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Designing Virtual Environments for Smoking Cessation: A Preliminary Investigation

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Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality: Design and Development (HCII 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13317))

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Abstract

The recent pandemic of COVID-19 is placing smokers at a high risk of death as a result of the combination of smoking and COVID-19. This signals a need to address this problem among dual users (cigarette and vape users) and provides them with successful tools to quit tobacco. This pilot project aims to test a novel tool, a Virtual Reality and Motivational Interviewing combined approach that will assist dual users to quit tobacco products. The investigators wanted to pilot test the equipment and scenario for user-friendliness and interface. For the first phase of the pilot, we developed four Virtual Reality scenarios that contain different triggers for smoking, such as noise, stress, and cigarettes. We used Oculus Quest 2 for the hardware because the equipment does not require towers or connections to computers, operates utilizing WIFI, and is mobile. To develop the Software, we used the “Unity3D” game engine. A total of 21 participants tested the equipment and scenarios. The participants ranged between ages 18–71 with various gaming and virtual reality experience. The majority of the participants felt immersed in the Virtual reality environment. Some participants had some challenges with the equipment and the Software and provided valuable feedback to enhance the scenarios. The virtual reality environment promises to be a novel tool to assist tobacco users, mainly dual users, in quitting tobacco.

Supported by University of North Carolina Wilmington.

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Acknowledgement

The project is supported by an internal grant by University of North Carolina Wilmington. The authors would like to acknowledge the following students and faculty who have also contributed to the development and testing of this project: Hannah Vuncannon, Kole Bostic, and Lisa Cook.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC, 28403, USA

    Elham Ebrahimi, Dana Hajj, Matthew Jarrett, Anastasiya Ferrell, Linda Haddad & Marc Chelala

Authors
  1. Elham Ebrahimi
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  2. Dana Hajj
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  3. Matthew Jarrett
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  4. Anastasiya Ferrell
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  5. Linda Haddad
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  6. Marc Chelala
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elham Ebrahimi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, USA

    Jessie Y. C. Chen

  2. U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Orlando, FL, USA

    Gino Fragomeni

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Ebrahimi, E., Hajj, D., Jarrett, M., Ferrell, A., Haddad, L., Chelala, M. (2022). Designing Virtual Environments for Smoking Cessation: A Preliminary Investigation. In: Chen, J.Y.C., Fragomeni, G. (eds) Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality: Design and Development. HCII 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13317. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05939-1_28

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05939-1_28

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-05938-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-05939-1

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