Mild stress stimuli built into a non-immersive virtual environment can elicit actual stress responses

The experience of Virtual Reality (VR) can lead to unwanted or wanted psychological stress reactions. Highly immersive VR games for instance utilise extreme, life-threatening, or dangerous situations to achieve those responses from their players. There is also sufficient evidence that in clinical settings and specific situations, such as fear of heights or post-traumatic stress, virtual stimuli can lead to perceived stress for clients. However, there is a gap in research targeting everyday, mild emotional stimuli, which are neither extreme nor specific and which are not presented in an immersive system. To what extent can common stimuli in a non-immersive virtual environment elicit actual stress reactions for its users? We developed a desktop VR system and evaluated it in a study with 54 participants. We could show that virtual stimuli in a common, domestic family environment led to a significant increase in perceived stress as measured by quantitative (self-reports) and qualitative (semi-structured interviews analysed with a General Inductive Approach (GIA)) responses. The results also showed that the introduction of virtual stimuli induced significantly higher levels of perceived workload and sense of presence and led to different physiological reactions. These findings have implications for the design and implementation of non-immersive VR systems.     

Effects of virtual environment platforms on emotional responses

The goal of the current study was to investigate the effects of different virtual environment (VE) technologies (i.e., desktop, head mounted display, or fully immersive platforms) on emotional arousal and task performance. Fifty-three participants were recruited from a college population. Reactivity to stressful VEs was examined in three VE systems from desktop to high-end fully immersive systems. The experiment was a 3 (desktop system, head mounted display, and six wall system) × 2 (high- and low-stressful VE) within subject design, with self-reported emotional arousal and valence, skin conductance, task performance, presence, and simulator sickness examined as dependent variables. Replicating previous studies, the fully immersive system induced the highest sense of presence and the head mounted display system elicited the highest amount of simulator sickness. Extending previous studies, the results demonstrated that VE platforms were associated with different patterns in emotional responses and task performance. Our findings suggest that different VE systems may be appropriate for different scientific purposes when studying stress reactivity using emotionally evocative tasks.     

The physiological mirror—a system for unconscious control of a virtual environment through physiological activity

This paper introduces a system for real-time physiological measurement, analysis, and metaphorical visualization within a virtual environment (VE). Our goal is to develop a method that allows humans to unconsciously relate to parts of an environment more strongly than to others, purely induced by their own physiological responses to the virtual reality (VR) displays. In particular, we exploit heart rate, respiration, and galvanic skin response in order to control the behavior of virtual characters in the VE. Such unconscious processes may become a useful tool for storytelling or assist guiding participants through a sequence of tasks in order to make the application more interesting, e.g., in rehabilitation. We claim that anchoring of subjective bodily states to a virtual reality (VR) can enhance a person’s sense of realism of the VR and ultimately create a stronger relationship between humans and the VR.     

The influence of different sensory cues as selection feedback and co-location in presence and task performance

For some applications based on virtual reality technology, presence and task performance are important factors to validate the experience. Different approaches have been adopted to analyse the extent to which certain aspects of a computer-generated environment may enhance these factors, but mainly in 2D graphical user interfaces. This study explores the influence of different sensory modalities on performance and the sense of presence experienced within a 3D environment. In particular, we have evaluated visual, auditory and active haptic feedback for indicating selection of virtual objects. The effect of spatial alignment between proprioceptive and visual workspaces (co-location) has also been analysed. An experiment has been made to evaluate the influence of these factors in a controlled 3D environment based on a virtual version of the Simon game. The main conclusions obtained indicate that co-location must be considered in order to determine the sensory needs during interaction within a virtual environment. This study also provides further evidence that the haptic sensory modality influences presence to a higher extent, and that auditory cues can reduce selection times. Conclusions obtained provide initial guidelines that will help designers to set out better selection techniques for more complex environments, such as training simulators based on VR technology, by highlighting different optimal configurations of sensory feedback.     

Process and Outcome-based Evaluation between Virtual Reality-driven and Traditional Construction Safety Training

The emerging digital technologies such as virtual reality (VR) provide an alternative platform for construction safety training. In order to explore how digital-driven technologies affect the effectiveness of safety training, there is a need to empirically test the differences in performance between digital 3D/VR safety training and traditional 2D/paper approach. This research conducted a performance evaluation that emphasises both the training process and learning outcomes of trainees based on researchers’ self-developed immersive construction safety training platform. Data related to physiological indicators such as skin resistance were collected to measure safety performance before and after the training. The detailed measurement indicators included nine categories (e.g., immersion, inspiration) to form a holistic list of evaluation dimensions. The findings revealed that VR-driven immersive safety training outperformed the traditional way for trainees in terms of both process and outcome-based indicators. Results confirmed that safety training was no longer constrained by understanding or memorizing 2D information (texts and images). Instead, trainees experienced a stronger sense of embodied cognition through the immersive experience and multi-sensory engagement by interacting with the VR-driven system. By engaging the theory of embodied cognition, this research provides both the empirical evidence and in-depth analysis of how immersive virtual safety training outperforms traditional training in terms of both training process and outcomes.     

基于SLAM的虚拟现实六自由度输入系统研究

在虚拟现实(VR)系统中,手控器的三维位姿定位与追踪是至关重要的功能。虽然被动式的六自由度(6DoF)输入方案比较稳定,但是这种系统通常需要额外的硬件,因此比较昂贵,并且其建立和初始化需要额外的空间和时间成本。因此基于视觉惯性即时定位与地图构建(SLAM)的主动式定位,提出一种易于部署且便于携带的六自由度输入系统,作为虚拟现实的手控器。为验证其在三维交互任务中的表现,设计了一组与现有商业手控器的用户对比实验。用户对比实验表明,所提出的主动式六自由度输入系统在虚拟现实交互任务中与现有的商业控制器具有相当的性能。     

Service robot feature design effects on user perceptions and emotional responses

Service robots have been developed to assist nurses in routine patient services. Prior research has recognized that patient emotional experiences with robots may be as important as robot task performance in terms of user acceptance and assessments of effectiveness. The objective of this study was to understand the effect of different service robot interface features on elderly perceptions and emotional responses in a simulated medicine delivery task. Twenty-four participants sat in a simulated patient room and a service robot delivered a bag of “medicine” to them. Repeated trials were used to present variations on three robot features, including facial configuration, voice messaging and interactivity. Participant heart rate (HR) and galvanic skin response (GSR) were collected. Participant ratings of robot humanness [perceived anthropomorphism (PA)] were collected post-trial along with subjective ratings of arousal (bored–excited) and valence (unhappy–happy) using the self-assessment manikin (SAM) questionnaire. Results indicated the presence of all three types of robot features promoted higher PA, arousal and valence, compared to a control condition (a robot without any of the features). Participant physiological responses varied with events in their interaction with the robot. The three types of features also had different utility for stimulating participant arousal and valence, as well as physiological responses. In general, results indicated that adding anthropomorphic and interactive features to service robots promoted positive emotional responses [increased excitement (GSR) and happiness (HR)] in elderly users. It is expected that results from this study could be used as a basis for developing affective robot interface design guidelines to promote user emotional experiences.     

Evaluating Presence for Customer Experience in a Virtual Environment: Using a Nuclear Power Plant as an Example

In contrast to experiences offered by traditional media, this study used a three‐dimensional virtual environment to evaluate customer experiences. The aims of this study were twofold: first, to investigate whether virtual interaction can impress customers in a visual or auditory sense and thereby further induce “presence”; and second, to understand how to provide a better sense of presence by using virtual interactions. This study used a nuclear power plant control room to construct virtual customer experience patterns. The results of the questionnaire showed no statistical significance, except for one question: “How responsive was the environment to actions that you initiated (or performed)?” During the experience, interactively receiving information in the active model offered a more significant sense of presence. For the physiological measurement, we used the multiscale entropy of complexity to analyze the heart rate. The complexity index for the active model proved significantly larger than for the passive, indicating better adaptability to the active model.     

How level of realism influences anxiety in virtual reality environments for a job interview

This study describes how the level of graphical realism required in a virtual social simulation setting can be therapeutically useful in reducing job interview anxiety through exposure. We developed a virtual job interview simulation at a university career service to help student populations faced with the prospect of their first job interview. The virtual job interview simulation can deliver a realistic mock job interview within a high-quality immersive system that is similar to professional virtual reality (VR) systems. We conducted two experimental studies with a common theme: the role of graphical reality of the virtual interviewer and the immersive visual display in the virtual job interview simulation. The results are presented in this study based on a psycho-physiological approach, revealing variation in the distribution of participants′ anxiety state across various VR conditions. The overall conclusion of this study is that the sense of anxiety is less correlated to the graphical realism in VR environment even though the more graphically detailed the virtual human was, the more it provoked a sense of presence. In addition, at least some degree of physical immersion is needed to maintain anxiety levels over the course of VR exposure.     

Demographic differences in presence across seven studies

Virtual Reality - It is often necessary for virtual reality (VR) users to experience a sense of presence for the benefits of VR applications to be realized. However, feelings of presence are...     

Synchronization between audiovisual and haptic feeling for constructing edutainment systems

Virtual reality (VR) technology has become more and more mature over the last decade. Development of a virtual environment for training purpose is considered to be one of the most practical applications of the VR technology. Since the VR technology involves all kinds of sensors in exchanging information between the real world and the virtual environment, it is computationally intensive in terms of data processing at an individual sensor and information integration among all the sensors. In general, the information integration has to be well synchronized in order to meet the training needs. At the same time, real-time processing capability is also considered to be critical. Many more practical issues could be uncovered only when a virtual training environment is actually being developed. Based on this belief, this study experiments on the development of a virtual environment for training billiards players. The technical difficulties encountered and the corresponding resolutions are considered beneficial to the development of other practical virtual training environments. This paper summarizes the design and implementation details about our experimental virtual training environment for edutainment systems such as virtual billiard game, virtual air hockey game and virtual drum performance with the algorithms for the synchronization of the information from different sources.     

Using virtual reality technology for aircraft visual inspection training: presence and comparison studies

The aircraft maintenance industry is a complex system consisting of several interrelated human and machine components. Recognizing this, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has pursued human factors related research. In the maintenance arena the research has focused on the aircraft inspection process and the aircraft inspector. Training has been identified as the primary intervention strategy to improve the quality and reliability of aircraft inspection. If training is to be successful, it is critical that we provide aircraft inspectors with appropriate training tools and environment. In response to this need, the paper outlines the development of a virtual reality (VR) system for aircraft inspection training.

VR has generated much excitement but little formal proof that it is useful. However, since VR interfaces are difficult and expensive to build, the computer graphics community needs to be able to predict which applications will benefit from VR. To address this important issue, this research measured the degree of immersion and presence felt by subjects in a virtual environment simulator. Specifically, it conducted two controlled studies using the VR system developed for visual inspection task of an aft-cargo bay at the VR Lab of Clemson University. Beyond assembling the visual inspection virtual environment, a significant goal of this project was to explore subjective presence as it affects task performance. The results of this study indicated that the system scored high on the issues related to the degree of presence felt by the subjects. As a next logical step, this study, then, compared VR to an existing PC-based aircraft inspection simulator. The results showed that the VR system was better and preferred over the PC-based training tool.     

Using immersive virtual reality and anatomically correct computer-generated characters in the forensic assessment of deviant sexual preferences

Penile plethysmography (PPG) is the gold standard for the assessment of sexual interests, especially among sex offenders of children. Nonetheless, this method faces some ethical limitations inherent to the nature of its stimuli and could benefit from the improvement of its ecological validity. The use of computer-generated characters (CGC) in virtual immersion for PPG assessment might help address these issues. A new application developed to design made-to-measure anatomically correct virtual characters compatible with the Tanner developmental stages is presented. The main purpose of this study was to determine how the virtual reality (VR) modality compares to the standard auditory modality on their capacity to generate sexual arousal profiles and deviance differentials indicative of sexual interests. The erectile responses of 22 sex offenders of children and 42 non-deviant adult males were recorded. While both stimulus modalities generated significantly different genital arousal profiles for sex offenders of children and non-deviant males, deviance differentials calculated from the VR modality allowed for significantly higher classification accuracy. Performing receiver operating characteristic analyses further assessed discriminant potential. Auditory modality yielded an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.79 (SE = 0.059) while CGC in VR yielded an AUC of 0.90 (SE = 0.052). Overall, results suggest that the VR modality allows significantly better group classification accuracy and discriminant validity than audio stimuli, which provide empirical support for the use of this new method for PPG assessment. Additionally, the potential use of VR in interventions pertaining to self-regulation of sexual offending is addressed in conclusion.     

Multi-class classification of construction hazards via cognitive states assessment using wearable EEG

Improving workers’ safety and health is one of the most critical issues in the construction industry. Research attempts have been made to better identify construction hazards on a jobsite by analyzing workers’ physical responses (e.g., stride and balance) or physiological responses (e.g., brain waves and heart rate) collected from the wearable devices. Among them, electroencephalogram (EEG) holds unique potential since it reveals abnormal patterns immediately when a hazard is perceived and recognized. Unfortunately, the unproven capacity of EEG signals for multi-hazard classification is a primary barrier towards ubiquitous hazard identification in real-time on jobsites. This study correlates EEG signal patterns with construction hazard types and develops an EEG classifier based on the experiments conducted in an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment. Hazards of different types (e.g., fall and slip/trip) were simulated in a VR environment. EEG signals were collected from subjects who wore both wearable EEG and VR devices during the experimentation. Two types of EEG features (time-domain/frequency-domain features and cognitive features) were extracted for training and testing. A total of eighteen advanced machine learning algorithms were used to develop the EEG classifier. The initial results showed that the LightGBM classifier achieved 70.1% accuracy based on the cognitive feature set for the 7-class classification. To improve the performance, the input data was relabeled, and three strategies were designed and tested. As a result, the combined approach (two-step ensemble classification) achieved 82.3% accuracy. As such, this study not only demonstrates the feasibility of coupling wearable EEG, VR, and machine learning to differentiate jobsite hazards but also provides strategies to improve multi-class classification performance. The research results support ubiquitous hazard identification and thereby contribute to the safety of the construction workplace.     

Sense of Immersion in Computer Games Using Single and Stereoscopic Augmented Reality

As a novel interaction and presentation technology, Augmented Reality (AR) has been widely used in education, tourism, entertainment, psychology, and many other applications. In the game industry, this revolutionary technology has introduced a new form of interaction between players and the gaming environment. In this article, we aim to find if exploiting AR in computer games can enhance the sense of immersion, and consequently, satisfying the players. To this end, a mobile game called Ladybug is implemented using three different techniques including the regular virtual reality (VR) camera, single AR camera, and stereoscopic AR camera. The results of a comprehensive user study on these techniques showed that the single AR camera and stereoscopic AR camera can result in more sense of immersion in players in comparison to the VR camera. However, the hypothesis that the stereoscopic AR results in more sense of presence in comparison to the single AR camera is rejected. On the other hand, our findings show that the AR stereoscopic camera can lead to a better emotional involvement and enjoyment in comparison to the single AR camera and VR camera.     

Cyber sickness in low-immersive,semi-immersive,and fully immersive virtual reality

Virtual Reality - It is known that virtual reality (VR) experience may cause cyber sickness. One aspect of VR is an immersion or otherwise sense of presence, the sense of feeling oneself in a...     

Cybersickness during VR gaming undermines game enjoyment: A mediation model

Recent advances in virtual reality (VR) technology have ushered in a new era of VR gaming. While VR gaming experience represents a burgeoning area of research within human-computer interaction circles, the role of cybersickness, physiological repercussions of VR exposure to users characterized by a multitude of symptoms, such as nausea, lightheadedness, and dizziness, in the effect of VR gaming on game enjoyment remains understudied. In two experiments, the current study proposed and tested a causal mediation model in which the effect of VR gaming on game enjoyment was mediated by the level of cybersickness experienced during the gameplay. Results from both experiments supported the proposed model and showed that increased cybersickness levels during VR gaming led to decreases in game enjoyment, indicating that cybersickness experienced during VR gaming undermines the enjoyment of the gaming experience. Results also revealed that compared to traditional desktop gaming, VR gaming invoked greater levels of cybersickness, but VR gaming did not lead to greater levels of game enjoyment. When the effect of cybersickness on game enjoyment was statistically removed, however, VR gaming was found to be more enjoyable. The current experiments provide preliminary evidence that cybersickness may hinder the enjoyment of VR gaming experience.     

Assessing the influence of repeated exposures and mental stress on human wayfinding performance in indoor environments using virtual reality technology

This study aimed to examine the effect of repeated exposures to indoor environments on people’s indoor wayfinding performance, both under normal condition and during fire emergency which could induce significant mental stress. Indoor wayfinding experiments were conducted in an immersive virtual museum developed using virtual reality technologies. Participants of the experiments were divided into three groups, who participated in one, two and three trials, respectively. Those who participated in more than one trial were given an interval of two weeks between two consecutive trials. Each trial of the experiment included a treasure hunting task and an egress task. Participants were presented with a virtual fire emergency during the egress task of their last trial. Data of wayfinding performance measures of the participants, as well as their physiological and emotional responses, sense of direction, wayfinding anxiety and simulator sickness were collected and analyzed. The results revealed significant positive impact of repeated exposure on participants’ wayfinding performance, which resulted in a decrease in the time needed to complete the treasure hunting task. The results also revealed significant negative impact of mental stressed caused by the fire emergency on participants’ wayfinding performance, which led to increased travel time and distance during egress. Such negative impact of stress, however, could be noticeably diminished by the repeated exposures, showing significant interaction effect between these two factors.     

基于阻抗控制的步行康复训练机器人的轨迹自适应

把阻抗控制理论运用到步行康复训练机器人系统中,使用基于位置的阻抗控制模型设计了系统的控制器.提出基于阻抗模型的步态轨迹白适应算法,并分析了系统的误差.在建立的Solid Works、Matlab、Adams虚拟样机联合仿真平台上进行了主动康复训练的仿真实验,并在实物样机上进行了健康训练者的实验.结果表明,该控制器能够实...     

虚拟现实技术在柔性上肢康复机器人中的应用

根据末端牵引式和外骨骼式上肢康复机器人的特性,研制了一种新型的柔性上肢康复机器人。机器人的康复训练系统结合了主动和被动模式的要素,将虚拟现实（VR）技术引入上肢康复机器人,通过现实环境中的光学3D位置捕获以及VR环境中的3D位置感知,设计了虚拟动态模型交互性节点和碰撞检测实验,实现虚拟现实交互,提高虚拟模型运动实时效果和上肢康复训练精度。VR和新颖的康复机器人的集成为具有特定任务的患者提供了有效的训练。