Anxiety disorders, including phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder, are common and disabling disorders that often involve avoidance behavior. Cognitive-behavioral treatments, specifically imaginal and in vivo forms of exposure therapy, have been accepted and successful forms of treatment for these disorders. Virtual reality exposure therapy, an alternative to more traditional exposure-base...

Virtual Reality (VR) systems, especially multi-user systems, can benefit from and often require a distributed realisation1. This paper surveys the approaches to data and event modelling and distribution adopted by a number of VR systems and assesses the merits of each approach. The theme of objective versus subjective world views is developed and used as a basis for comparing the systems. The a...

Augmented Reality (AR) refers to superimposing computer generated objects onto a real world scene. The use of AR as a surgical planning aid is a compelling application and several demonstrations of its potential have been produced. This paper looks at the impact AR can also make on training medical procedures. In particular, we look at building an AR environment though the use of wellestablishe...

After major earthquakes, many people suffer from posttraumatic symptoms (PTS) as well as anxiety and distress about ongoing aftershocks. Traditional treatments such as in vivo or imaginal exposure may be of limited applicability for earthquake-related symptoms while others such as cognitive behavioural therapy may not be short enough to deal with the many people needing rapid help after mass di...