Virtual Reality: Helping people overcome their fear of heights

The Last Boss has an interesting article about a college virtual reality project at the Pittsburgh Medical Virtual Reality Center. The plan is to use the Unreal Engine to make a level where patients have to climb up an incomplete skyscraper. The proposed project starts with patients on the ground floor in a visually safe environment and they are gradually brought up to higher unfinished floors. The habitual therapy system already has one complete project, a grocery store where players can push around a cart on the treadmill. As seen in the picture above the system does a good job at simulating depth and rendering boxes of Smirnoff Ice. I’m interested to see how the final skyscraper project is going to turn out and if it can provide relief from acrophobia. If the source of acrophobia is solely due to visual cues as suggested by this article the Physical Therapy journal there’s hope.