Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) triggers anxiety in patients with claustrophobia. MRI scanning is a source of anxiety for patients with claustrophobia, and this anxiety can lead to unsuccessful scanning. For this purpose, this pilot study aimed to evaluate the effect of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) in reducing MRI-related anxiety in claustrophobic patients. A life-sized realistic looking MRI device with scanning sound in a hospital room has been created in a 3D modeling program and shown to patients through VR headset for exposure therapy study. The study included claustrophobic patients, who received one session of psychoeducation and four standard sessions of VRET. No difference was found between groups that could and could not undergo MRI in terms of state and trait anxiety scores and phobia scores before VRET (p = 0.459, p = 0.377, p = 0.911, respectively). While the phobia scores of the group that could undergo MRI after VRET were found to be significantly lower (p = 0.026), there was no difference in state anxiety scores (p = 0.888). When all participants were considered, a statistically significant decrease was found in phobia and state anxiety scores after treatment compared to pretreatment (p = 0.002; p < 0.001). Our findings indicate that using VR for exposure represents an effective tool for therapeutic interventions in patients.

We conducted a user study evaluating five selection techniques for augmented reality in optical see-through head-mounted displays (OST-HMDs). The techniques we studied aim at supporting mobile usage scenarios where the devices do not need external tracking tools or special environments, and therefore we selected techniques that rely solely on tracking technologies built into conventional commercially available OST-HMDs [i.e. gesture trackers, gaze tracking and inertial measurement units (IMUs)]. While two techniques are based on raycasting using built-in IMU sensing, three techniques are based on a hand-controlled 3D cursor using gestural tracking. We compared these techniques in an experiment with 12 participants. Our results show that raycasting using head orientation (i.e. IMU on the headset) was the fastest, fatigueless and the most preferable technique to select spatially arranged objects. We discuss the implications of our findings for design of interaction techniques in mobile OST-HMDs.

We propose Coupled-clay, a bi-directional 3D collaborative interactive environment that supports the 3D modeling work between groups of users at remote locations. Coupled-clay consists of two network-connected workspaces, the Physical Interaction Space and the Virtual Interaction Space. The physical interaction space allows a user to directly manipulate a physical object whose shape and position are precisely tracked. This tracked 3D information is transferred to the virtual interaction space in real time. The virtual interaction space is made of an interactive multi-user stereoscopic 3D tabletop, or other 3D displays with adequate interaction device. The users at the virtual interaction space observe the virtual 3D object which corresponds to the physical object and manipulate its geometrical attributes (e.g., translation, rotation and scaling). Additionally, they can control the graphical attributes of the virtual object such as color and texture. Information about changes in geometrical and graphical attributes are sent back to the physical interaction space in real time and reflected to the object in the physical interaction space by a robotic arm and a top-mounted projector. Coupled-clay can be used to remotely collaborate on 3D modeling tasks such as between a skilled designer and novice learners. This paper details our Coupled-clay implementation and presents its interaction capabilities.