Our product aims to help people with glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, by using virtual reality to offer a form of exposure therapy. The participant is exposed to an auditorium where they have control over different parameters of the environment, such as the audience size, script difficulty, audience reactions, and timers. We have even incorporated elements of anxiety reduction therapy using breathing exercises and vibrations from the Oculus Quest controllers.
The application area for this is the health tech world, since this tool can be used by people to try and overcome their fears with a virtual platform where they can prepare for their real-world scenarios. The scope of this product can extend to people who simply want more practice while preparing for speeches.
This project was a team effort between myself and three other students at Cornell Tech. I took on the following roles during this process:
I began research in the are of phobias in general to better understand how people cope with them, and what sort of treatment options are available to them. Below are some of the key takeaways gathered through online research.
The above research raised a few questions and requirements that we needed to consider before building our product.
We need ‘levels’ in order to expose users to stronger and stronger stimuli.
If we want to reduce escape responses, do we still want to offer the option to 'remove' triggers in the middle of an experience?
This research brought us to the first iteration of the product. Our MVP brought users into an auditorium modeled off of the Bloomberg Auditorium at Cornell Tech. The primary trigger we addressed here was having an audience. By default, the auditorium was empty, and users could increase or decrease the number of people. They also have the option to turn on subtitles from a pre-programmed script to read from.
With this version, we experimented with using head tracking within the Oculus Quest to see if it was more intuitive to the user as they were scanning the room while speaking.
A virtual reality application to help users overcome their fear of public speaking.
Our product aims to help people with glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, by using virtual reality to offer a form of exposure therapy. The participant is exposed to an auditorium where they have control over different parameters of the environment, such as the audience size, script difficulty, audience reactions, and timers. We have even incorporated elements of anxiety reduction therapy using breathing exercises and vibrations from the Oculus Quest controllers.
The application area for this is the health tech world, since this tool can be used by people to try and overcome their fears with a virtual platform where they can prepare for their real-world scenarios. The scope of this product can extend to people who simply want more practice while preparing for speeches.
This project was a team effort between myself and three other students at Cornell Tech. I took on the following roles during this process:
I began research in the are of phobias in general to better understand how people cope with them, and what sort of treatment options are available to them. Below are some of the key takeaways gathered through online research.
The above research raised a few questions and requirements that we needed to consider before building our product.
We need ‘levels’ in order to expose users to stronger and stronger stimuli.
If we want to reduce escape responses, do we still want to offer the option to 'remove' triggers in the middle of an experience?
This brought us to the first iteration of the product.
Our MVP brings users into an auditorium modeled off of the Bloomberg Auditorium at Cornell Tech. The primary trigger we addressed here was having an audience. By default, the auditorium is empty, and users can increase or decrease the number of people. They also have the option to turn on subtitles from a pre-programmed script to read from.
The final product was made using Unity and the Oculus Quest. We implemented many features to allow the users full control over the environment, and made it much more realistic than the original MVP. Here, we also incorporated some anxiety reduction techniques. All the features are displayed below
If you like what you see and want to work together, get in touch!
jane@portfolio.comOur project aims to help people with glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, by using virtual reality to offer a form of exposure therapy. The participant is exposed to an auditorium where they have control over different parameters of the environment, such as the audience size, script difficulty, audience reactions, and timers. We have even incorporated elements of anxiety reduction therapy using breathing exercises and vibrations from the Oculus Quest controllers.
The application area for this is the health tech world, since this tool can be used by people with glossophobia to try and overcome their fears, by creating a virtual platform where they can prepare for their real-world scenarios. We also realize that the scope of this product can extend to people who simply want more practice while preparing for speeches. This idea is inspired from the fact that Virtual Reality experiences are highly enjoyable and realistic when stationary, and can provide a personal space for people to conquer their fear of public speaking.
This project was a team effort between myself and three other students at Cornell Tech. I took on the following roles during this process:
We began by conducting user research in the form of surveys, qualitative interviews and contextual inquiries.
The survey was to get a better idea of the statistics of how often, where, and to and by whom cyberbullying occurred. One of the most interesting takeaways from our survey was that 61.7% of responders said that they knew who was cyberbullying them.
Following this, I conducted three qualitative interviews with people who had been cyberbullied in different ways: mass trolling, cyber stalking, and cyber harassment.
"I wish I could just give my phone away for a week to have someone scrub it clean."
"While we shift blame to platforms to fix it, this is a human glitch."
Our MVP brings users into an auditorium modeled off of the Bloomberg Auditorium at Cornell Tech. We began the session by offering them the option to turn on subtitles from a pre-programmed script that they can read from. By default, the auditorium is empty because having people watching is the main trigger for people with glossophobia. This is the primary feature we addressed in this MVP. Using the controls on the right hand side of the screen, the user can increase the number of people in the audience as they get more and more comfortable in the space.
The final product was made using Unity and the Oculus Quest. We implemented many features to allow the users full control over the environment, and made it much more realistic than the original MVP. Here, we also incorporated some anxiety reduction techniques. All the features are described in detail below.
Start Menu
The user begins their experience with a Start Menu, where they opt to change the settings. We've intentionally kept this menu translucent so that wherever possible, the user can see the changes taking place within the environment. Once they customize the settings, they can click on Ready to Play to begin the experience.
Customization
Using this screen, the user can control the following settings:
Speech Practice
Once the user starts the game, they can begin clicking through lines of the script as they practice. If enabled, the timer begins running and the audience reactions begin to randomly appear. As we can see from the image (right side) the reactions come up as emojis next to the audience member. The microphone on the podium can also be picked up if the user wants a more authentic experience.
Self Evaluation
Once the user reaches the end of the script, they are prompted to evaluate how they performed this practice round from a scale of 1-5. This way they are able to track their progress as they continue practicing.
Practice History
With this table, the user can see the details of every practice round they have done, including all of the customizations implemented for each round. This will help with isolating which triggers have the most impact on their performance.
Anxiety Reduction Exercises
Finally, we've implemented an aspect of EMDR therapy to help the user with any anxiety they may have around public speaking. This form of therapy involves rhythmic right-left haptic feedback as the user focuses their thoughts on things that could help them reduce anxiety in relation to certain situations. The haptic feedback was done using the Oculus controllers, which can't be seen very clearly in the video but if you look closely you might see the hands vibrating slightly. We began this exercise with a few rounds of deep breathing to help the user clear their head to focus on the situation at hand.
