Augmented reality for the treatment of arachnophobia: exposure therapy

Abstract

Purpose

People who suffer from phobias try to avoid a specific object or feared situation by creating a great obstacle that causes serious consequences in their daily life; the most effective way to deal with a phobia is through exposure therapy, which according to one of the most important principles of psychology states that to overcome a fear you have to face it. The purpose of this paper is to develop a mobile application based on augmented reality (AR) for the treatment of spider phobia (Araneae).

Design/methodology/approach

The application development methodology was divided into two phases: design where sketches were made according to functional requirements, and the client server model was used for user queries and the development phase where the modules for the information of the phobia; and visualization of the arachnid in different morphological forms was implemented through the development tools.

Findings

The findings of this study, in this sense, state that it was possible to overcome the phobia in an essential way by ceasing to perceive harmless things as dangerous, helping them to manage stress and keep them under control.

Originality/value

Allowing to face their fears in support of existing therapeutic processes through images with progressively AR, being an innovative and accessible treatment from an economic, technological and professional point of view.

Citation

Ore, J., Pacheco, A., Roque, E., Reyes, A. and Pacheco, L. (2021), "Augmented reality for the treatment of arachnophobia: exposure therapy", World Journal of Engineering, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 566-572. https://doi.org/10.1108/WJE-09-2020-0410