New Technology to Help People With Arachinophobia

Virtual spider technology developed by researchers helps arachinophobes (fear of spiders and other arachnids such as scorpions) overcome their phobia.

Researchers at Canterbury University's human interface technology laboratory (Hit Lab) are developing an "augmented reality" application that projects virtual spiders on to real-world environments, such as an office desk.

Phobias - Facts, Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prevention
A phobia is an irrational and exaggerated fear of an object or a situation that in reality, poses little or no actual danger.

People can interact with the spiders to help overcome their phobia, including "nudging" them with their hands, and letting them, virtually, crawl up their arms and over and around real objects such as books or coffee cups.

Hit Lab researcher Andreas Duenser said the application used Microsoft Kinect camera technology, used with motion-sensing XBox 360 games, and software that simulates spider movements to create interaction between humans and the virtual arachnids.

That interaction was displayed on a computer screen, but in future could be shown through special glasses worn by users for a more realistic effect, Duenser said.

Quiz on Phobia
We have seen “strange” behavior in some people with whom we interact and we have been, often, baffled by their strangeness. Many of these individuals suffer from, what is commonly termed as, “phobias”. Let us take a look at some common phobias and try to understand the irrational fear gripping its sufferers.

"Other researchers have overlaid virtual spiders on to a real-world environment but there was no interaction. We can make it a lot more realistic and interactive and potentially more effective for treating purposes," Stuff.co.nz quoted Duenser as saying.

The application was still in the prototype stage and needed funding - a funding proposal to the Health Research Council had been rejected - so he and fellow researchers Sam Corbett-Davies and Adrian Clark could bring in clinical psychologists to help test and develop it.

Arachnophobia may Make Spiders Bigger Than They Actually are
A new study reveals that arachnophobia, or fear of spiders, may make the spiders appear bigger than they actually are.

Phobic Trust chief executive Marcia Read said "exposure" therapies, where people were gradually exposed to fear stimulus, were commonly used to treat single or simple phobias, along with other methods.

"Anything that can help alleviate the terror of a spider phobia is good - as long as it's not too full-on. It has to be a very slow [process]." Phobias could be very disabling for those affected, she said.

Study Reveals the Cause Behind Homophobia
Homophobia has been linked to a repressed same-sex attraction that stems from parents who forbade such desires.

Duenser said virtual reality applications - which created fully immersive virtual environments - had been successful in treating conditions such as shellshock in war veterans and the Hit Lab planned to develop a virtual reality-based earthquake simulator to help treat post-traumatic stress disorders from quakes.

But he believed augmented reality applications - where virtual and real objects are combined - could prove more effective in treating phobias and conditions because they were more realistic.

Source-ANI