Enhanced relaxation effect of music therapy with VR

Music has the power to move the heart of people, so the music therapy has been used for medical treatment. In EU and US, music therapy has already been used as a complementary and alternative medicine, while it is still new and not well known in Japan. On the other hand with the rapid progress in computer technology, VR (Virtual Reality)begins to attract more attention from researchers, and even the year of 2016 was called “the 1 st year of VR”. Based on the above background, we constructed a system using a combination of VR images with music stimuli, and the relaxation effect on people was tested upon student examinees. The music stimuli were applied with proper content and timing for different responses, and the data was collected, analyzed for test use. In more detail, the vital signs as biological reaction, the amylase in saliva, and STAI (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory)for the uneasy state of mind were measured, and a questionnaire to students on their feeling change was carried on. Particularly, the improvement in mental state and learning desire of students was confirmed.