Multimedia Computing Systems and Virtual Reality

Rajeev Tiwari, Neelam Duhan, Mamta Mittal, Abhineet Anand, Muhammad Attique Khan

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781032048239
• eBook ISBN: 9781000541137
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Computer Engineering
• Index: Computer Science

Most events and activities in today's world are ordinarily captured using photos, videos and other multimedia content. Such content has some limitation of storing data and fetching them effectively. Three-dimensional continuous PC animation is the most proper media to simulate these occasions and activities. This book focuses on futuristic trends and innovations in multimedia systems using big data, IoT and cloud technologies. The authors present recent advancements in multimedia systems as they relate to various application areas such as healthcare services and agriculture-related industries. The authors also discuss human-machine interface design, graphics modelling, rendering/animation, image/graphics techniques/systems and visualization. They then go on to explore multimedia content adaptation for interoperable delivery. Finally, the book covers cultural heritage, philosophical/ethical/societal/international issues, standards-related virtual technology and multimedia uses. This book is intended for computer engineers and computer scientists developing applications for multimedia and virtual reality and professionals working in object design and visualization, transformation, modelling and animation of the real world.

Features:

• Focuses on futuristic trends and innovations in multimedia systems using big data, IoT and cloud technologies
• Offers opportunity for state-of-the-art approaches, methodologies and systems, and innovative use of multimedia-based emerging technology services in different application areas
• Discusses human-machine interface design, graphics modelling, rendering/animation, image/graphics techniques/systems and visualization
• Covers cultural heritage, philosophical/ethical/societal/international issues, standards-related virtual technology and multimedia uses
• Explores multimedia content adaptation for interoperable delivery and recent advancements in multimedia systems in context to various application areas such as healthcare services and agriculture-related fields

1 Use of Virtual Reality in Exposure Therapy and Other Psychological Treatment Methods

Aman Sariya, Rishabh Nanawati and Supriya Agarwal

Department of Computer Engineering, Mukesh Patel School of Technology, Management & Engineering, NMIMS University, Mumbai, India

DOI: 10.1201/9781003196686-1

1.1 Introduction

Virtual reality (VR) is a well-known technology that has seen a surge of growth across multiple fields like gaming, marketing, customer service training and education. In the field of medical science, it is known to be used in medical training for a deeper understanding and research of anatomy and surgery. It is also used by doctors and surgeons in diagnosis and surgery to visualise various body parts of a patient, developed from scanning techniques like MRIs and CT scans [1]. Its applications in the field of healthcare are expanding universally and gaining traction as its potential is being recognised.

Although there are many applications of VR in physical healthcare, it has proved to benefit one’s mental well-being as well. Several VR applications have been developed in the last two decades for the understanding, assessment and treatment of mental health disorders [2]. Many studies have been conducted involving trials of these applications on patients with various disorders. Results show that participants are already being affected by an array of virtual environments, fully knowing they are not real [3].

While early development of VR dates back to the 1950s, psychologists did not start using VR as a part of their treatment until the 1990s. The first study to examine the use of VR in exposure therapy investigated its effects on the treatment of acrophobia (fear of heights) and positive results prompted further research in the field [4]. Thus far, VR has been studied as a tool in the treatment of many psychiatric disorders like anxiety disorders, stress-related disorders, psychosis and eating disorders.

In terms of economic worth, VR in healthcare was valued at USD$2.14 billion as of 2019 and is estimated to grow to USD$33.72 billion by 2027 on the continent of North America alone. The share of mental-health applications in this valuation was 33.4% [5].

In the chapter, various studies that highlight the different applications of VR in the field of mental health have been reviewed. To provide the context that is needed to understand these applications, it begins with an introduction of the psychological science behind the applications. This is followed by an explanation of the working of a VR simulation and how it manages to create a virtual near-real environment. After highlighting the features and benefits of such a VR application, it focuses on different types of mental health disorders and the effectiveness of VR based treatments on them. Additionally, it then explores various issues associated with the use of such an application, which is followed by a discussion where the authors provide a look into their own research efforts and the future scope of this technology.

1.2 Psychology

Stimuli are events or objects that induce a particular chain of thoughts. Stimuli drive feelings like happiness, sadness and fear. Steinman et al. [6] define exposure therapy as “any treatment that encourages the systematic confrontation of stimuli that are feared, with the aim of decreasing fearful physiological, cognitive, and behavioural reactions.” These feared stimuli can be external to the patient, like real-life circumstances or environmental objects on which the patient has no control, or entities internal to the patient, like feared notions or sensations of which the patient has some control, if not all.

Here is an example of how a therapist helps its patient overcome their atrocities. A child has been nagging their parent to teach them how to ride a bicycle. The parent follows a classical approach – they ask their child to get on the bicycle and assures them that they will hold and support it. The child is fearful because they do not believe they will be able to maintain balance on the bicycle. They start slowly and the child starts feeling confident because they believe the parent is supporting the bicycle’s balance. In the next few runs, the parent supports the bike intermittently, without the child realising when the parent leaves and catches on again. The realisation between the parent supporting and not supporting the bike is blurred and unrecognisable to the child. From the child’s perspective, the cycle is being supported constantly. This makes their mind forget about its actual fear and focuses more on moving forward. The child, constantly facing the phobia, is slowly getting desensitised to it and starts gaining trust in their own abilities. For the final run, the parent may just hold the bike initially and leave as soon as the child starts peddling. By now, the child has gained momentum, confidence and trust in their abilities.

Similarly, the therapist plays the role of the parent, providing the support mechanism needed to the child, who is the patient. The fear is the loss of balance leading to the child falling down, and the environment corresponds to the cycle, the support and the road.

In exposure therapy, clients are first subjected to lower intensity stimuli (at the bottom of the exposure hierarchy) repeatedly until that fear abates. They then move on to the higher-intensity stimuli. This process is repeated until no stimuli in the process elicits fear any more [7]. This level-wise graded approach usually involves construction of an exposure hierarchy by the mental health professional and the patient, where stimuli are ranked based on how fearful the patient is of various scenarios. The client is then subjected to a series of scenarios that trigger their fears. The scenarios increase in intensity based on the progress of the patient through the course of treatment. A commonly used scale for these rankings is the “Subjective Units of Discomfort (SUD)” scale [8]. It assigns values 0–100 to measure the intensity of the disturbance that the patient is feeling. The pathological fear that is to be made redundant, is modified by integrating corrective information with the same fear structure through exposure therapy [9] (Table 1.1).

Table 1.1 Example of Exposure Hierarchy for the Fear of Public Speaking

Difficulty Level	Scenario
1	Patient stands in an empty room.
2	Patient observes a group of people having a discussion from a large distance.
3	Patient observes the same group of people from a shorter distance.
4	Patient becomes a part of the same group and observes the participants but does not engage in conversation.
5	Patient is now engaged in small talk with the characters in the simulation with one-word answers.
6	Patient is placed in a similar environment but with more people with question prompts requiring longer answers.
7	Patient is placed on stage in an empty auditorium with spotlights on them. They may be required to read out a small paragraph to serve as a speech.
8	Patient is placed in a full-capacity auditorium with spotlights and is required to read out a prompt or personal speech to which the audience may applaud.

The two common approaches for clinical delivery of exposure therapy are imaginal exposure and in-vivo exposure [10].

Imaginal exposure (IE) [11] involves encouraging the patient to imagine their feared scenarios or traumatic events. A therapist sits the client down on a comfortable chair and asks them to close their eyes while performing relaxation exercises. The client is then made to imagine a scenario as though they are in a movie. Scenarios, based on the discomfort level, can be very elaborate. They involve descriptions of sensory elements like taste, touch, smell, sound and vision along with descriptions of the settings, the people, if any, around the client as well as his or her actions. For example, for social anxiety, the client may be made to imagine that they are entering a coffee shop. Their actions might be picking a table, ordering coffee at the counter, encountering other customers, waiting in line for the washroom, etc. They can be made to imagine the taste and aroma of the coffee, what they see around them, the music playing, the texture of the coffee mug, etc. These intricacies generate a sense of immersion and introduce a sense of realism for the client. The therapist may continuously gauge the reaction of the client. After the therapist concludes the description of the scenario, they ask the client a series of questions about what they see, hear, think, feel emotionally or physiologically, etc. Some therapists may choose to record these sessions for clients to listen to them as homework and rate their level of discomfort. This serves as a benchmark to measure progress of the client through the course of the treatment.

The second, perhaps a more effective method to deliver exposure therapy, is the in-vivo approach. This approach involves subjecting the client to the actual fear-evoking stimuli. Here, the therapist is present with the client when they experience thoughts of fear and anxiety. The therapist guides them towards navigating these thoughts and dealing with them in the best way possible. Slowly, the need for the therapist’s guidance diminishes and the patient becomes independent enough to be able to deal with their fears. In vivo is a more effective method for the simple reason that it has the potential to stimulate all your senses to provide a sense of authenticity.

Let us take a look at how virtual reality fits in exposure therapy. While imaginal exposure has proven to be an effective way to begin therapy, it tends to be very slow unless supported by in-vivo exposure because it depends on the capabilities of the client to evoke feared imagery in depth [7,12]. This may be an added stressor for the patient, as they already feel overwhelmed by their feelings of anxiety and imagining the situation that caused it may not help. Assuming that they do imagine it, their overburdened mind might not be able to imagine all the details accurately or for the amount of time required for it to be effective. It also does not stimulate the patient’s senses enough to have a solidified long-lasting effect.

In vivo, on the other hand, is a very effective way to deliver exposure therapy because it involves the client actually being present in the situation. However, it does have multiple limitations. The client may be reluctant to participate in such a form of therapy because the scenarios could be unsettling and gravely anxiety-inducing. This leads to higher chances of abandonment of the treatment. Further, it is not easy to set up in-vivo scenarios. It may either be too costly, unrealistic, difficult or even impossible. If the client has a fear of flying, it is very difficult to simulate scenarios to tackle specific fears like take-off, landing or turbulence. Similarly, for other fears involving unpredictable events like a natural disaster or an existential fear like the fear of losing a loved one, in vivo might not be of much use. Hence, the scope of fears that in vivo can deal with is limited.

These are the gaps in imaginal and in-vivo exposure therapy that virtual reality has the potential to bridge. VR–based exposure therapy (VRET) has the capability to stimulate one’s sense of vision, hearing, touch, and with the correct clinical environment and delivery method, even smell and taste by replacing real anxiety-evoking scenarios with their virtual counterparts. This may help to encourage people who would be disinclined to confront high intensity stimuli to seek help, ultima...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Editors
• Contributors
• Chapter 1 Use of Virtual Reality in Exposure Therapy and Other Psychological Treatment Methods
• Chapter 2 Role of Swarm Intelligence and Neural Network in Intelligent Traffic Management
• Chapter 3 Image Systems and Visualizations
• Chapter 4 Virtual Reality in Social Media Marketing: The New Age Potential
• Chapter 5 An Efficient Deep Learning Framework for Multimedia Big Data Analytics
• Chapter 6 An Optimal System on Data Challenge with Distributed Data Management on Cloud, Fog and Edge Computing
• Chapter 7 Anomaly Detection in Real-Time Videos using Match Subspace System and Deep Belief Networks
• Chapter 8 Innovation in Multimedia Using IoT Systems
• Chapter 9 Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality for Education
• Chapter 10 Fog- or Edge-Based Multimedia Data Computing and Storage Policies
• Chapter 11 Role of Virtual Reality and Multimedia Computing in Industrial Automation System
• Chapter 12 Virtual Reality–Based Education
• Chapter 13 Concentrated Gaze Base Interaction for Decision Making using Human-Machine Interface
• Index