scholarly journals Effects of system- and media-driven immersive capabilities on presence and affective experience

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley Standen ◽  
John Anderson ◽  
Alexander Sumich ◽  
Nadja Heym

AbstractVirtual reality (VR) is receiving widespread attention as a delivery tool for exposure therapies. The advantage offered by VR over traditional technology is a greater sense of presence and immersion, which magnifies user effects and enhances the effectiveness of exposure-based interventions. The current study systematically examined the basic factors involved in generating presence in VR as compared to standard technology, namely (1) system-driven factors that are exclusive to VR devices while controlling general factors such as field of view and image quality; (2) media-driven factors of the virtual environment eliciting motivational salience through different levels of arousal and valence (relaxing, exciting and fear evoking stimuli); and (3) the effects of presence on magnifying affective response. Participants (N = 14) watched 3 different emotionally salient videos (1 × fear evoking, 1 × relaxing and 1 × exciting) in both viewing modes (VR and Projector). Subjective scores of user experience were collected as well as objective EEG markers of presence (frontal alpha power, theta/beta ratio). Subjective and objective presence was significantly greater in the VR condition. There was no difference in subjective or objective presence for stimulus type, suggesting presence is not moderated by arousal, but may be reliant on activation of motivational systems. Finally, presence did not magnify feelings of relaxation or excitement, but did significantly magnify users’ experience of fear when viewing fear evoking stimuli. This is in line with previous literature showing strong links between presence and generation of fear, which is vital in the efficacy of exposure therapies.

The evolution of the technology takes the education to next level, where it makes the learning process more interesting and attractive. The Virtual Reality plays an important role in this evolution. The main aim of this work is to enhance the learning ability in students through virtual environment by developing an education based game. In this work, the virtual reality device-Wii mote has been used for the learning process, and also for answering the questions in the different levels of game. The learning process also involves the speech synthesis. This helps the visually impaired people to learn without others help and it also motivates even the average students to participate more actively in learning process. The game has been further divided as easy, medium and difficult levels. So the learning ability of each student can be easily tested and further steps can be taken in order to motivate them, and to optimize their learning skill. Thus, this work motivates the students for learning and to exalt their learning ability.


2019 ◽  
Vol 292 ◽  
pp. 01031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Václav Mach ◽  
Jan Valouch ◽  
Milan Adámek ◽  
Jiří Ševčík

The 3D reconstruction and visualization of crime scenarios, such as criminal assaults, traffic accidents or homicides are defining a new approach with potential for increasing effectiveness within the criminal investigation process. Modern 3D capturing and processing methods are utilized to create an authentic and immersive virtual environment. Nonetheless, an immersion to virtual environment enables different levels of view. Virtual reality immersion views which are proposed and described. These views are specific by reasons of its role within the criminal investigation as well as its technical severity. Moreover, the possible methods for the design of proposed virtual views are analyzed and the next research steps are exposed.


1996 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Hendrix ◽  
Woodrow Barfield

This paper reports the results of three studies, each of which investigated the sense of presence within virtual environments as a function of visual display parameters. These factors included the presence or absence of head tracking, the presence or absence of stereoscopic cues, and the geometric field of view used to create the visual image projected on the visual display. In each study, subjects navigated a virtual environment and completed a questionnaire designed to ascertain the level of presence experienced by the participant within the virtual world. Specifically, two aspects of presence were evaluated: (1) the sense of “being there” and (2) the fidelity of the interaction between the virtual environment participant and the virtual world. Not surprisingly, the results of the first and second study indicated that the reported level of presence was significantly higher when head tracking and stereoscopic cues were provided. The results from the third study showed that the geometric field of view used to design the visual display highly influenced the reported level of presence, with more presence associated with a 50 and 90° geometric field of view when compared to a narrower 10° geometric field of view. The results also indicated a significant positive correlation between the reported level of presence and the fidelity of the interaction between the virtual environment participant and the virtual world. Finally, it was shown that the survey questions evaluating several aspects of presence produced reliable responses across questions and studies, indicating that the questionnaire is a useful tool when evaluating presence in virtual environments.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (02) ◽  
pp. 1550033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Hugues ◽  
Vincent Weistroffer ◽  
Alexis Paljic ◽  
Philippe Fuchs ◽  
Ahmad Abdul Karim ◽  
...  

This paper deals with the design and the evaluation of human-like robot movements. Three criteria were proposed and evaluated regarding their impact on the human-likeness of the robot movements: The inertia of the base, the inertia of the end-effector and the velocity profile. A specific tool was designed to generate different levels of anthropomorphism according to these three parameters. An industrial use case was designed to compare several robot movements. This use case was implemented with a virtual robot arm in a virtual environment, using virtual reality. A user study was conducted to determine what were the important criteria in the perception of human-like robot movements and what were their correlations with other notions such as safety and preference. The results showed that inertia on the end-effector was of most importance for a movement to be perceived as human-like and nonaggressive, and that those characteristics helped the users feel safer, less stressed and more willing to work with the robot.


Author(s):  
Amir Shakibamanesh ◽  
Mahshid Ghorbanian

A lot of scientific studies have investigated virtual reality, the technological phenomenon of the modern world. However, there is no comprehensive study about the practical use of this technology in the urban design field. The aim of this chapter is to investigate this subject. The first step is to outline the 3D digital models discussed as a context for the formation of virtual reality. Then summarizing experts view in the field of virtual reality technology; the study presents components, conditions and requirements necessary to create a virtual environment in its real scientific sense. Since the chapter aims at utilizing virtual reality in the context of urban design studies, it focuses on virtual reality applications in urban design projects, and advantages and limitations of this technique in this area. Finally, at the end of this chapter most common devices needed for equipping a VR Lab and experiencing the sense of presence in virtual environment have been studied in three main categories including non-immersive, immersive, and full-immersive.


Author(s):  
Amir Shakibamanesh ◽  
Mahshid Ghorbanian

A lot of scientific studies have investigated virtual reality, the technological phenomenon of the modern world. However, there is no comprehensive study about the practical use of this technology in the urban design field. The aim of this chapter is to investigate this subject. The first step is to outline the 3D digital models discussed as a context for the formation of virtual reality. Then summarizing experts view in the field of virtual reality technology; the study presents components, conditions and requirements necessary to create a virtual environment in its real scientific sense. Since the chapter aims at utilizing virtual reality in the context of urban design studies, it focuses on virtual reality applications in urban design projects, and advantages and limitations of this technique in this area. Finally, at the end of this chapter most common devices needed for equipping a VR Lab and experiencing the sense of presence in virtual environment have been studied in three main categories including non-immersive, immersive, and full-immersive.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 529-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Scarfe ◽  
Andrew Glennerster

Virtual reality (VR) is becoming an increasingly important way to investigate sensory processing. The converse is also true: in order to build good VR technologies, one needs an intimate understanding of how our brain processes sensory information. One of the key advantages of studying perception with VR is that it allows an experimenter to probe perceptual processing in a more naturalistic way than has been possible previously. In VR, one is able to actively explore and interact with the environment, just as one would do in real life. In this article, we review the history of VR displays, including the philosophical origins of VR, before discussing some key challenges involved in generating good VR and how a sense of presence in a virtual environment can be measured. We discuss the importance of multisensory VR and evaluate the experimental tension that exists between artifice and realism when investigating sensory processing.


Author(s):  
Max M. North ◽  
Sarah M. North

The study of sense of presence experienced in virtual reality environments has become an important area of research. The continued advancement of immersive technology offers more opportunities to examine how a subject becomes immersed in and interacts with a variety of virtual environments. The primary purpose of this research is to study the sense of presence while interacting with a traditional Virtual Reality Environment (Helmet-based system with a Head-tracking device) and compare it with a virtual reality environment using an Immersive Environment (Spherical-based Visualization environment). Two empirical experiments were investigated in this study, each consisting of thirty-five subjects. A virtual airplane scenario was created and simulated for the participants of both environments. Participants were given several questionnaires after completing the simulation. This study mainly focused on question 9 and 10 of that survey, which dealt with how much the participant felt present in the virtual environment, and if the presence of the real world could still be experienced while in the virtual environment. We found that the subjects felt more involved with the virtual environment while using the Immersive Environment simulation versus using the traditional helmet-based Virtual Reality Environment. There was a statistically significant difference in questions 9 and 10 between the Immersive Environment and traditional Virtual Reality Environment when those questions are considered in isolation. However there was not a significant difference in the total sense of presence between the two environments after analyzing the questions together. The primary differences between the questions were analyzed using the overall mean and the standard deviation. The Immersive Environment has a smaller deviation than the traditional Virtual Reality Environment, implying that the sense of presence response is more concentrated. However, the overall results demonstrate that both environments are almost equally effective, with the Immersive Environment having several slight advantages.


2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariano Alcañiz ◽  
Beatriz Rey ◽  
Jose Tembl ◽  
Vera Parkhutik

Virtual reality enables people to behave and feel as if they were present in a virtual environment and therefore is a useful tool in many fields. In order to study the usefulness of virtual environments, the concept of presence is examined. Up to now, the most common method to measure presence has been to use subjective measures based on validated questionnaires about user experience. However, more objective measurements, such as physiological measurements, are now being considered. In this study, transcranial Doppler (TCD) sonography is presented as a brain activity measurement technique that can be used to study presence in virtual environments. Thirty-two subjects navigated in a virtual environment in different immersive conditions while TCD was monitored. The results show that there are changes in blood flow velocity in the subjects during moments associated with different levels of presence.


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