The first and the most important one is the lack of standardization. Psychology researchers are still unable to adapt these technologies to the specific requirements of the clinical setting. As more and more research and development is done, it is certain that there will be much more progress made in standardization in the following years. Another important factor is the extremely high costs of these technologies. Companies that believe in the power of making software open-source and reaching out to as many people as possible are trying hard to make their products as affordable as possible.
The third and perhaps the most underrated factor that disables VR technology from being a practical method for psychology research is the fact that the majority of the applications that are currently available to researchers and users are not very user-friendly. Since it is a whole new technology, VR is something that requires time and practice for the average user to adapt to its user experience. The experiences created for clinical purposes that are currently on the market lack the sense of a good user experience design. Companies are so focused on making these applications functional that they fail to give enough attention to the way the application is experienced by the end user. Therefore, the essence of most experiences get lost in translation and fail to be helpful in most cases.
[ EVALUATE ] It is vital to consider the factors that disable the practical usage of virtual reality in clinical research in the development of a virtual reality expose application that uses real-time brainwave data for generating custom virtual content to balance daily emotional and psychological fluctuations. First of all, it needs to give enough control and interaction to both the researcher and the end user in order to maximize the efficiency of the treatment and the data collected. Secondly, the product needs to be affordable. It is very important to consider the scalability factor in such a scenario, since the high costs of these technologies has been one of the major factors that disabled the common adoption of virtual reality in the medicine industry.
Third and one the most important factors to keep in mind is to make sure that the application possesses a very strong user experience design. Even the best virtual reality applications that are currently available, including VR games, require a significant amount of time for the first time user to get used to the user interaction. I think it is extremely important to interview psychotherapists, psychiatrists, psychology researchers and psychotherapy patients to understand their needs and the problems their encounter in order to provide the most seamless user experience possible to both sides. Since collecting brainwave data in psychology research is a delicate process, it is vital to provide the ideal environment for the patient, as well as a user experience that makes sure the user does not get lost trying to figure out how the application works at any point in the experience. A bad user experience design would immediately affect the data being collected, since most users tend to get nervous around technology that they are initially unable to figure out how to use.