Dimas Ramdhan, Elshad Ryan Ardiyanto, Patrick Alexander, Edyth Novian Putra, David
{"title":"Nyctophy: Development of virtual reality and smartwatch integrated serious game for nyctophobia therapy","authors":"Dimas Ramdhan, Elshad Ryan Ardiyanto, Patrick Alexander, Edyth Novian Putra, David","doi":"10.1016/j.simpa.2025.100770","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Nyctophy is a serious game combining virtual reality (VR) and smartwatch integration for nyctophobia (fear of darkness) therapy. The paper thoroughly explores its development framework, simulating dark environments with real-time heart rate monitoring and adaptive flashlight mechanics. Built in Unity Engine, Nyctophy supports VR (Meta Quest 2) and keyboard–mouse interfaces. Performance tests achieved 71.9 FPS (”good” quality) across four devices. Tests with 34 participants revealed longer VR completion times (8:12 min) versus keyboard–mouse (3:54), highlighting immersive impact. Nyctophy demonstrates potential as a safe, innovative tool for diagnosing and treating nyctophobia, leveraging serious games to enhance accessibility and therapeutic outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":29771,"journal":{"name":"Software Impacts","volume":"25 ","pages":"Article 100770"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Software Impacts","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665963825000302","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"COMPUTER SCIENCE, SOFTWARE ENGINEERING","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Nyctophy is a serious game combining virtual reality (VR) and smartwatch integration for nyctophobia (fear of darkness) therapy. The paper thoroughly explores its development framework, simulating dark environments with real-time heart rate monitoring and adaptive flashlight mechanics. Built in Unity Engine, Nyctophy supports VR (Meta Quest 2) and keyboard–mouse interfaces. Performance tests achieved 71.9 FPS (”good” quality) across four devices. Tests with 34 participants revealed longer VR completion times (8:12 min) versus keyboard–mouse (3:54), highlighting immersive impact. Nyctophy demonstrates potential as a safe, innovative tool for diagnosing and treating nyctophobia, leveraging serious games to enhance accessibility and therapeutic outcomes.