Continuous Interaction for a Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy System

In exposure therapy and virtual reality exposure therapy, therapists face highly individual patients that have individual conditions. This leads to the challenge of individualized therapy, for which virtual reality systems need to account for. This paper investigates a prototype that allows a flexible therapy of public speaking anxiety using live-interactions from a therapist, which contain transitions from 2D to 3D interactions. Therapists are able to embody an avatar in the patient's virtual audience on purpose. We oriented our design at continuous interactions in the three dimensions: cognitive, perceptual, and functional continuity. We evaluated whether the design is beneficial for the users. For this evaluation, we conducted a study with eight non-therapist participants to assess the general usability and design aspects of continuous interaction. Our results indicate that using continuous interactions is beneficial for the use in this kind of system. For the design, we need to find ways to balance the cognitive load with the opportunities that arise, especially when these systems are scaling bigger.