Master's Thesis:
Virtual Reality Therapy
Team
2 UX designere
Rolle
UX designer
Verktøy
VR (HTC Vive Pro HMD), Photoshop (illustrasjon), Microsoft Word
Ferdigheter
Virtual Reality, Teknologi i helsefag, Kronisk smerte, Brukeropplevelse, Brukerintervjuer, Brukertesting
Mål
What are the most effective VR factors for achieving distraction in healthy participants, and how can this be applied for future recommendation in research on VRT for chronic pain patients?
About
This is my master’s thesis from the Master's program in Human-Computer Interaction at Kristiania University College. The thesis was written in the spring of 2023 in collaboration with Nadia Dahl Krog and supervised by Kjetil Raaen. We used the HTC Vive Pro HMD VR tool in the experiment. The illustration was created by me in Adobe Photoshop.
Research question
What are the most effective VR factors for achieving distraction in healthy participants, and how can this be applied for future recommendation in research on VRT for chronic pain patients?
Process
I have a strong passion for staying up-to-date with new technologies and methodologies, constantly seeking to expand my knowledge in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). In my master's thesis I wanted to do something different and explore the potential of VR. In collaboration with a classmate, we explored different fields of how VR is used in society. We ended up with researching Virtual Reality Therapy (VRT), and and its potential benefits for individuals living with chronic pain.
We focused on researching distraction and how it could be used to reduce pain or achieve analgesia. Initially, we had a collaboration with CatoSenteret (rehabilitation center) where they would be recruiting the patients. We had to apply for REK because the study included patients, which touched into the medical research area. This application process was time consuming and we didn´t have enough time, so we had to change our masters into a pilot study on healthy participants.
We explored immersive VR and how it can distract patients from "forgetting" the pain. This was done through exploring immersion and "sense of presence", and how it can contribute to distraction. Additionally, we looked at ethical considerations such as VR sickness, which can reduce the feeling of "being there" in the virtual world (distraction). We carried out a pilot test on 10 healthy persons and explored, among other things, whether the selected games were distracting and had minimized side effects (VR sickness). We used three VR games which were theBlu (psychological VRT), Job Simulator (cognitive VRT) and Beat Saber (motor VRT).
Our findings form the pilot testing showed the feasibility of the study to later be tested on actual patients with chronic pain. The results showed that distraction was achieved in all three games, but that Job Simulator (cognitive VRT) was the most distracting game. In addition, little VR sickness was reported.
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