ANIM3: ANIMated ANIMals as A Numbing Immersive Mechanic

A high prevalence of "acute pain"within hospital emergency departments and side-effects of current practices calls for new additional treatment measures. Alternatives to analgesics include Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) and Virtual Reality (VR). Whereas proven effectively separately, the combination AAT techniques and VR analgesia has received no or scant attention. In this paper we focus on exploring this field through exploring the literature from the separate approaches and show how they would fit together, conceptualized in a new VR application ANIM3. Leading in this development process, besides the extensive literature review, were stakeholder interviews. Our first user encounters gained positive responses to the prototype. As a whole, we see strong indications that "acute pain"reduction in the hospital based on AAT principles in Virtual Reality is a promising technique. We postulate that these experiences should add well timed heightened distractions, while keeping the contextual factors in mind leading to interactions of a maximum of about 15 mins, with limited or no need for explanations, and limit need of locomotion and two-hand controls. We recommend the creation of proposals to further development and research to explore these possibilities to their full potential.