Virtual reality ‘heroin cave’ aimed at helping addicts kick habit

By Amanda Orr HOUSTON (Reuters) – Addicts in a new study at the University of Houston will strap on virtual reality headsets and navigate a “heroin cave” to help them try and kick their addictions. The heroin environments, a house party where the drug is snorted and one where it is injected, took nearly a year to complete to ensure realism, its creators said. The study from the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work uses an eight-camera infrared system that projects life-sized 3D avatars and environments with which participants can interact in a virtual reality chamber known as the “heroin cave.” Details from an open pizza box on the back patio to cash tossed on a table next to a cigarette lighter are meant to augment sensations and trigger a heroin craving.

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Virtual reality ‘heroin cave’ aimed at helping addicts kick habit