Virtual Reality Video Research Articles

Trusted Collaboration for MEC-Enabled VR Video Streaming: A Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Approach

Collaboration among mobile edge computing (MEC) has been envisioned as a promising paradigm to meet the requirements of wireless virtual reality (VR) applications. However, trust risks create tremendous challenges in MEC collaboration due to the distributed, complex, and unreliable nature of resource providers. In this paper, we present a trusted collaboration framework for VR video streaming to manage the video buffer in VR devices (VDs) under a more realistic distributed environment. In the framework, the rendering tasks can be processed collaboratively among edge servers (ESs) by exploring their behaviors (e.g., selfish behavior, malicious behavior, and cooperative behavior). Considering the collaborator may not be fully trustworthy, we present a novel trust evaluation method by combining direct and indirect values, aiming to ensure reliable collaborator selection. Then, we formulate an optimization problem to maintain an effective buffer state in VR devices (VDs) through jointly optimizing collaborator selection, spectrum allocation, and rendering resource allocation. Due to the fluctuating wireless fading channel and the dynamic video rate, the optimization problem is intractable by adopting traditional methods. Then, we adopt the multi-agent deep deterministic policy gradient (MADDPG) to tackle this dynamic and distributed problem. Simulation results indicate that the proposed approach can achieve a good performance.

Can virtual reality nudge toward green investing? An experiment with small business entrepreneurs

PurposeStorytelling through virtual reality (VR) combines the strengths of cutting-edge technology with traditional informational campaigns. As a tool for climate change mitigation, VR has been shown to educate individuals and stimulate both emotional and cognitive responses that promote pro-environmental behavior. This paper aims to investigate whether these benefits extend to the field of green investing through an experiment conducted with a sample of small business entrepreneurs.Design/methodology/approachThe experimental design involved making choices between bonds varying in maturity dates, annual interest and environmental classification (regular versus green). To identify potential impacts of the immersive experience on investment decisions, these choices were made both before and after exposure to VR videos illustrating the devastating effects of climate change. A multiple price list was employed to elicit subjects' risk preferences, enabling the joint estimation of the treatment effect and the risk and time preference parameters. FindingsThe findings indicate that, when risk and time preference parameters are controlled for, a VR experience can nudge toward green investment choices. This effect is more profound among those who already exhibit a greater propensity to opt for green investments.Originality/valuePrevious research shows that negative emotions, such as guilt, affect pro-environmental intentions, as well as actions, while message vividness through immersive experiences is effective in nudging greener behavior. Since analogous results in the framework of financial investments are not currently available, this paper seeks to test whether VR videos depicting the adverse effects of climate change can generate negative emotions associated with experiencing these effects and make them salient in subsequent investment decisions made by small business entrepreneurs.

Effect of roadside trees on pedestrians' psychological evaluation of traffic noise.

This study aims to investigate the interplay between roadside trees and pedestrians' assessment of traffic noise and comfort. The study examines the potential effects of visual and design elements of roadside trees on the overall soundscape comfort. The study design involves a systematic exploration of different conditions, encompassing traffic volume, distance from sound source, and tree density. For each combination, two experimental scenarios are created: (1) participants experience a binaural sound recording exclusively, and (2) participants experience the same binaural recording while concurrently immersed in a virtual reality (VR) video. Analysis of participants' noise perception, measured using a quiet-noisy scale, reveals no significant disparity between conditions. This suggests that the mere presence of roadside trees does not necessarily lead to a perceived reduction in noise loudness. However, evaluation of sound intensity exposes a notable discrepancy between low and medium tree density levels. Furthermore, the study confirms the impact of roadside tree visibility, with scenes containing trees yielding more positive evaluations compared to sound-only scenarios. Remarkably, the absence of trees in the roadside scene garners consistent evaluations across both experimental conditions. Significantly, higher roadside tree density in conjunction with the combined sound and VR video condition prompts a more favorable assessment than the sound-only scenario. While the study indicates that roadside trees might not substantially mitigate perceived physical noise levels, their influence on the psychological well-being of urban inhabitants is considerable. The findings highlight that even though these trees may not overtly diminish noise, they hold substantial potential to enhance the overall comfort and well-being of city residents. This underscores the multifaceted benefits of integrating green spaces into urban design for improving the quality of urban soundscapes and residents' experiences.

Using Virtual Reality Video Development as Educational and Tourist Promotional Media

Maintaining tourism during a pandemic is a very tough challenge. Policy restrictions limit access and mobility by the government area until state regulations are lifted. The impact on sector tourist experiences are significant, because there is no activity in many destination tours. Indonesia and Thailand have similar destination tour cultures and heritage character histories , i.e. artifacts detailing the legacy and glory of Buddha. The Jago temple and the Grand Palace in Thailand are interestinng educational tours to learn about past civilizations . The appreciation activity for common artifacts that is conducted with a method visit to the location must be replaced with another way. Excellent and sophisticated metaverse technology can be utilized to present ambience and a natural feel of the location. The purpose of this study is to produce helpful virtual reality video products to educate the public about the artifacts in temple Jago in Malang and the Grand Palace artifacts in Thailand as an alternative educational media tour. The method was developed by implementing the ADDIE model. The purpose of this study is as following : (1) produce access in visual forms and shape the atmosphere of destination tours, (2) create access information especially on the culture of products and artifacts, (3) design educational media in website/video/multimedia format or in any other possible format to replace the atmosphere of visit travel, (4) produce deep media video forms or photographs to become products that can raise audience interaction, (5) produce the validity of related data with product artifacts in Jago temple culture and the Grand Palace of Thailand.
 Keywords: artifact Grand Palace, Candi Jago artifact, VR temple

Mapping EEG Alpha Activity: Assessing Concentration Levels during Player Experience in Virtual Reality Video Games

This work presents a study in which the cognitive concentration levels of participants were evaluated using electroencephalogram (EEG) measures while they were playing three different categories of virtual reality (VR) video games: Challenging Puzzlers, Casual Games, and Exergames. Thirty-one voluntary participants between the ages of 17 and 35 were recruited. EEG data were processed to analyze the brain’s electrical activity in the alpha band. The values of power spectral density (PSD) and individual alpha frequency (IAF) of each participant were compared to detect changes that could indicate a state of concentration. Additionally, frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) between the left and right hemispheres of the brain was compared. The results showed that the Exergame category of video games elicited higher average cognitive concentration in players, as indicated by the IAF and FAA values. These findings contribute to understanding the cognitive effects of VR video games and their implications for designing and developing VR experiences to enhance cognitive abilities.

Development of Animated Videos Using Diary’s Virtual Reality as a Medium Of Distraction on The Anxiety

Background: Dental anxiety refers to anxiety about dental treatment procedures. Dental anxiety is common among pediatric patients because dental treatment procedures are usually a new experience. Therapy and desperate nonpharmacological techniques, which have already become widely used, can alleviate dental anxiety. Virtual reality is one of the various media considered to distract children during dental and oral treatment. Produce a viable Diary's Virtual Reality (VR) media model and its application effectively lowers the anxiety level of child patients upon deciduous tooth extraction action.
 Method: Experimental design pretest-posttest method with control group design. There were 64 respondents which were divided into; an intervention group given the treatment of watching Diary’s Virtual Reality video and a control group given the treatment of watching video using mobile phones. To assess the child’s level of anxiety when the deciduous tooth is extracted, an MDAS query was used. The test results data of the model were tested using wilcoxon paired test and a Mann-Whitney paired test.
 Result: The Expert Validation Test of Dary’s VR media earned an average feasibility score of 97,5% with excellent categories with p-value=0,000. The paired data effectiveness test results showed an intervention group p-value=0,000 and a control group=0,010. The test results of the effectiveness of unpaired variable data show that the p-value between the intervention group and the control group is p=0,000. The Diary’s VR model effectively lowers the anxiety level of child patients.
 Conclusion: Giving Intervention Diary’s VR lowers the anxiety level of child patients significantly compared to the control group.

Virtual reality simulation-enhanced blood transfusion education for undergraduate nursing students: A randomised controlled trial

BackgroundNurse-administered blood transfusion (BT) is a common form of medical treatment, but nursing students are often excluded from participating in and observing BTs during clinical placements. To address clinical placement limitations, nursing educators have increasingly adopted technology-guided simulation pedagogies, including virtual reality (VR) simulation, for nursing students' clinical skills education. ObjectivesTo develop VR simulation for BT practice and investigate its effectiveness with nursing students. DesignA single-blinded, two-arm randomised controlled trial. SettingsOne university in Hong Kong. ParticipantsA total of 151 nursing students enrolled in a nursing undergraduate course at a university in Hong Kong were recruited via convenience sampling in March 2022. MethodsEvidence-based VR simulation videos consisting of 1) animated blood formation physiology and side effects of BT and 2) 360° BT nursing practice were developed. The nursing students were randomly allocated into intervention and control groups. The intervention group (n = 75) received the usual BT education (i.e. Zoom lecture) with the developed VR video education, whereas the control group (n = 76) received the usual BT education (Zoom). The BT knowledge (RBTKQ-O), student satisfaction and self-confidence (SSSC) and self-efficacy (GSES) of BT practice were measured before and after BT education. Intention-to-treat analyses were performed. ResultsThe primary and secondary outcomes (RBTKQ-O, SSCS and GSES, respectively) improved over time in both groups. Analysis of covariance revealed that students who received VR simulation reported higher post-intervention measurement scores in BT knowledge and SSCS than those who did not receive VR simulation. ConclusionsVR simulation-enhanced BT education effectively enhances the knowledge and SSCS of BT practice amongst nursing students. Nurse educators may adopt VR simulation to enhance the effectiveness of existing BT education for nursing students.

Optokinetic stimulation effects in the management of unilateral spatial neglect in patients with chronic stroke: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

IntroductionUnilateral spatial neglect (USN) is a stroke complication of stroke. Optokinetic stimulation (OKS) is one of the treatments, but its effects on motor symptoms, such as poverty or alterations in...

Intelligent cache and buffer optimization for mobile VR adaptive transmission in 5G edge computing networks

Virtual Reality (VR) is a key industry for the development of the digital economy in the future. Mobile VR has advantages in terms of mobility, lightweight and cost-effectiveness, which has gradually become the mainstream implementation of VR. In this paper, a mobile VR video adaptive transmission mechanism based on intelligent caching and hierarchical buffering strategy in Mobile Edge Computing (MEC)-equipped 5G networks is proposed, aiming at the low latency requirements of mobile VR services and flexible buffer management for VR video adaptive transmission. To support VR content proactive caching and intelligent buffer management, users' behavioral similarity and head movement trajectory are jointly used for viewpoint prediction. The tile-based content is proactively cached in the MEC nodes based on the popularity of the VR content. Second, a hierarchical buffer-based adaptive update algorithm is presented, which jointly considers bandwidth, buffer, and predicted viewpoint status to update the tile chunk in client buffer. Then, according to the decomposition of the problem, the buffer update problem is modeled as an optimization problem, and the corresponding solution algorithms are presented. Finally, the simulation results show that the adaptive caching algorithm based on 5G intelligent edge and hierarchical buffer strategy can improve the user experience in the case of bandwidth fluctuations, and the proposed viewpoint prediction method can significantly improve the accuracy of viewpoint prediction by 15%.

Multi-MEC collaboration for VR video transmission: Architecture and cache algorithm design

Virtual Reality (VR) is becoming an important use case for 5G wireless networks, and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) servers are being explored as a way to reduce VR video latency. To address the limited cache space of a single MEC server, this paper proposes dividing geographically close MEC servers into collaborative domains. A new VR video transmission architecture is designed after analyzing video compression mechanisms.The proposed architecture splits the VR video into equal-sized tile files to simplify the cache problem and improve caching efficiency. However, the large number of different tile files presents a challenge. To address this, the paper proposes an optimized k-shortest paths (OKSP) algorithm with a time complexity of O((K⋅M+N)⋅M⋅logN), where K is the number of tiles that all M MEC servers can cache in the collaboration domain and N is the number of tile files. For extremely large-scale data cases, a greedy-based approximation algorithm is also proposed. The numerical results demonstrate the OKSP algorithm’s excellent performance in solving large-scale data, outperforming other caching algorithms in experiments.

Physiological Signal Analysis and Stress Classification from VR Simulations Using Decision Tree Methods.

Stress is induced in response to any mental, physical or emotional change associated with our daily experiences. While short term stress can be quite beneficial, prolonged stress is detrimental to the heart, muscle tissues and immune system. In order to be proactive against these symptoms, it is important to assess the impact of stress due to various activities, which is initially determined through the change in the sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic (PNS) nervous systems. After acquiring physiological data wirelessly through captive electrocardiogram (ECG), galvanic skin response (GSR) and respiration (RESP) sensors, 21 time, frequency, nonlinear, GSR and respiration features were manually extracted from 15 subjects ensuing a baseline phase, virtual reality (VR) roller coaster simulation, color Stroop task and VR Bubble Bloom game. This paper presents a comprehensive physiological analysis of stress from an experiment involving a VR video game Bubble Bloom to manage stress levels. A personalized classification and regression tree (CART) model was developed using a novel Gini index algorithm in order to effectively classify binary classes of stress. A novel K-means feature was derived from 11 other features and used as an input in the Decision Tree (DT) algorithm, strong learners Ensemble Gradient Boosting (EGB) and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost (XGB)) embedded in a pipeline to classify 5 classes of stress. Results obtained indicate that heart rate (HR), approximate entropy (ApEN), low frequency and high frequency ratio (LF/HF), low frequency (LF), standard deviation (SD1), GSR and RESP all reduced and high frequency (HF) increased following the VR Bubble Bloom game phase. The personalized CART model was able to classify binary stress with 87.75% accuracy. It proved to be more effective than other related studies. EGB was able to classify binary stress with 100% accuracy, which outperformed every other related study. XGBoost and DT were able to classify five classes of stress with 72.22% using the novel K-means feature. This feature produced less error and better model performance in comparison to using all the features. Results substantiate that our proposed methods were more effective for stress classification than most related studies.

Using Virtual Reality Head-Mounted Displays to Assess Skills in Emergency Medicine: Validity Study.

Many junior doctors must prepare to manage acutely ill patients in the emergency department. The setting is often stressful, and urgent treatment decisions are needed. Overlooking symptoms and making wrong choices may lead to substantial patient morbidity or death, and it is essential to ensure that junior doctors are competent. Virtual reality (VR) software can provide standardized and unbiased assessment, but solid validity evidence is necessary before implementation. This study aimed to gather validity evidence for using 360-degree VR videos with integrated multiple-choice questions (MCQs) to assess emergency medicine skills. Five full-scale emergency medicine scenarios were recorded with a 360-degree video camera, and MCQs were integrated into the scenarios to be played in a head-mounted display. We invited 3 groups of medical students with different experience levels to participate: first- to third-year medical students (novice group), last-year medical students without emergency medicine training (intermediate group), and last-year medical students with completed emergency medicine training (experienced group). Each participant's total test score was calculated based on the number of correct MCQ answers (maximum score of 28), and the groups' mean scores were compared. The participants rated their experienced presence in emergency scenarios using the Igroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ) and their cognitive workload with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA-TLX). We included 61 medical students from December 2020 to December 2021. The experienced group had significantly higher mean scores than the intermediate group (23 vs 20; P=.04), and the intermediate group had significantly higher scores than the novice group (20 vs 14; P<.001). The contrasting groups' standard-setting method established a pass-or-fail score of 19 points (68% of the maximum possible score of 28). Interscenario reliability was high, with a Cronbach α of 0.82. The participants experienced the VR scenarios with a high degree of presence with an IPQ score of 5.83 (on a scale from 1-7), and the task was shown to be mentally demanding with a NASA-TLX score of 13.30 (on a scale from 1-21). This study provides validity evidence to support using 360-degree VR scenarios to assess emergency medicine skills. The students evaluated the VR experience as mentally demanding with a high degree of presence, suggesting that VR is a promising new technology for emergency medicine skills assessment.

Introducing 3D Thumbnails to Access 360-Degree Videos in Virtual Reality.

360° videos provide an immersive experience, especially when watched in virtual reality (VR). Yet, even though the video data is inherently three-dimensional, interfaces to access datasets of such videos in VR almost always use two-dimensional thumbnails shown in a grid on a flat or curved plane. We claim that using spherical and cube-shaped 3D thumbnails may provide a better user experience and be more effective at conveying the high-level subject matter of a video or when searching for a specific item in it. A comparative study against the most used existing representation, that is, 2D equirectangular projections, showed that the spherical 3D thumbnails did indeed provide the best user experience, whereas traditional 2D equirectangular projections still performed better for high-level classification tasks. Yet, they were outperformed by spherical thumbnails when participants had to search for details within the videos. Our results thus confirm a potential benefit of 3D thumbnail representations for 360-degree videos in VR, especially with respect to user experience and detailed content search and suggest a mixed interface design providing both options to the users. Supplemental materials about the user study and used data are available at https://osf.io/5vk49/.

An Interactive Augmented and Virtual Reality System for Managing Dental Anxiety among Young Patients: A Pilot Study

Dental anxiety is a common health problem among children. It creates major issues for patients, parents, and dental professionals. Children who cancel or otherwise miss their dental appointments generally do so due to fear of the unknown and lack of understanding of what they can expect from the environment and treatment when they arrive there. Some distraction interventions are already used by dental professionals, such as using clown doctors, watching cartoons, and utilizing the tell–show–do (TSD) technique. Still, the problem is common, and the fail to attend (FTA) rates at clinics are high. Familiarizing children with the dental setting and procedures in advance may help to manage their anxiety. This paper aims to help in managing children’s dental anxiety in a simple, attractive, and age-appropriate way through the use of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies. The developed system is named “Dr. Barea”. It targets Arabic-speaking children aged from 7 to 10 years old. It uses model–view–control (MVC) as its architectural design pattern. The proposed solution consists of three main sections: a 360° VR video that simulates a dental clinic environment, an educational description on dental tools using AR technology, and interactive educational stories that educate children about dental hygiene. The system performance was evaluated using unit, integration, performance, and user acceptance testing. The results demonstrate that the proposed solution, which performed reasonably, achieved the usability requirements and was engaging for learning information about dental hygiene. A feasibility study with 16 children was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed system. The Child Fear Survey Schedule—Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS) was used to measure children’s dental anxiety level. The T test was used to evaluate the differences between groups, and Fisher’s exact test was used to compare the distributions of gender and age between the groups. The CFSS-DS index in the VR group decreased after dental consultation (35.04 ± 9.14 before consultation and 32.32 ± 8.32 after consultation, p = 0.041). The implications of this study shall be beneficial to patients, parents, and dental professionals.

Application of 360° virtual reality videos in the assessment of paranoia in schizophrenia patients: a pilot study.

Virtual Reality (VR) has been widely used in psychiatry, including psychotic disorders. The main advantage of VR is its high ecological validity and controllability of the virtual environment. Our main goal was to test whether, similarly to computer-generated VR, 360-degree videos are able to elicit a state of social paranoia in prone individuals. Sixteen schizophrenia patients and twenty-three healthy individuals were assessed using Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale and additionally, in the patient group, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS-6) and Peters Delusional Inventory (PDI) were used. The participants viewed four 360-degree videos with and without social content on a VR headset. Meanwhile, subjects' heart rate was measured continuously. After the exposure, both groups were assessed with Social State Paranoia Scale (SSPS) and asked about momentary anxiety and sense of presence. The schizophrenia patients reported higher momentary anxiety, although the results of SSPS did not differ significantly between groups. In the control group the heart rate decreased between first non-social and social video, whereas in the patient group it did not differ significantly. There was a significant correlation of paranoid ideation experienced on daily basis (PDI) and elicited in VR (SSPS) in the patient group. In conclusion, paranoid responses can be triggered in patients with schizophrenia by 360-degree videos.

360-DEGREE VIRTUAL REALITY

Virtual Reality (VR) is a technology that enables users to experience a computer-generated environment as if it were real. This is achieved by using head-mounted displays, tracking systems, and other input devices to create an immersive, three- dimensional world that users can interact with. VR is being used in industries, like gaming, entertainment, education, healthcare etc,... In gaming, VR provides a new level of immersion and interactivity, allowing players to experience new worlds and adventures in a way that was previously impossible Virtual reality (VR) technology has rapidly evolved in recent years, with significant advancements in hardware, software, and content development. VR offers users an immersive experience that can simulate real-world scenarios, environments, and interactions. This technology has been applied to a wide range of fields, including entertainment, education, healthcare, and training. In the entertainment industry, VR provides users with a unique and interactive way to consume media, from gaming and movies to virtual tourism and social experiences. In education, VR allows students to experience immersive learning environments that can enhance their understanding of complex concepts. In healthcare, VR is used for therapy and rehabilitation, allowing patients to simulate real-life scenarios in a safe and controlled environment. Finally, in the field of training, VR provides a cost-effective and efficient way to train employees in various industries, such as aviation, military, and manufacturing despite its potential, there are still challenges to overcome, such as high costs, technical limitations, and the need for more compelling and engaging content. Nonetheless, the future of VR looks promising, with further advancements and new applications yet to be discovered. KEYWORDS VR headset, VR games, VR videos, VR education, Augmented Reality(AR),360 degree video.

Peer-to-peer: The Social Transmission of Symptoms Online.

Social learning can be highly adaptive-for example, avoiding a hotplate your friend just burnt themselves on-but it has also been implicated in symptom transmission. Social learning is particularly pertinent given the rapid increase in the use of online mediums for social interaction. Yet, little is known about the social transmission of symptoms online or social chains extending further than a single model-observer interaction. To explore whether socially induced symptoms could be propagated through a three-generation social transmission chain in an online setting. We explored the social transmission of cybersickness following a virtual reality (VR) experience through online webcam interactions. One hundred and seventy-seven adults viewed a VR video in one of four links along a social transmission chain, after: viewing an actor model cybersickness to the VR video (First-Generation); viewing the First-Generation participant undergo VR (Second-Generation); viewing the Second-Generation participant undergo VR (Third-Generation); or naïve (Control). Cybersickness was strongest in First-Generation participants, indicating social transmission from the model. This was mediated by expectancy and anxiety. Whether or not subsequent generations experienced cybersickness depended on what the observed participant verbally reported, which is consistent with social transmission. Results demonstrate that symptoms can be readily transmitted online, and that expectancy and anxiety are involved. Although it is inconclusive as to whether symptoms can propagate along a social transmission chain, there is some evidence of protection from symptoms when a model who does not report any symptoms is observed. As such, this research highlights the role of social transmission in the modulation of symptoms through virtual mediums.

EHTask: Recognizing User Tasks From Eye and Head Movements in Immersive Virtual Reality.

Understanding human visual attention in immersive virtual reality (VR) is crucial for many important applications, including gaze prediction, gaze guidance, and gaze-contingent rendering. However, previous works on visual attention analysis typically only explored one specific VR task and paid less attention to the differences between different tasks. Moreover, existing task recognition methods typically focused on 2D viewing conditions and only explored the effectiveness of human eye movements. We first collect eye and head movements of 30 participants performing four tasks, i.e., Free viewing, Visual search, Saliency, and Track, in 15 360-degree VR videos. Using this dataset, we analyze the patterns of human eye and head movements and reveal significant differences across different tasks in terms of fixation duration, saccade amplitude, head rotation velocity, and eye-head coordination. We then propose EHTask - a novel learning-based method that employs eye and head movements to recognize user tasks in VR. We show that our method significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods derived from 2D viewing conditions both on our dataset (accuracy of 84.4% versus 62.8%) and on a real-world dataset ( 61.9% versus 44.1%). As such, our work provides meaningful insights into human visual attention under different VR tasks and guides future work on recognizing user tasks in VR.

Recovery time from VR sickness due to susceptibility: Objective and quantitative evaluation using electroencephalography

With the increasing use of virtual reality (VR) devices, interest in reducing their negative effects, such as VR sickness, is also increasing. This study used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate participants’ VR sickness recovery time after watching a VR video. We tested 40 participants in advance using a motion sickness susceptibility questionnaire (MSSQ). We classified the participants into two groups (sensitive group/non-sensitive group) depending on their MSSQ scores. We used a simulator sickness questionnaire (SSQ) and EEG to evaluate VR sickness. The SSQ score increased significantly after watching the VR sickness-inducing video (VR video) in both groups (p < 0.001). The recovery time based on the SSQ was 11.3 ± 6.6 min for the sensitive group and 9.1 ± 5.2 min for the non-sensitive group. The difference in recovery time between the two groups was not significant (p > 0.05). EEG results showed that recovery time took an average of 11.5 ± 7.1 min in both groups. The EEG data showed that the delta wave increased significantly across all brain areas (p < 0.01). There was no statistical difference between groups in recovering VR sickness depending on individual characteristics. However, we confirmed that subjective and objective VR recovery required at least 11.5 min. This finding can inform recommendations regarding the VR sickness recovery times.

To give or not to give: Examining the prosocial effects of a 360° video endorsing a clean water charity

This study examines the prosocial effects of virtual reality (VR) technology on donation behavior, using a 360° video documentary supporting the nongovernmental organization Charity: Water. Previous research has shown how VR can be used as a way to evoke empathy towards other people. There is, however, limited research on how this technology can be used to elicit more donations for charitable organizations. This paper aims to investigate whether the use of an emotion-inducing 360° video in VR leads to higher donation rates. We conducted a between-participants experiment and collected data from 150 young adults (age 18–25). Results reveal how VR – and especially empathy – significantly impacts donation intentions. Although donation intentions were found to be higher after watching the VR video, many participants were skeptical about making an actual donation. Implications and future research regarding the capabilities of VR technology in eliciting donations and resolving donation uncertainty are discussed.