User Experience In Virtual Reality Research Articles

Current Perceptions of Virtual Reality Technology

User experience is a key predictor of future use of goods and services. The presented study collected a combination of qualitative and quantitative data from both experienced users and novices about their perceptions of virtual reality (VR) equipment, any concerns surrounding the data collected by the equipment, and facets that needed to be taken into consideration for future developments. The purpose of this research was to understand the current user experience of VR and ways in which it can be improved. The findings indicated that the majority of people have used VR, albeit infrequently, and that the most common use for it was for entertainment purposes. The most important characteristics of VR systems were judged to be the available content and price. While it was reported to be enjoyable to use, the ways in which it was suggested to be improved were through a reduction in size and weight of the headsets, and incorporating wireless capabilities. Concerns about the use of VR were the potential for sickness, discomfort, and eye strain, the disconnect from the real world and the subsequent risks that this poses, as well as the use and privacy of user data. The findings from this research can be used as a stepping stone toward the advancement of VR technologies.

Digitization of myth: The HimmapanVR Project's role in cultural preservation

This study investigates the visitor experience at the '3D HimmapanVR' virtual museum, which focuses on the preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage related to Thai mythical entities, specifically the Himmapan animals. Despite their cultural significance, information about these creatures is limited and fragmented. The HimmapanVR initiative aims to mitigate this issue by establishing a virtual museum that curates and exhibits these entities via a virtual reality (VR) platform, thus enhancing their accessibility, educational value, and conservation. The project entails the digitization of artwork, the creation of 3D models of archaeological artifacts, and the utilization of digital paintings and animations to depict the three primary and fifteen subsidiary types of Himmapan creatures. The hypothesis posits that the virtual museum will influence users' Effort Expectancy (EE), Performance Expectancy (PE), and the perceived authenticity of the archaeological objects. Data collected from 30 participants indicate that the virtual museum effectively augments knowledge and engenders a sense of authenticity. However, enhancing the VR user experience remains a challenge. Conclusively, this study presents the inaugural virtual museum dedicated to Himmapan animals, which occupy an essential niche in Thai cultural heritage. To date, no existing physical or virtual museum offers an exhaustive compilation and presentation of various Himmapan creatures, a gap this project endeavors to fill.

Comparative Analysis of User Experience in Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) Systems Using Eye-Tracking Measurements

Comparative Analysis of User Experience in Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) Systems Using Eye-Tracking Measurements

CAEVR: Biosignals-Driven Context-Aware Empathy in Virtual Reality.

There is little research on how Virtual Reality (VR) applications can identify and respond meaningfully to users' emotional changes. In this paper, we investigate the impact of Context-Aware Empathic VR (CAEVR) on the emotional and cognitive aspects of user experience in VR. We developed a real-time emotion prediction model using electroencephalography (EEG), electrodermal activity (EDA), and heart rate variability (HRV) and used this in personalized and generalized models for emotion recognition. We then explored the application of this model in a context-aware empathic (CAE) virtual agent and an emotion-adaptive (EA) VR environment. We found a significant increase in positive emotions, cognitive load, and empathy toward the CAE agent, suggesting the potential of CAEVR environments to refine user-agent interactions. We identify lessons learned from this study and directions for future work.

가상현실을 활용한 교육의 해외 연구동향 분석

Objectives This study collected researches on the educational use of virtual reality published in international journals, investigated recent research trends using text mining technique, and sought to explore future research directions.
 Methods For this purpose, abstracts of 1986 documents included in the Web of Science database from 2013 to 2022 were extracted and performed topic modeling using Latent Dirichlet Allocation. Also the changing trends of each topic by year were analyzed.
 Results As a result of the study, first, it is confirmed that words related to the positive effects and application areas of virtual reality in education, such as ‘present’, ‘immers’, ‘activ’, ‘practic’, ‘univers’, ‘school’, ‘project’, ‘content’, ‘object’, ‘engag’, ‘social’, ‘scienc’, ‘languag’, and ‘motiv’, were included in the top rankings. Second, the main topics are ‘use of virtual reality in language and science learning in school and university’, ‘potential of virtual reality as a learning tool in response to social changes’, ‘development and design of virtual reality simulators for engineering and technical training’, ‘research on the learning effects and user experience of virtual reality in pre-medical education’, and ‘research on spatial and motor skills enhancement in 3D learning environments’. Lastly, recent research topics show great interest in pre-medical education and training in spatial and motor skills, while research on the use of virtual reality in language and science education and its potential as a learning tool show a decreasing trend.
 Conclusions Based on these results, there is a need for more in-depth research focused on learning outcomes, such as learners' psychological learning aspects and instructional design strategies, considering the quantitative increase in researches related to the educational use of virtual reality. Furthermore, it seems necessary to explore new insights into the use of virtual reality by referring to previous studies overseas, especially the rapidly increasing results in the fields of medicine and spatial and motor skills training.

Pragmatic and hedonic aspects of user experience in Virtual Reality: analysis of novice users’ information mediation during their first interaction with a Metaverse platform

The topic of virtual and extended reality has increasingly captured the interest of developers who aim to widely adopt it among the general population. Over the last five years, significant investments in this field have brought the term “Metaverse” back into discussions as a potential ideal for social interaction within virtual environments. This paper aims to contextualize the Metaverse and its potentialities by investigating its relation to new users from a UX (user experience) design perspective. This work aims to understand the pragmatic and hedonic aspects of user experience and information mediation of novice users during their first interaction with a Metaverse application. To achieve this, we selected six users and analyzed their first interactions within the popular digital platform called “VRchat”. For data analysis, we used a method inspired by Marc Hassenzahl’s AttrakDiff tool and investigated the interactions based on three main aspects: interactivity, immersion, and self-identification. As a result, we noticed a positive impression of virtual reality (VR) on user experience after immersion. We also observed some UI (user interface) solutions that are functional, and others that are not, in an immersive interface. Based on these findings, we propose some hypotheses for solution paths to enhance these three aspects of the Metaverse experience.

An empirical study on user experience evaluation of VR interface in digital museums

Virtual reality (VR) has been increasingly introduced to digital museums to enable more immersive experiences. However, there is a lack of comprehensive evaluation for user experience in VR-based digital museums. A comprehensive framework for evaluating user experience of VR interfaces in digital museums was created. Based on this framework, the study conducted an experiment to investigate learning effectiveness in VR-based digital museums and compared user experience on desktop and mobile devices. A total of 45 participants were recruited. They were asked to visit a digital museum on either a desktop or a mobile device. After they completed their visit, they took a recognition test and a recall test to measure their effectiveness of learning. Their user experience was evaluated using a new scale, followed by an open-ended interview to collect their opinions and feedback. It was found that introducing VR to the digital museum helped increase users’ effectiveness of learning. Significant differences existed between the desktop and mobile VR interfaces in user experience. It means that previous research findings cannot be directly applied to the user experience of digital museums on mobile. These empirical evidences also suggest that the established framework is effective for evaluating the user experience in VR-based digital museums.

Exploring the Privacy Risks of Adversarial VR Game Design

Fifty study participants playtested an innocent-looking "escape room" game in virtual reality (VR). Within just a few minutes, an adversarial program had accurately inferred over 25 of their personal data attributes, from anthropometrics like height and wingspan to demographics like age and gender. As notoriously data-hungry companies become increasingly involved in VR development, this experimental scenario may soon represent a typical VR user experience. Since the Cambridge Analytica scandal of 2018, adversarially-designed gamified elements have been known to constitute a significant privacy threat in conventional social platforms. In this work, we present a case study of how metaverse environments can similarly be adversarially constructed to covertly infer dozens of personal data attributes from seemingly-anonymous users. While existing VR privacy research largely focuses on passive observation, we argue that because individuals subconsciously reveal personal information via their motion in response to specific stimuli, active attacks pose an outsized risk in VR environments.

Piecewise: A Non-Isomorphic 3D Manipulation Technique That Factors Upper-Limb Ergonomics

Virtual reality (VR) is gaining popularity as an educational, training, and healthcare tool due to its decreasing cost. Because of the high user variability in terms of ergonomics, 3D manipulation techniques (3DMTs) for 3D user interfaces (3DUIs) must be adjustable for comfort and usability, hence avoiding interactions that only function for the typical user. Given the role of the upper limb (i.e., arm, forearm, and hands) in interacting with virtual objects, research has led to the development of 3DMTs for facilitating isomorphic (i.e., an equal translation of controller movement) and non-isomorphic (i.e., adjusted controller visuals in VR) interactions. Although advances in 3DMTs have been proven to facilitate VR interactions, user variability has not been addressed in terms of ergonomics. This work introduces Piecewise, an upper-limb-customized non-isomorphic 3DMT for 3DUIs that accounts for user variability by incorporating upper-limb ergonomics and comfort range of motion. Our research investigates the effects of upper-limb ergonomics on time completion, skipped objects, percentage of reach, upper-body lean, engagement, and presence levels in comparison to common 3DMTs, such as normal (physical reach), object translation, and reach-bounded non-linear input amplification (RBNLIA). A 20-person within-subjects study revealed that upper-limb ergonomics influence the execution and perception of tasks in virtual reality. The proposed Piecewise approach ranked second behind the RBNLIA method, although all 3DMTs were evaluated as usable, engaging, and favorable in general. The implications of our research are significant because upper-limb ergonomics can affect VR performance for a broader range of users as the technology becomes widely available and adopted for accessibility and inclusive design, providing opportunities to provide additional customizations that can affect the VR user experience.

Effects of user factors on user experience in virtual reality: age, gender, and VR experience as influencing factors for VR exergames

As virtual reality (VR) technology is extensively developing in past years, more and more people are using it in different fields. One of the fast-developing areas in VR is exergaming, a combination of physical exercise and a game. VR exergames that aim to engage people in physical activity should look and feel good for users regardless of their age, gender, or their previous VR experience with similar technologies. However, recent studies showed that those factors are influencing the user experience (UX) with virtual reality. Building on top of the initial study that has reported on the effect of human influencing factors for exergaming, with this work, we investigated the influence of user parameters (such as age, gender, and previous VR experience) on their motivation for sports and VR exergaming. The study was done using a crowdsourcing platform to recruit a diverse set of participants, with the aim to explore how different user factors are connected to sports motivation. Results show significant differences in the user’s sports motivation and affinity for technology interaction depending on the age group, gender, previous experience with VR, their weekly exercise routine, and how much money they spend on sports yearly.

The Applications of Interface Design and User Experience in Virtual Reality

With the rapid development of science and technology, the application of Virtual Reality (VR) technology is becoming more and more widespread. With its immersion, interactivity and expandability, VR technology has become a promising technology with broad application prospects. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the factors that influence user experience in the design of user interface in VR environment, and to summarize the key points of VR user interface design in different application areas. The article will take interface design and user experience as the starting point to compare different user interface modes and their impact on user experience in VR environment; meanwhile, the design points of VR user interface in education field and game field and the impact factors on user experience in different scenarios are compared and summarized respectively. The final part of the article summarizes the user interface in VR environment in education and game field, and provides an outlook on the future improvement and enhancement of user experience in VR scenario.

A process perspective of immersive virtual reality user experiences: Transition dynamics and mechanisms during gameplay

Extending the relevant theoretical perspectives of spatial presence and flow, we argue that a process perspective can help capture the complexities of multifaceted user experience. In this study, we examined how players feel, perceive, and act during virtual reality (VR) gameplay. We employed a qualitative research strategy combining in-depth interviews and field observations in a VR amusement park. Based on grounded and thematic analysis, we developed an integrated process model that describes players’ enjoyment states during VR single-player and cooperative games and illuminates the mechanisms that influence players’ gaming experiences. We then further developed process design elements for VR games. The findings and models proposed in this study provide theoretical insights into relevant VR user experience studies. The findings of this study may also provide game designers and industry practitioners with insights into designing interactive systems to enhance user experience and engagement.

Influence of Avatar Facial Appearance on Users’ Perceived Embodiment and Presence in Immersive Virtual Reality

Immersive virtual reality (VR) based on head-mounted displays has been identified as one of the key interaction technologies of the future metaverse, which comprises diverse interconnected virtual worlds and users who traverse between those worlds and interact with each other. Interaction in immersive VR entails the use of avatars that represent users. Previous research has shown that avatar appearance (e.g., body type, body visibility, and realism) affects the senses of embodiment and presence, which are among the key indicators of successful immersive VR. However, research on how the similarity between an avatar’s face and the user’s face affects embodiment and presence is lacking. We conducted a mixed-method experiment with 23 young adults (10 males, 13 females, mean age: 25.22) involving a VR scene with rich embodiment, a virtual mirror, and interaction with a virtual character. The participants were assigned to two groups: Group 1 had avatars based on their own faces, and Group 2 had avatars based on a stranger’s face. The results indicated that Group 1 experienced higher embodiment with no significant differences in presence scores. Additionally, we identified moderate and significant correlations between presence and embodiment, including their subscales. We conclude that the realism and similarity in an avatar’s appearance is important for embodiment, and that both embodiment and presence are intertwined factors contributing to immersive VR user experience.

Development and analysis of logical scenario design invirtual reality laboratories for higher education institutions

Virtual Reality (VR) has permeated numerous industries, revolutionized traditional methods and introduced innovative ways to immerse users in digital environments. One of the cornerstones of VR design is the development of logic scenarios, which establish how a VR application responds to user interactions. This research provides an in-depth exploration of the systematic processes involved in creating these logical scenarios for VR experiences. By breaking down each phase of the development process and highlighting its critical components, we aim to furnish a comprehensive guide for professionals. Furthermore, we delve into the estimated timeframes associated with each stage, thereby offering a roadmap that caters to the planning and timely execution of immersive VR projects. Our findings particularly focus on the intricate relationship between conceptualization, tool selection, content creation, and user experience in VR. Through this study, we aspire to empower professionals and enthusiasts alike, paving the way for more intuitive, engaging, and responsive VR experiences.

Multi-sensory display of self-avatar's physiological state: virtual breathing and heart beating can increase sensation of effort in VR.

In this paper we explore the multi-sensory display of self-avatars' physiological state in Virtual Reality (VR), as a means to enhance the connection between the users and their avatar. Our approach consists in designing and combining a coherent set of visual, auditory and haptic cues to represent the avatar's cardiac and respiratory activity. These sensory cues are modulated depending on the avatar's simulated physical exertion. We notably introduce a novel haptic technique to represent respiratory activity using a compression belt simulating abdominal movements that occur during a breathing cycle. A series of experiments was conducted to evaluate the influence of our multi-sensory rendering techniques on various aspects of the VR user experience, including the sense of virtual embodiment and the sensation of effort during a walking simulation. A first study ($\mathrm{N}=30$) that focused on displaying cardiac activity showed that combining sensory modalities significantly enhances the sensation of effort. A second study ($\mathrm{N}=20$) that focused on respiratory activity showed that combining sensory modalities significantly enhances the sensation of effort as well as two sub-components of the sense of embodiment. Interestingly, the user's actual breathing tended to synchronize with the simulated breathing, especially with the multi-sensory and haptic displays. A third study ($\mathrm{N}=18$) that focused on the combination of cardiac and respiratory activity showed that combining both rendering techniques significantly enhances the sensation of effort. Taken together, our results promote the use of our novel breathing display technique and multi-sensory rendering of physiological parameters in VR applications where effort sensations are prominent, such as for rehabilitation, sport training, or exergames.

DESIGN AND TESTING OF VIRTUAL REALITY CYCLING EXERGAME USING HANDHELD CONTROLLER

Nowadays, people are busy with gadgets, social media and playing video games that tends their bodies to physically inactive. However, Virtual Reality (VR) exergaming in literature has proven to be one of the best solutions to encourage these sedentary people to live in a healthier lifestyle. Exergaming refers to a combination of video games with a physical exercise that rely on the technology that can track body movement. Hence, this project aims to develop a cycling exergame that integrate with HTC Vive hand controller in VR. There are four phases have been carried out namely (i) problem investigation, (ii) designing the game structure, (iii) implementation of VR cycling exergame, and (iv) testing and evaluation. The usability testing results shows the users feedback on the development of VR Exergame for cycling in terms of the user interface design, player interaction, difficulty of the game and user satisfaction in understanding the game. The user acceptance testing results shows that this game works accordingly, however there are some suggestion and expectation from user that can be measured for improvement and enhancement in future works. Based on the result, this project is successfully produced a cycling exergame in VR and significantly improve the user experience in VR.

Hand Tracking with Vibrotactile Feedback Enhanced Presence, Engagement, Usability, and Performance in a Virtual Reality Rhythm Game

Recent hand tracking systems and wearable haptic devices have contributed to enhancing user experience in virtual environments. However, controllers are still prevalent in virtual reality (VR) games as a main interaction device. Also, haptic devices are rare and not widely accepted by users. In this article, we examined the effects of interaction methods and vibrotactile feedback on users’ sense of presence, engagement, usability, and task performance in a VR game. In our experiment, 36 participants wearing VR goggle played a rhythm game under three conditions: (1) VR controllers, (2) hand tracking without vibrotactile feedback, and (3) hand tracking with vibrotactile feedback at fingertips through the gloves we developed. Results showed that hand tracking improved presence, engagement, usability, and performance, compared to the VR controller. Furthermore, vibrotactile feedback enhanced presence and engagement even more clearly. Results are discussed with the components of VR user experience and practical design guidelines.

Research on Key Technologies of VR based on MEC

Multi access edge computing (MEC) is an extension of 5G network on the edge side. Its network characteristics of high bandwidth and low delay provide necessary guarantee for the extreme user experience of VR (virtual reality). At the same time, the distributed architecture of 5g MEC network and the fast data exchange capability between nodes provide the hardware foundation for VR application marginalization deployment and equipment mobility access. Considering the cost and experience of VR, this paper first analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of VR based on traditional hardware architecture, and then describes the benefits of MEC on VR cost and experience. Finally, taking VR live video scene as an example, the key technologies of VR based on MEC are described.

Suitability and Comparison of Questionnaires Assessing Virtual Reality-Induced Symptoms and Effects and User Experience in Virtual Environments.

Although virtual reality (VR) has already achieved technological maturity, there are still some significant drawbacks for technology acceptance and broader user adoption, presenting research challenges. Thus, there is a need for standard, reliable, and quick assessment tools for Virtual Reality-Induced Symptoms and Effects (VRISE) and user experience in VR Assessing VRISE and user experience could be time consuming, especially when using objective physiological measures. In this study, we have reviewed, compared, and performed a suitability assessment of existing standard measures for evaluating VRISE and user experience in VR We have developed a first-person VR game with different scenes and different conditions. For assessing VRISE symptoms, we have used the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) and Fast Motion Sickness Score (FMS). For assessing user experience, we have used the short version of the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ-S). We have also used a novel Virtual Reality Neuroscience Questionnaire (VRNQ) for assessing VRISE and user experience aspects. The result has shown that FMS and VRNQ (VRISE section) are suitable for quick assessment of VRISE and that VRNQ (User experience section) is suitable for assessing user experience. The advantage of FMS and VRNQ questionnaires is that they are shorter to fulfill and easier to understand. FMS also enables to record the VRISE levels during the virtual experience and thus capturing its trend over time. Another advantage of the VRNQ is that it also provides the minimum and parsimonious cut-offs to appraise the suitability of VR software, which we have confirmed in our study to be adequate.

Evaluating user experience of different angle VR images

This paper describes a comparison of user experience of virtual reality (VR) image angles. 7 angles conditions are prepared and evaluated the user experience during viewing VR images with a headset by measuring subjective and objective indexes. Angle conditions were every 30 degrees from 180 to 360 degrees. From the results of the subjective indexes (reality, presence, and depth sensation), a 360-degree image was evaluated highest, and different evaluations were made between 240 and 270 degrees.In addition, from the results of the objective indexes (eye and head tracking), a tendency to spread the eye and head movement was found as the image angle increases.