Use Of Immersive Virtual Environments Research Articles

Immersive Learning Frameworks: A Systematic Literature Review

<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Contribution</i> : This secondary study examines the literature on immersive learning frameworks and reviews their state of the art. Frameworks have been categorized according to their purpose. In addition, the elements that compose them were also categorized. Some gaps were identified and proposed as a research roadmap. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Background</i> : Immersive technologies for education have been used for some years. Despite this, there are few works that aim to support the development and use of virtual environments for immersive learning. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Research Questions</i> : This systematic review has the following main research question: What is the state of the art of immersive learning frameworks? In order to answer this question, secondary research questions were defined: 1) what definitions of immersive learning were adopted in primary studies? 2) what are the types of frameworks and how do they support immersive learning? 3) what are the elements that compose the frameworks? 4) what are the methods used to validate the frameworks? <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Methodology</i> : As per the systematic review guidelines, this study followed a rigorous and replicable process for collecting and analyzing data. From 1721 articles identified in the search engines, 15 were selected after the inclusion and exclusion criteria. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Findings</i> : Most frameworks are models that investigate the causal relationship between immersive learning factors that influence learning outcomes. Although this theoretical aspect is important for the advancement of research, the area still lacks more practical frameworks that address more technical details and support development, as well as the use of immersive virtual environments by teachers and instructors.

Crossed Effect of Acoustics on Thermal Comfort and Productivity in Workplaces: A Case Study in Virtual Reality

During the last decades, virtual reality (VR) has been devoted to supporting research in the architecture, engineering, and construction sectors because of its ability to provide multisensory three-dimensional (3D) environments. However, the use of immersive virtual environments (IVEs) in the design of the built environment is still in its infancy, and it is limited to visually designed spaces. In addition, a fundamental challenge lies in improving the sense of hearing. The effective simulation of the built environment with an overall realistic perception will support designers when identifying the influence of design decisions and building acoustics on individuals, therefore, properly designing acoustic strategies. In this study, five disrupting sound sources were selected to create a binaural soundtrack that was integrated within a virtual office environment to evaluate the effectiveness of the model (i.e., ecological validity) and the effects of acoustics on user comfort and cognitive performance (i.e., criterion validity). Independent measure design research was employed. In total, 104 participants performed working memory, inhibition, and task-switching tests under quiet (Q) or noise (N) conditions when the indoor air temperature remained constant. The results showed that the modeled virtual office created an excellent level of presence and immersivity with no significant cybersickness disorders (i.e., ecological validity). Ambient noise disrupted work efficiency with a relevant decrease in performance in each cognitive test (i.e., criterion validity). The sound environment was assessed as uncomfortable, chaotic, and boring. In addition, it negatively impacted the subjects’ thermal comfort vote (TCV). These results suggested the adequacy of IVE when providing an accurate representation of the variables measured; therefore, it supported effective user-centered design analysis and strategies.

Immersive virtual environments and embodied agents for e-learning applications.

Massive Open Online Courses are a dominant force in remote-learning yet suffer from persisting problems stemming from lack of commitment and low completion rates. In this initial study we investigate how the use of immersive virtual environments for Power-Point based informational learning may benefit learners and mimic traditional lectures successfully. We examine the role of embodied agent tutors which are frequently implemented within virtual learning environments. We find similar performance on a bespoke knowledge test and metrics for motivation, satisfaction, and engagement by learners in both real and virtual environments, regardless of embodied agent tutor presence. Our results raise questions regarding the viability of using virtual environments for remote-learning paradigms, and we emphasise the need for further investigation to inform the design of effective remote-learning applications.

Immersive Virtual Environments in Organizational Routines of an Architectural Office

Popularized under the name of virtual reality (VR), virtual environments (VEs) are increasingly gaining traction. However, current research on immersive VEs has focused mainly on the individual level, overshadowing the organizational context, while black-boxing the technology that facilitates the immersive VEs (i.e. head-mounted displays). Hence, we draw on a longitudinal case study to investigate the interaction between head-mounted displays and organizational routines. Employing insights from organizational routines and Leonardi’s (2011) imbrication lens we demonstrate how head-mounted displays interact with organizational routines. We highlight the materiality of immersive VEs and provide an alternative explanation for why immersive technologies are not used more frequently. We also identify negative and positive consequences of the use of immersive VEs on architectural organizations.

Using Immersive Virtual Environments (IVEs) to Conduct Environmental Design Research: A Primer and Decision Framework.

We propose a methodological framework to use immersive virtual environments (IVEs) in head-mounted displays for environmental design research. IVEs offer researchers with experimental control and realistic representations of environments with high levels of ecological validity. IVEs are also increasingly being used to visualize proposed designs. Despite these tremendous benefits, IVEs are underutilized in environmental design research. We are unaware of preexisting frameworks that synthesize the methodological decisions related to the use of IVEs to conduct environmental design research. We define the concepts necessary to conduct IVE research (virtual reality [VR], IVEs, ecological validity, visual realism, behavioral realism, and contextual realism). We also summarize the available study designs (correlational studies, experimental studies, and performance evaluations) and software systems used to create IVEs. We conclude with a conceptual framework that describes how research questions and study designs inform IVE selection and ecological validity. This framework is accompanied by a workflow that operationalizes the creation and use of IVEs in research. VR provides a robust and innovative research strategy for environmental design research because of its high degree of experimental control, rich data collection options, and opportunities for systematic evaluation of alternative design configurations.

Navigation Comparison between a Real and a Virtual Museum: Time-dependent Differences using a Head Mounted Display

Abstract The validity of environmental simulations depends on their capacity to replicate responses produced in physical environments. However, very few studies validate navigation differences in immersive virtual environments, even though these can radically condition space perception and therefore alter the various evoked responses. The objective of this paper is to validate environmental simulations using 3D environments and head-mounted display devices, at behavioural level through navigation. A comparison is undertaken between the free exploration of an art exhibition in a physical museum and a simulation of the same experience. As a first perception validation, the virtual museum shows a high degree of presence. Movement patterns in both ‘museums’ show close similarities, and present significant differences at the beginning of the exploration in terms of the percentage of area explored and the time taken to undertake the tours. Therefore, the results show there are significant time-dependent differences in navigation patterns during the first 2 minutes of the tours. Subsequently, there are no significant differences in navigation in physical and virtual museums. These findings support the use of immersive virtual environments as empirical tools in human behavioural research at navigation level. Research highlights The latest generation HMDs show a high degree of presence. There are significant differences in navigation patterns during the first 2 minutes of a tour. Adaptation time need to be considered in future research. Training rooms need to be realistic, to avoid the ‘wow’ effect in the main experiment. Results support the use of Virtual Reality and the latest HMDs as empirical tools in human behavioural research at navigation level.

Affective computing in virtual reality: emotion recognition from brain and heartbeat dynamics using wearable sensors

Affective Computing has emerged as an important field of study that aims to develop systems that can automatically recognize emotions. Up to the present, elicitation has been carried out with non-immersive stimuli. This study, on the other hand, aims to develop an emotion recognition system for affective states evoked through Immersive Virtual Environments. Four alternative virtual rooms were designed to elicit four possible arousal-valence combinations, as described in each quadrant of the Circumplex Model of Affects. An experiment involving the recording of the electroencephalography (EEG) and electrocardiography (ECG) of sixty participants was carried out. A set of features was extracted from these signals using various state-of-the-art metrics that quantify brain and cardiovascular linear and nonlinear dynamics, which were input into a Support Vector Machine classifier to predict the subject’s arousal and valence perception. The model’s accuracy was 75.00% along the arousal dimension and 71.21% along the valence dimension. Our findings validate the use of Immersive Virtual Environments to elicit and automatically recognize different emotional states from neural and cardiac dynamics; this development could have novel applications in fields as diverse as Architecture, Health, Education and Videogames.

Pictobot: A Cooperative Painting Robot for Interior Finishing of Industrial Developments

Human-robot collaboration (HRC) [1], [2] is a vastly developing field in diverse industries such as health care [3], industrial assembly [4], search and rescue, home service [5], and construction [6], [7]. Many researchers believe that robots will enhance human workers, not replace them, as they do not have the same capability to evaluate and correct their work in real time. Lee [8] introduces case studies on glazing robot technology for installing glass panels on construction sites. A human-robot dialogue system [9] has been developed in joint-action science and technology to solve a construction task collaboratively with a human. The use of immersive virtual environments is also reported in [10] to evaluate human trust and perceived safety in response to robot actions during a collaborative construction. Deploying robots in collaboration with humans is seen as an enabler of major changes in construction productivity for various tasks, such as interior finishing.

Playing for a Virtual Audience: The Impact of a Social Factor on Gestures, Sounds and Expressive Intents

Can we measure the impact of the presence of an audience on musicians’ performances? By exploring both acoustic and motion features for performances in Immersive Virtual Environments (IVEs), this study highlights the impact of the presence of a virtual audience on both the performance and the perception of authenticity and emotional intensity by listeners. Gestures and sounds produced were impacted differently when musicians performed at different expressive intents. The social factor made features converge towards values related to a habitual way of playing regardless of the expressive intent. This could be due to musicians’ habits to perform in a certain way in front of a crowd. On the listeners’ side, when comparing different expressive conditions, only one congruent condition (projected expressive intent in front of an audience) boosted the participants’ ratings for both authenticity and emotional intensity. At different values for kinetic energy and metrical centroid, stimuli recorded with an audience showed a different distribution of ratings, challenging the ecological validity of artificially created expressive intents. Finally, this study highlights the use of IVEs as a research tool and a training assistant for musicians who are eager to learn how to cope with their anxiety in front of an audience.

Use of immersive virtual environments for occupant behaviour monitoring and data collection

With the recent advancements in the field of virtual reality, occupants can now be immersed into virtual built environments, where they have the ability to visualize and interact with the environment. Researchers also have the ability to collect and observe various behavioural choices impacting performance of built environments (e.g. shading control, lighting preferences, use of appliances, etc.) in such environments. They can further create realistic occupant-related models for more accurate building performance simulation (BPS). This paper identifies the benefits and limitations of using immersive virtual environments (IVEs) for collecting and modelling occupant behaviours while highlighting how such information could improve BPS results. Furthermore, a number of lessons learned and best practices for designing IVE-based experiments, current shortcomings of such environments, and future research opportunities for adopting such technologies towards improving building design and operations, specifically for BPS purposes, are discussed in detail.

Lights, building, action: Impact of default lighting settings on occupant behaviour

Occupant behaviour and their interactions with building systems could significantly influence energy consumption in buildings. Studies suggest “default setting” techniques could be used as intervention strategies as people's preferences are dramatically influenced by minor variations in settings. With the goal to reduce lighting-related energy consumption, we studied the effects of default lighting settings on occupants' rate of lighting adjustments in a single occupancy office space. Through the use of immersive virtual environments, we analysed 160 participants' data in a virtual office space. Based on the results, people are significantly more likely to keep the lighting settings if the default condition had some or maximum daylighting available. Additionally, the participants reading speed and comprehension were respectively faster and more accurate in conditions where simulated daylight was available. By using default settings, we can influence occupant behaviour towards more energy efficient choices in their daily interactions with building's lighting and shading systems.

Visual Signaling in a High-Search Virtual World-based Assessment: A SAVE Science Design Study

Education policy in the United States centers K-12 assessment efforts primarily on standardized tests. However, such tests may not provide an accurate and reliable representation of what students understand about the complexity of science. Research indicates that students tend to pass science tests, even if they do not understand the concepts being assessed. On standardized tests, such concepts are typically assessed via multiple-choice questions, which may check student receptive understanding of science-related vocabulary terms rather than their ability to develop hypotheses and design experiments to test those hypotheses. In an attempt to address these assessment issues, our SAVE Science project has been exploring the use of immersive virtual environments as platforms for both learning and assessment. SAVE Science (Situated Assessment in Virtual Environments for Science Content and Inquiry) is an NSF-funded study exploring the use of virtual world-based tests to assess the science knowledge and skill of middle school students. The main goal of SAVE Science is to explore the value of virtual world-based assessments as supplements or alternatives to more traditional forms of assessment. In pursuit of that goal, we are examining design frameworks designed to help students manage the high cognitive load they may experience while completing the tests. In this paper, we present results from a study exploring the use of visual signaling techniques in virtual world-based assessments, with a particular focus on their use and impact in visually complex, high visual search environments. The study focused on the use of visual signaling to reduce perceived student cognitive load, while simultaneously increasing the number of interactions students perform with assessment-relevant objects in a virtual world (assessment efficiency).

Mapping Social Interactions: The Science of Proxemics.

Interpersonal distance and gaze provide a wealth of information during face-to-face social interactions. These "proxemic" behaviors offer a window into everyday social cognition by revealing interactants' affective states (e.g., interpersonal attitudes) and cognitive responses (e.g., social attention). Here we provide a brief overview of the social psychological literature in this domain. We focus on new techniques for experimentally manipulating and measuring proxemics, including the use of immersive virtual environments and digital motion capture. We also discuss ways in which these approaches can be integrated with psychophysiological and neuroimaging techniques. Throughout, we argue that contemporary proxemics research provides psychology and neuroscience with a means to study social cognition and behavior as they naturally emerge and unfold in vivo.

Problem-based learning spanning real and virtual words: a case study in Second Life

There is a growing use of immersive virtual environments for educational purposes. However, much of this activity is not yet documented in the public domain, or is descriptive rather than analytical. This paper presents a case study in which university students were tasked with building an interactive learning experience using Second Life as a platform. Both problem-based learning and constructionism acted as framing pedagogies for the task, with students working in teams to design and build a learning experience which could potentially meet the needs of a real client in innovative ways which might not be possible in real life. A process account of the experience is provided, which examines how the pedagogies and contexts (real and virtual) influence and enhance each other. The use of a virtual environment, combined with problem-based learning and constructionism, subtly changed the nature of the instructor–student relationship, allowed students to explore ‘problematic problems’ in a motivating and relevant manner, provided students with greater ownership over their work, and allowed problems to be set which were flexible, but at the same time allowed for ease of assessment.Keywords: Second Life; problem-based learning; Immersive Virtual WorldsDOI: 10.1080/09687760802526681

Do the Physical Characteristics of a Virtual Reality Device Contraindicate Its Use for Balance Assessment?

Virtual reality environments may allow researchers to investigate functional balance performance without risks associated with testing in the real world. To investigate the effects of the mass of a head-mounted display (HMD) on balance performance. Counterbalanced pretest-posttest. Virtual reality laboratory. 20 healthy college students. Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) with a tracker-only headband and again with tracker plus HMD was performed. BESS error scores, elliptical sway area, and center of pressure travel distance were recorded. No effect of the HMD mass on balance performance was observed. A significant stance by surface interaction was present but was negated when the HMD conditions were included in the model. The mass of a HMD has not been proven to adversely affect balance performance. These data suggest the HMD mass is not a contraindication to the use of immersive virtual environments in future concussion research involving balance.

Too Real? The Future of Virtual Reality Evidence

Immersive virtual environments (IVEs), or virtual reality, could soon follow other visual technologies from the culture at large to the courtroom. The unprecedented realism of IVEs may be thought to pose peculiar risks of prejudice and confusion that would militate against their use as demonstrative evidence. In particular, some believe that jurors will be unable to distinguish IVEs from reality, and that IVEs are so involving that they will transform jurors from disinterested judges of, into witnesses to, or even participants in, litigated events, impairing their objectivity. This article analyzes these concerns and shows them to be overstated. The article also discusses other judgmental risks and benefits presented by the use of IVEs in court, and concludes that the admissibility of IVE evidence should be determined on a case‐by‐case basis.

Immersive Virtual Reality for Reducing Experimental Ischemic Pain

This study explored the novel use of immersive virtual environments as a nonpharmacologic pain control technique and whether it works for both men and women. Fourteen female and 8 male students underwent pain induced via a blood pressure cuff ischemia lasting 10 min or less. Pain ratings increased significantly every 2 min during the no distraction phase (0 to 8 min) and dropped dramatically during the last 2 min period when participants were in the virtual environment (a 59% drop for women and a 41% drop for men). Five visual analog pain scores for each treatment condition served as the primary dependent variables. All 22 participants reported a drop in pain in the virtual environment, and the magnitude of pain reduction from the virtual environment was large (a 52% drop) and statistically significant. This is the first study to show immersive virtual environment distraction is also effective for women. The results show that virtual environments can function as a strong nonpharmacologic pain reduction technique, showing the same pattern of results obtained from recent clinical studies using virtual environments with burn patients during physical therapy. Practical applications of virtual environment pain reduction, and the value of a multidisciplinary approach to studying pain are discussed.

没入型仮想空間における奥行き知覚誤差の計測と補正

Immersive projection displays like CAVE systems are essential for creating immersive virtual environments (VEs). However, they induce depth perception errors that depend on the direction of view. This prevents the use of immersive VEs in various fields. We created a typical immersive VE and measured the depth perception errors. Using this experimental environment, we focused on the contradiction in depth information between that given by the viewer's congestion and that given by the viewer's focus. Our measurement results clarified the effect of this contradiction and the characteristics of depth perception errors in immersive VEs. We also tested error correction polynomial fitting using correction tables. The correction table calculated using the measured data was effective in correcting depth perception errors.

３次元映像情報メディア技術 没入形仮想空間における視覚的ぼけ情報の導入とその効果

Many immersive projection displays like the CAVE (CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment) system have been developed. These systems can realize highly immersive virtual environments, and the utililation of these virtual environments is expected in various fields. However, there are many problems regarding the practical use of immersive virtual environments. Depth perception errors are especially serious for interactive applications in immersive virtual environments. In this paper, we provide a view-dependent focal blur effect in immersive virtual environments and examine its effects on depth perception and sense of reality of virtual environments. The effect is synchronized with viewing direction, and it can generate natural blur effect in one's field of view. We show experimentally that the focal blur effect enables us to perceive depth informations accurately, and enhances the sense of reality of virtual environments.

Lessons Learned From 600 Virtual Reality Sessions

The Center for Advanced Multimedia Psychotherapy at the California School of Professional Psychology in San Diego was established to conduct research and provide clinical treatment to persons with phobias and other mental health disorders by using virtual environments as an adjunct to traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy. Observations made over the course of 600 virtual reality sessions are discussed in this article. Physiological and self-report data collected during treatment support the effectiveness of virtual reality exposure as a useful adjunct in the treatment of phobias. The use of immersive virtual environments appears to augment treatment success through the construct of presence.