Designing Virtual Environments for Smoking Cessation: A Preliminary Investigation

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.