Classification and Analysis of Human Body Movement Characteristics Associated with Acrophobia Induced by Virtual Reality Scenes of Heights

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2023-06, Vol.23 (12), p.5482
• Main Authors: Cheng, Xiankai, Bao, Benkun, Cui, Weidong, Liu, Shuai, Zhong, Jun, Cai, Liming, Yang, Hongbo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: acrophobia; Altitude; Analysis; Behavior modification; body movement; Classification; Data transmission; Fear; Fear & phobias; Human body; Human mechanics; Human motion; Inertial navigation; Inertial navigation (Aeronautics); machine learning; Mental disorders; Model accuracy; Physiological responses; sensor network; Sensors; Virtual environments; Virtual reality; Walking; Wrist
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s23125482

Acrophobia (fear of heights), a prevalent psychological disorder, elicits profound fear and evokes a range of adverse physiological responses in individuals when exposed to heights, which will lead to a very dangerous state for people in actual heights. In this paper, we explore the behavioral influences in terms of movements in people confronted with virtual reality scenes of extreme heights and develop an acrophobia classification model based on human movement characteristics. To this end, we used wireless miniaturized inertial navigation sensors (WMINS) network to obtain the information of limb movements in the virtual environment. Based on these data, we constructed a series of data feature processing processes, proposed a system model for the classification of acrophobia and non-acrophobia based on human motion feature analysis, and realized the classification recognition of acrophobia and non-acrophobia through the designed integrated learning model. The final accuracy of acrophobia dichotomous classification based on limb motion information reached 94.64%, which has higher accuracy and efficiency compared with other existing research models. Overall, our study demonstrates a strong correlation between people's mental state during fear of heights and their limb movements at that time.