VRET for social anxiety disorder

The project was developed for the Virtual Reality course offered by the Polytechnic University of Turin and consists of a serious game designed as an aid for psychotherapists in the treatment of social anxiety disorder.

The application was developed for Desktop VR but designed to be adaptable for VR headsets in the future.

Exposure therapy can thus take place within a café, and the simulation allows the patient to overcome their social anxiety with the guidance of a professional through exposure to a series of stressful social interaction situations structured into tasks:

• Task 1: Placing an order at the counter

• Task 2: Waiting for the order

• Task 3: Consuming the order

• Task 4: Making payment at the cashier

Each task is designed to simulate a situation of possible social stress in which the user might find themselves in a real-life scenario:

• The user might find themselves having to wait standing as they are not immediately attended to by the bartender and having to rephrase their request.

• The user might not be served immediately, thus having to wait and finding themselves in a state of uncertainty and exposure to the eyes of other customers.

• The user must go to the counter to pick up the order after being publicly called and might inadvertently bump into other customers who react nervously to the collision, following the user with their gaze.

• The user must stand up and go to the counter to pay, engaging in conversation with the bartender and encountering other customers.

The project simulates a situation where there are 9 customers (NPC avatars) present and where the dominant emotion is nervousness, an emotion that can make social interaction particularly stressful for a client with social anxiety disorder (SAD).

We hope that it can be helpful to those professionals who want to complement their therapy with Virtual Reality Exposure and who need a realistic setting in which to conduct the treatment.

Authors: Canavero Serena -  Castagnella Tiziano - Di Cicco Noemi - Francaviglia Antonio Lucas - Gerbaudo Filippo

Copyright music: Sanremo 2024

The project was developed solely for educational purposes.