Virtual Reality Research Research Articles

A Comparative Study of Colour Effects on Cognitive Performance in Real-World and VR Environments.

This research explores the influence of colour on cognitive performance and intellectual abilities (i.e., logical and lateral thinking abilities and people’s attention to detail) in a conventional laboratory setting and an approximately identical virtual reality (VR) environment. Comparative experiments using psychological methods were carried out in both settings to explore the impact of immersive colour experience. This work builds on earlier studies that suggest that the VR environment enhances user experiences, with results evidencing that a considered approach to colour design can trigger a positive impact on user engagement. The experiments further evaluated the positive effects of immersive colour stimuli in VR by evaluating participants’ logical and lateral thinking abilities, as well as their attention to detail. Their response time and error rate when completing each psychometric test were recorded with different hue backgrounds in both environments. The data collected from participants reveal the differential impacts of colour between the reality setting using standard colour imaging displays and in an approximately identical VR environment. Analysis of the psychometric tests shows the differential influence of colours on logical and lateral thinking abilities and people’s attention to detail between the physical environment and the VR environment. Our findings add to the data demonstrating that a well-designed immersive colour experience in VR can trigger positive user engagement and, as explored in this study, improve cognitive performance. This again positions immersive colour experience as an important design tool to be fully considered in the creation of effective VR research and applications.

A cybersickness review: causes, strategies, and classification methods

Virtual reality (VR) and head-­mounted displays are continually gaining popularity in various fields such as education, military, entertainment, and health. Although such technologies provide a high sense of immersion, they can also trigger symptoms of discomfort. This condition is called cybersickness (CS) and is quite popular in recent virtual reality research. In this work we first present a review of the literature on theories of discomfort manifestations usually attributed to virtual reality environments. Following, we reviewed existing strategies aimed at minimizing CS problems and discussed how the CS measurement has been conducted based on subjective, bio­signal (or objective), and users profile data. We also describe and discuss related works that are aiming to mitigate cybersickness problems using deep and symbolic machine learning approaches. Although some works used methods to make deep learning explainable, they are not strongly affirmed by literature. For this reason in this work we argue that symbolic classifiers can be a good way to identify CS causes, once they possibilities human-­readability which is crucial for analyze the machine learning decision paths. In summary, from a total of 157 observed studies, 24 were excluded. Moreover, we believe that this work facilitates researchers to identify the leading causes for most discomfort situations in virtual reality environments, associate the most recommended strategies to minimize such discomfort, and explore different ways to conduct experiments involving machine learning to overcome cybersickness.

Virtual Reality Research: Design Virtual Education System for Epidemic (COVID-19) Knowledge to Public

Advances in information and communication technologies have created a range of new products and services for the well-being of society. Virtual Reality (VR) technology has shown enormous potential in educational, commercial, and medical fields. The recent COVID-19 outbreak highlights a poor global performance in communicating epidemic knowledge to the public. Considering the potential of VR, the research starts from analyzing how to use VR technology to improve public education in COVID-19. The research uses Virtual Storytelling Technology (VST) to promote enthusiasm in user participation. A Plot-based VR education system is proposed in order to provide an immersive, explorative, educational experiences. The system includes three primary modules: the Tutorial Module, the Preparation Module, and the Investigation Module. To remove any potential confusion in the user, the research aims to avoid extremely complicated medical professional content and uses interactive, entertainment methods to improve user participation. In order to evaluate the performance efficiency of the system, we conducted performance evaluations and a user study with 80 participants. Compared with traditional education, the experimental results show that the VR education system can used as an effective educational tool for epidemic (COVID-19) fundamental knowledge. The VR technology can assist government agencies and public organizations to increase public understanding of the spread the epidemic (COVID-19).

DiVRsify: Break the Cycle and Develop VR for Everyone

Virtual reality technology is biased. It excludes approximately 95% of the world’s population by being primarily designed for male, western, educated, industrial, rich, and democratic populations. This bias may be due to the lack of diversity in virtual reality researchers, research participants, developers, and end users, fueling a noninclusive research, development, and usability cycle. The objective of this article is to highlight the minimal virtual reality research involving understudied populations with respect to dimensions of diversity, such as gender, race, culture, ethnicity, age, disability, and neurodivergence. Specifically, we highlight numerous differences in virtual reality usability between underrepresented groups compared to commonly studied populations. These differences illustrate the lack of generalizability of prior virtual reality research. Lastly, we present a call to action with the aim that, over time, will break the cycle and enable virtual reality for everyone.

LDA 토픽 모델링 기법을 적용한 관광분야의 가상현실(Virtual Reality) 연구 동향분석

The purpose of this study is to investigate research trends and major topics in the virtual reality research discussed from 1995 to 2021 in the tourism. In order to achieve the research purpose, abstracts of 77 papers published in SCIENCE DIRECT.COM, the leading online academic journal, and 1,585 extracted terms were derived and analyzed using topic modeling techniques.BR As a result of the analysis, a total of 6 topics were extracted, and the main topic labels were

Virtual reality adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic: A uses and gratifications perspective

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted all aspects of people's lives, including how we work, play, learn, exercise, and socialize. Virtual reality (VR) technology has the potential to mitigate many of the challenges brought about by the pandemic, which has spurred increased adoption. However, relatively low adoption overall and limited software still restrict the power of VR to address COVID-19 difficulties effectively. This study examines how the perceived impacts of COVID-19 might lead to different VR uses and gratifications and device ownership / variability. Furthermore, we investigate the importance of social interactivity within VR for increasing adoption intentions.We surveyed 298 Amazon Mechanical Turk users during the Fall of 2020. Results indicate that the pandemic's perceived impacts influenced the likelihood of acquiring VR for education, tourism, and work. For VR ownership and variability, those who purchased VR during the pandemic were more likely to report buying it for work. Those with access to high-end VR hardware were more likely to report a broader range of uses, including socializing, health, and telemedicine. Validating the importance of various applications during the pandemic, we found that the desire for social interactivity mediates the impacts of COVID-19 on future adoption intentions. Theoretically, we propose several gratifications sought via the use of VR during the pandemic. Practically, we discuss recommendations for future VR research, marketing, and software design.

Congruity of Virtual Reality In-Game Advertising.

With virtual reality (VR) video game users beginning to see beta advertisements within game play, this conceptual article adds a needed digital and interactive marketing research foundation to the new construct of VR in-game advertising (IGA) activation. New consumer VR technology continues to disrupt traditional media as a $7.7 billion USD industry, that is expected to reach $57.55 billion by 2027. As such, marketing researchers must continue to evolve and understand the interdisciplinary VR research evolution as many VR users are likely to view IGA as intrusive. IGA and VR are not new constructs, but IGA within VR is unique as VR consumers have not yet experienced VR IGA intrusion. This article utilizes a sport marketing focus to provide an industry specific set of examples for the reader, however this article can be applied to broader fields including communications and interactive marketing. The main contributions of this article are 2-fold. First the development of a VR In-Game Advertising Congruity Framework is developed through a review of the literature and application to VR IGA in the topical areas of congruity of the IGA, interactivity of the IGA, intrusiveness of the IGA, realism of the experience, telepresence, brand awareness, and attitude toward the IGA. Secondly, a proper VR context definition of telepresence is provided through review of the literature that takes into account the interaction of a VR participant. This article aims to aid marketers in making informed IGA development decisions through strategic choice, via a centralized VR IGA congruity framework, that not only enhances brand awareness, but leaves participants with a favorable attitude toward the IGA to increase sales activation.

A Meta-Review of Learning Research in Immersive Virtual Reality

Research and development in virtual reality (VR) continues to influence all sectors of society. This has been particularly the case in the application of VR for learning and training. Due to the affordability of VR, it increasingly is providing a safe and cost-effective technology for studying learning and training. In this paper, we summarize findings from recent compilations of research in virtual reality that examined VR and learning. From this, we identify a set of recommendations distilled from these reviews in order to help the training research community structure their research based upon the extent empirical base. Our goal is to help the training community more effectively explore VR as a technology for learning.

Learning Affordances: Theoretical Considerations for Design of Immersive Virtual Reality in Training and Education

Technological advances have led to a rapid increase in the implementation of virtual reality (VR) across multiple sectors of society. Further, we are seeing more researchers explore how the technology can be used to promote learning and training in a variety of domains. But there is a problematic gap between development of VR for training and education and learning theory to ensure its efficacy. We address this need by providing a theoretical lens through which to evaluate existing research in VR. We consider technology developments that have made VR more sophisticated and draw from research in the learning and cognitive sciences to evaluate their utility as learning affordances. With this, we examine existing research as a way to illustrate the practical value of theoretical evaluation. We conclude with a discussion how this theoretical framing can point the way for both better designed studies to accelerate learning and training as well as for more innovative adaptations for accelerating learning in immersive virtual reality.

Effects of Sensory Feedback and Collider Size on Reach-to-Grasp Coordination in Haptic-Free Virtual Reality

Technological advancements and increased access have prompted the adoption of head- mounted display based virtual reality (VR) for neuroscientific research, manual skill training, and neurological rehabilitation. Applications that focus on manual interaction within the virtual environment (VE), especially haptic-free VR, critically depend on virtual hand-object collision detection. Knowledge about how multisensory integration related to hand-object collisions affects perception-action dynamics and reach-to-grasp coordination is needed to enhance the immersiveness of interactive VR. Here, we explored whether and to what extent sensory substitution for haptic feedback of hand-object collision (visual, audio, or audiovisual) and collider size (size of spherical pointers representing the fingertips) influences reach-to-grasp kinematics. In Study 1, visual, auditory, or combined feedback were compared as sensory substitutes to indicate the successful grasp of a virtual object during reach-to-grasp actions. In Study 2, participants reached to grasp virtual objects using spherical colliders of different diameters to test if virtual collider size impacts reach-to-grasp. Our data indicate that collider size but not sensory feedback modality significantly affected the kinematics of grasping. Larger colliders led to a smaller size-normalized peak aperture. We discuss this finding in the context of a possible influence of spherical collider size on the perception of the virtual object’s size and hence effects on motor planning of reach-to-grasp. Critically, reach-to-grasp spatiotemporal coordination patterns were robust to manipulations of sensory feedback modality and spherical collider size, suggesting that the nervous system adjusted the reach (transport) component commensurately to the changes in the grasp (aperture) component. These results have important implications for research, commercial, industrial, and clinical applications of VR.

A Systematic Review of Virtual Reality Applications for Automated Driving: 2009–2020

While virtual reality (VR) interfaces have been researched extensively over the last decades, studies on their application in vehicles have only recently advanced. In this paper, we systematically review 12 years of VR research in the context of automated driving (AD), from 2009 to 2020. Due to the multitude of possibilities for studies with regard to VR technology, at present, the pool of findings is heterogeneous and non-transparent. We investigatedN= 176 scientific papers of relevant journals and conferences with the goal to analyze the status quo of existing VR studies in AD, and to classify the related literature into application areas. We provide insights into the utilization of VR technology which is applicable at specific level of vehicle automation and for different users (drivers, passengers, pedestrians) and tasks. Results show that most studies focused on designing automotive experiences in VR, safety aspects, and vulnerable road users. Trust, simulator and motion sickness, and external human-machine interfaces (eHMIs) also marked a significant portion of the published papers, however a wide range of different parameters was investigated by researchers. Finally, we discuss a set of open challenges, and give recommendation for future research in automated driving at the VR side of the reality-virtuality continuum.

Playing With Embodied Social Interaction: A Thematic Review of Experiments on Social Aspects in Gameful Virtual Reality

Abstract Recently, there has been a burgeoning of immersive virtual reality (VR) applications in a variety of shapes, including gameful social VR. Despite a longstanding tradition of studying social factors in gameful computing, this perspective in the specific experiences of VR is only gaining traction. This highly multidisciplinary area of interest is immensely complex with potential consequences on individuals and social groups alike. To aid in constituting and systematizing this area of research from the early days, this paper explores 14 state-of-art publications on experimental research of social aspects in gameful VR. These were analysed predominantly based on the included manipulations and the studied outcomes resulting in the extraction of five and seven thematic wholes, respectively. Finally, based on the findings, four broad avenues to consider were emphasized as suggested paths for a comprehensive future of embodied gameful social VR application and research across a variety of disciplines.

SEEING FROM THE USERS' EYES: AN OUTLOOK TO VIRTUAL-REALITY BASED EMPATHIC DESIGN RESEARCH

AbstractThe extent to which designers can understand users often determines the quality of design outcomes. A deep understanding of users allows the designers to focus on the right problem and make optimal design decisions, which encouraged designers to empathize with users. However, the current imagination-based empathizing strategy appears to be too susceptible to their previous experience and knowledge, which has been questioned concerning effectiveness and accuracy. On the other hand, Virtual Reality (VR) technology provides an opportunity for designers to gain experience-driven empathy by immersing them in a virtual environment that mimics the users' surroundings as if they are seeing the world from users' eyes. While abundant studies covered empathy VR and empathy for design, limited attention has been paid to the chance of bringing VR, empathy, and design research together. Addressing this gap, this study explored literature across domains, identified major concerns about this approach, synthesized the evidence, and discussed the feasibility and validity of the VR-based empathic design research approach.

The Potential of Virtual Reality in Social Skills Training for Autism: Bridging the Gap Between Research and Adoption of Virtual Reality in Occupational Therapy Practice

Impairments in social functioning greatly hinder children and youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from responding appropriately and adapting to various social situations. As a result, individuals with ASD get fewer opportunities for social inclusion, physical well-being, and forming interpersonal relationships. Virtual reality (VR) has been studied extensively in this area, where a large body of evidence shows that VR is a promising tool for social skills training (SST) in individuals with ASD. With the flexibility and projected effectiveness that VR offers, it can provide more opportunities to learn and practice strategies for recognizing daily challenges that involve forming social relationships and associated reasoning. This paper discusses the gap between the effectiveness of VR-based SST and its adoption in occupational therapy (OT) practice. There is a significant dearth of resources for the development of occupational therapists to effectively administer these interventions. Such resources that summarize empirically supported VR interventions to teach social skills to people with autism would be very valuable in training therapists who wish to employ them. Using theory-driven approaches, this paper intends to empower occupational therapists in becoming efficient and confident in using this technology for addressing social skills deficits in people with ASD.

Taking ‘A walk through dementia’: exploring care home practitioners’ experiences of using a virtual reality tool to support dementia awareness

AbstractEmerging research has outlined the possibility for virtual reality (VR) experiences, which situate users into the perspective of someone living with dementia, to enhance dementia awareness. Currently, there is limited VR research that engages care home practitioners. It is imperative this population has high levels of dementia education given their requirements to provide care and support to residents, many of whom will be living with the condition. This paper reports on an exploratory qualitative study designed to elicit the experiences of care home practitioners who engaged with the VR application: ‘A walk through dementia’. Twenty practitioners, across four care homes in the United Kingdom, watched the VR scenarios and provided their views on the experience and the potential for the VR tool to be developed into a wider training programme to support dementia awareness. Data were collected via focus group discussions. Following an inductive thematic analysis, we constructed three themes. These suggested participants perceived the VR application offered them aconvincing and immersive experiencethat wasinsightful and evocative, and provided‘next-level’ dementia-awareness trainingthat enabled them to reflect on care practices. Although the findings highlight important challenges for practitioners and developers wishing to use VR within dementia care, they suggest this application may be an engaging experiential learning tool that can provide care home staff with deeper cognitive and emotional awareness of living with dementia. Further work, drawing on these preliminary insights, is required to ensure the VR tool can be incorporated into a training programme that can positively contribute to the ‘dementia-friendly communities’ agenda.

HMD-Based Virtual and Augmented Reality in Medical Education: A Systematic Review

Background: Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies provide a novel experiential learning environment that can revolutionize medical education. These technologies have limitless potential as they provide in effect an infinite number of anatomical models to aid in foundational medical education. The 3D teaching models used within these environments are generated from medical data such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT), which can be dissected and regenerated without limitations.Methods: A systematic review was carried out for existing articles until February 11, 2020, in EMBASE, PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, Cochrane Reviews, CNKI, and OneSearch (University College Dublin Library) using the following search terms: (Virtual Reality OR Augmented Reality OR mixed reality) AND [“head-mounted” OR “face-mounted” OR “helmet-mounted” OR “head-worn” OR oculus OR vive OR HTC OR hololens OR “smart glasses” OR headset AND (training OR teaching OR education)] AND (anatomy OR anatomical OR medicine OR medical OR clinic OR clinical OR surgery OR surgeon OR surgical) AND (trial OR experiment OR study OR randomized OR randomised OR controlled OR control) NOT (rehabilitation OR recovery OR treatment) NOT (“systematic review” OR “review of literature” OR “literature review”). PRISMA guidelines were adhered to in reporting the results. All studies that examined people who are or were medical-related (novel or expert users) were included.Result: The electronic searches generated a total of 1,241 studies. After removing duplicates, 848 remained. Of those, 801 studies were excluded because the studies did not meet the criteria after reviewing the abstract. The full text of the remaining 47 studies was reviewed. After applying inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria, a total of 17 studies (1,050 participants) were identified for inclusion in the review.Conclusion: The systematic review provides the current state of the art on head-mounted device applications in medical education. Moreover, the study discusses trends toward the future and directions for further research in head-mounted VR and AR for medical education.

Circular Economy and Virtual Reality in Advanced BIM-Based Prefabricated Construction

This paper presents a new virtual reality (VR)-based approach to advanced learnings and experiences of the circular economy (CE) in the construction industry. The approach involves incorporating game design and a building information modelling (BIM) digital twin of a purposed CE prototype building. Our novel approach introduces VR environments designed to provide a visual representation of materials and components that can be reintroduced into the supply chain at the end of life and their removal procedures and material provenance. A case study methodology was applied to a purposely designed CE building, namely the Legacy Living Lab (L3). To reflect the real-life building, L3’s BIM model was combined with Unify game software to advance the literature in three key areas. First, the research investigates VR tools that will allow building designers to view and implement their strategies to advance CE design. Second, this research proposes an advanced VR tool to visualise the bill of quantities (BoQ) and material stock embedded in the studied building, further understanding concepts such as buildings as material banks. Finally, the proposed VR environment defines CE techniques implemented within the case study to be disseminated across the vast construction industry. This VR research identifies three key pillars in reducing the waste generated by the construction industry: education, documentation and visualisation. Furthermore, this paper provides a visual link between the BIM, BoQ and resiliency of the selected materials.

Test-retest reliability and practice effects of the virtual environment grocery store (VEGS)

ABSTRACT Introduction The use of virtual reality (VR) technology has been suggested as a method to increase ecological validity in neuropsychological assessments. Although validity has been a focus in VR research, little attention has been paid to other psychometric properties such as test-retest reliability and practice effects. Practice effects are common on traditional neuropsychological tests and can be impacted by novelty. Because VR is not widely used it was expected that participants would demonstrate higher practice effects on VR as compared to paper-and-pencil testing. Method To compare test-retest reliability and practice effects in VR and traditional paper-and-pencil testing, the Virtual Environment Grocery Store (VEGS) and California Verbal Learning Test – Second Edition (CVLT-II) were used in healthy adults (n = 44). Participants received follow-up testing approximately 2 weeks after the initial visit. Results Significant practice effects of similar magnitude were seen on memory scores (i.e., total learning, long-delay free recall, and long-delay cued recall) on the VEGS and the CVLT-II. The VEGS and CVLT-II memory scores also demonstrated strong test-retest reliability (r’s > .71). Lastly, total learning scores (d = .32) and long-delay cued recall (d = .70) scores were significantly higher on the CVLT-II compared to the VEGS (p’s < .01). Conclusions Results suggested similar test-retest reliability and practice effects of the VEGS and CVLT-II, although the VEGS has the benefit of being an immersive technology that simulates an everyday activity. The study replicated past findings that the VEGS is more difficult than the CVLT-II which may be a useful property for clinical assessment.

Near-body Interaction Enhancement with Distance Perception Matching in Immersive Virtual Environment

As recent virtual reality technologies provide a more natural three-dimensional interactive environment, users naturally learn to explore space and interact with synthetic objects. The virtual reality researcher develops a technique that realizes realistic sensory feedback to get appropriate feedback to sense input behavior. Although much recent virtual reality research works extensively consider the human factor, it is not easy to adapt to all new virtual environment contents. Among many human factors, distance perception has been treated as very important in virtual environment interaction accuracy. We study the experiential virtual environment with the feature of the virtual object connected with the real object. We divide the three-dimensional interaction, in which distance perception and behavior have a significant influence, into two types (whole-body movement and direct manipulation) and analyze the real and virtual visual distance perception heterogeneity phenomenon. Also, we propose a statistical correction method that can reduce a near-body movement and manipulation error when changing the interaction location and report the experiment results proving its effectiveness.

Multi-Detailed 3D Architectural Framework for Sound Perception Research in Virtual Reality

The presentation of architectural design in simulation environments demands strong 3D modeling abilities. Architects usually demonstrate presentation skills that mostly address researchers in the building simulation field. However, there is still a gap between the architect’s deliverable and the contextual scenario for overarching research purposes, mainly caused by the lack of knowledge in the areas where research disciplines overlap. This dilemma is particularly present in the practice of 3D modeling for sound perception research in virtual reality since the building modelers must also gather diverse pieces of knowledge into a contained scenario: ranging from sound sources, sound propagation models to physically based material models. Grounded on this need, this article presents a comprehensive framework, defined by the visual and acoustic cues—geometries, materials, sources, receivers, and postprocessing—on one side and three levels of detail on the other. In this way, very specific research application needs can be covered, as well as a modular concept for future modeling demands. The interconnection between every model element is particularly designed, enabling the assembly among different modalities at different levels of detail. Finally, it provides targeted modeling strategies for architects, depicted in one indoor and one outdoor demonstration for auditory-visual research.