SAFE-VR

Acrophobia Game

The game has been developed using the Unity engine and the C# programming language. For ensuring a full VR experience, it has been integrated with the HTC Vive head-mounted display.

 

In the game, the user had to collect coins of various colors (bronze, silver and gold), situated on the ground floor and on the balconies of a building, at the first, fourth and sixth floor, as well as on the rooftop. The coins have been positioned according to their colors, so that the gold ones were the closest to the balcony’s railing, forcing somehow the player to bend over it and catch a glance of the view. Each time the user collected one coin, a virtual panel appeared in from of him, asking for the perceived level of fear. The virtual panel’s choices were disposed on 4 rows, corresponding to the answers: 0 for complete relaxation, 1-3 for low fear, 4-7 for medium stress level and 8-10 for high anxiety. Each patient played the game three times and biophysical data was recorded.

 

 

 

 

The game input was provided by virtual teleportation using the touchpad’s center button on the HTC Vive controllers, as we wanted to minimize user movement and prevent noise contamination in the biophysical signals.

 

 

The player collected the coins by performing a small bending movement towards the ground and by pressing the hair trigger of the controller while raising the coin. The answers to the perceived in-game stress level were provided by pointing the virtual laser towards the panel and pressing the center button of the controller.