Movie-based VR therapy system for treatment of anthropophobia

The fear of public speaking is a kind of social phobia. The patients having the fear of public-speaking show some symptoms like shame and timidity in the daily personal relationship. They are afraid that the other person would be puzzled, feel insulted, and they also fear that they should be underestimated for their mistakes. For the treatment of the fear of public speaking, the cognitive-behavioral therapy is generally used. The cognitive-behavioral therapy is the method that makes the patients gradually experience some situations inducing the fears and overcome those at last. But if the real situations inducing fears cause dangerous symptoms or the patients have difficulty in imagining the situations, the effect of this method is notably reduced. And making the situations inducing the fears to patients requires a vast amount of effort and time. In this study, we developed the public-speaking simulator and the virtual environment for the treatment of the fear of public speaking. The head-mounted display, the head-tracker and the 3-dimensional sound system were used for immersing in the virtual environment. The virtual environment of this system is suggested in a seminar room where 6 virtual audiences are seated. The virtual audiences were made with real movies and inserted into the virtual environment. The patient speaks in front of these virtual audiences and the therapist can make virtual audience members respond with some motions. Moreover, clinical tests have been made to verify the effectiveness of the treatment.