de exponeras för en virtuell spindel. Detta har implikationer för speldesigners, psykoterapeuter och forskare som eftersträvar att inducera ett sorts uppslukande tillstånd bland individer.