Abstract

This work examines the possibility to use an adaptive virtual reality application to reduce stress and fear of patients during medical treatments. Stress reducing elements will be identified and merged into a virtual reality world.  In order to allow the virtual environment to adapt dynamically to the patient’s emotional and physiological state, the stress level of the respective person will be evaluated by a questionnaire and by measuring the pulse rate.  An algorithm will classify the gathered data and change elements in the virtual world according to the measured stress level.  This work focus the implementation of the adaptive virtual world as well as a comparative study to identify possible relaxation effects of the implemented application.