INTREPID : A Virtual Reality Intelligent Multi-sensor System for the Treatment of Anxiety-related Disorders

IST-2002-507464

The INTREPID project is aimed at developing a multi-sensor and virtual reality system for the treatment of specific and generalised anxiety disorders. By ‘multi-sensor’ we refer to the use of several biometric sensors to measure vital signs connected to the level of anxiety. The system will be a lightweight device including biosensors and VR display capabilities wirelessly connected to a PC. It will incorporate emotional intelligence, via a multi-sensor fusion system able to assess the underlying emotional states. In addition, the system will incorporate a module supporting communication with healthcare professionals to provide decision support concerning the patient’s therapy. Finally, to support homecare, the project will develop a low cost multimedia biomonitoring solution based on standard PDA or smart mobile phone.Traditional treatments of anxiety disorders have tended to focus on counselling and on the monitoring of patients’ EMG, pulse rate, and other physiological functions. In many cases, this approach can be considered to be anti-intuitive. The graphic display of physiological functions often holds little interest for the patient, who is concerned primarily with symptom relief, not physiology, while the interaction of the patient with the feedback environment primarily involves verbal communication with the therapist, who advises the patient on techniques of relaxation.

While this type of patient-therapist interaction is important from an educational perspective, the core of the feedback process is involvement of the patient on a level of active and intuitive participation. The prolonged effects of biomonitoring, when they are optimised, depend on the patient's awareness of the effects of altered perceptual and attentive states produced during the feedback process. The patient’s realisation that the system can generate such alterations in his or her emotional state is a crucial step towards allowing the patient to learn to control that state directly, the most important goal of treatment of anxiety-related disorders.

Partners:

• UNIMAN (uk),
• ESIEA Quest (Fr),
• Aurelia (I),
• UOI (Gr),
• Paladion (Gr),
• Auxologico(I),
• Datamed (Gr)