Is afraid of spiders? Now we have a game that can help – Diário de Notícias – Lisbon

The game consists of exposing the person to the fear until you learn to deal with it

A game of virtual reality, developed at the University of Aveiro (UA), helps to combat the phobia to spiders and minimize the symptoms, which can be disabling, announced this Friday the source academic.

“Veracity”, developed by Bernardo Marques, during the Integrated Masters degree in Engineering Computers and Telematics (MIECT) of the AU, allows, by means of virtual reality, put who suffers from a phobia to spiders in visual contact with these insects, while monitoring the physiological reactions and behavioral characteristics of the users.

With the ability to be used in various other types of phobias, the records may help the psychologists to adjust to the therapeutic process.

The game was designed with the collaboration of a multidisciplinary team of UA, which involved researchers from the Department of Electronic Engineering, Telecommunications and Computer science, the Department of Education and Psychology, Institute of Electronic Engineering and Informatics of Aveiro and the Research Centre on Technologies, and Health Services.

The Veracity allows you to monitor the physiological response of the people (as is the case of the heart rate) and behavioral (such as the movements of the head and the hands) when exposed to stimuli generated through the use of Virtual Reality.

from the exposure therapy, which consists of going exposing the individual fóbico to the element that causes disorder up to this to learn how to deal with your fear, the Veracity takes advantage of virtual reality to make the exposure less aggressive than would be the confrontation with the living animal.

The game is divided into several levels, where the individual fóbico is exposed gradually, and the speed decided by the therapist, to stimuli the target, allowing you to find objects-phobic and non-phobic, about the shape of 3D objects, in which the interaction is made through gestures.

once in the possession of the data, which record the reactions of the participants, therapists and psychologists can monitor, evaluate and adjust the treatment along the therapeutic process.

Tested already in people with fear of spiders, the Veracity can be adapted also to the phobia to cockroaches or even snakes and other elements of small size.