Development of a mental stress relaxation tool based on guided imagery and Microsoft Kinect

This paper describes the design and implementation of a novel mental stress relaxation tool based on guided imagery, virtual reality, and Microsoft Kinect, which is a motion-sensing input device. In the conventional guided imagery treatment for mental stress sufferers, the effectiveness relies on the ability of imagination, which can be diminished for small children, adults with lower spatial cognitive ability, and tiredness. The virtual reality based relaxation tool can circumvent this problem with the provision of a visual simulated world for users to relax and deal with the stress. The tool is integrated with a motion-sensing input device to enable the virtual world to become interactive through a natural user interface. A prototype implementation has been successfully developed and the initial evaluation has shown that the approach is promising.