Development of an interactive seriousgame for stress relief during flights

Abstract: Airway travel is an easy and accessible form of transportation that allows billions of people to travel the world each year. Many passengers are however not perfectly comfortable on flights, with stressful flight-related anxieties or phobias being common. These issues are all sources of various negative emotions and can be difficult to circumvent or tone down when on long flights. Previous research has shown that controlled breathing techniques and distraction from the situation are good approaches when dealing with the body's physiological stress responses, but both techniques have seldom been used in conjunction.    This thesis is targeting In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) systems used onboard modern aeroplanes to provide passengers with a serious game for alleviating stressful emotions during flights. The study aims to determine whether guided breathing combined with gameplay distraction can help passengers with various flight-related anxieties to relax and regain a calm state of mind. This was done in comparison to a standard breathing exercise. The data was collected from user testing involving Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) for happy and sad moods and the Strait-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) to evaluate participants' emotional states. Heart rate measurements were used to analyse correlations between stress and heart rate. Finally, the game itself was evaluated for its intrinsic value, effectiveness for stress relief and the participants' intention to engage with it.  The results of the study could however not draw any conclusions that indicate that the serious game was any more effective than standard breathing exercises in most aspects, with both having a similar influence overall. A few components, namely immersion, enjoyment, entertainment, concentration and usability did however show a significant increase indicating that the serious game is a more enjoyable experience while remaining effective for relaxation and stress relief.  In conclusion, having a larger number of participants would have enabled the results to make more accurate and reliable findings. Heart rate was also found to be a poor predictor of stress, with more appropriate sensors being an area of improvement for future studies. Using both breathing techniques and distraction can however be considered to be a useful way to provide stress relief as both components were found to complement each other well.