IF PUBLIC speaking gives you the willies, the chances are you’ll be just as
scared of virtual people, experts have discovered. But in the long run these
“avatars” will help you overcome your fears.
Mel Slater at University College London. and his colleague David-Paul Pertaub
have developed a VR environment to help people overcome their phobias. In their
virtual seminar room, people have to give a presentation to eight
computer-generated people who can appear by turns fascinated, bored stiff or
just annoyingly neutral.
While it’s not the first time VR has been used to treat phobias, such as fear
of…
