Virtual Reality Literature Research Articles

A Brief communication on Virtual Reality (VR) in Hospitality Industry & Global Travel and Tourism

Virtual reality is now being utilised to improve the travel experience by offering extra marketing tools to destinations, attractions, and companies, altering customer experiences, and creating a new tourism paradigm. Our work was inspired by a rapidly changing world in which virtual reality is gradually becoming the norm in which we live, work, and play. These technologies are always improving, posing new problems to tourist and hospitality management. As the VR literature grows, there is an urgent need to synthesise existing information in the area. To address this difficulty, we conducted a systematic evaluation of 54 publications on virtual reality published in high-quality journals. The findings synthesise existing knowledge for research and managerial decisions. Our evaluation also identifies prospective research streams and important management consequences on a nine-step customer experience in anticipation of the increasing use of virtual reality in the field.

Virtual reality in art appreciation education: A systematic review of the literature

This study is a systematic review of 23 years of research on virtual reality (VR) usage in art appreciation education. A total of 34 articles were selected from 2 major academic databases using search strings and manual screening protocols. The literature analysis emphasized four aspects of VR-based art appreciation education: research methodologies, instructional design, technological affordances, and assessment. The results show the trends in the VR literature regarding the forms of application in different knowledge types, interaction design specific to art appreciation, and the solutions to the cognitive load imposed by the technology. Finally, practical implications and a future research agenda for VR-based instruction are discussed.

Using Virtual Reality Interventions to Promote Social and Emotional Learning for Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

This study provides a comprehensive review of the application of virtual reality (VR) in social and emotional learning (SEL) for children and adolescents over the past decade (January 2013-May 2023), with a specific interest in the relations between their technological and instructional design features. A search in Web of Science resulted in 32 relevant articles that were then manually screened. Coding analysis was conducted from four perspectives: participant characteristics, research design, technological features, and instructional design. The analysis provides insights into the VR literature regarding publication trends, target populations, technological features, instructional scenarios, and tasks. To test the effectiveness of VR interventions for promoting SEL, a meta-analysis was also conducted, which revealed an overall medium effect size and significant moderating effects of SEL disorder type and instructional task. Finally, based on the research results, the practical implications of and future research directions for applying VR in SEL were discussed.

A Review of the Use of Virtual Reality Studies in Social Psychology

Experience in virtual environments is becoming widespread in both daily life and scientific studies. With the advancement of virtual reality technology, new research questions can be posed. Thus, different experiences of the body, relationships with avatars, and the use of mobile and interactive media are increasingly preferred as research topics and research methods. In addition, the relationships that people establish in virtual environments have become a new type of interaction in social psychology that needs to be investigated. The aim of this review is to examine how virtual reality is handled both as a study tool and as a field of study in social psychology. First, technical terms and the necessary software and hardware are introduced, and the concepts of presence and immersion, which are important in the virtual reality literature, are explained. Subsequently, examples of studies conducted with virtual reality in areas such as the self, morality, identity, terror management, and social impact in the field of social psychology are presented. Technical limitations, such as the uncanny valley, virtual reality sickness, ethical issues, and experimental design issues that may arise in virtual reality studies, are discussed. Finally, the contributions of virtual reality to the field and what it can do are emphasized.

Using virtual reality to support first-year online initial teacher education students

In Australia, online initial teacher education (ITE) has seen enrolments grow at six times the rate of other online degree programs, with 25% of all ITE students commencing studying fully online (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, 2020). Online learning provides increased accessibility and flexibility for students (He, 2014; Stone, 2012; Walker et al., 2020). The accessibility provided by online higher education has also been appreciated in the COVID-19 impacted environment; however, online study is different in character to on-campus study and this has raised issues in relation to student experience, engagement, and retention. Students studying online report feeling disconnected from their tutors, peers, learning purpose and higher education providers (Jaques & Salmon, 2010; Gillet-Swan, 2017). Low retention rates have been linked to students’ feelings of disconnection and exacerbated by poor study preparation for online learning (Elliot & Frost, 2018). This means that a critical factor in students’ online study success is orientation and study preparation tailored to their needs. Developing innovative approaches for transitioning online students into higher education is a challenge widely experienced across local, national, and global settings. The innovative use of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies is one approach that has had positive impacts on student engagement and motivation (Huang et al., 2021) and, as Yu (2021) identified in a meta-review of VR literature, promotes learner confidence and achievement. Whilst this emerging research indicates the benefits of using VR in learning and teaching, more exploration is needed to fully understand these and the barriers (Schott & Marshall, 2021). In the context of an online ITE program at an Australian university, research findings are presented from a single descriptive case study (Merriam, 1998) that investigated the impact of a created VR (2D and 3D versions) providing key study orientation information to Bachelor of Education Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary first-year students. The VR was incorporated into the online mandatory first-year technologies education unit and introduced to students in a supported way through recommended online learning and teaching activities. Quantitative and qualitative data that were collected through the online questionnaire Process of Learning with VR (Makransky & Petersen, 2019) examined participants’ experiences and barriers in using the VR (N = 20). Descriptive statistics and mean differences were calculated, and themes identified. Findings revealed participants felt confident using technology, preferred information to be communicated visually, and liked the option of 2D VR for home technology use. Further, the VR made learning more interesting, and the realism assisted in understanding the content. Although the overall results were positive, barriers and challenges were indicated. These include difficulties in accessing the VR using an Apple device, frustration with the movement controls, and feeling that the experience was not personalised enough. Insights gained about using VR to communicate information and support student experience are significant given the continuing rise of online higher education. The need for continued research and innovative use of technologies so that online education programs can be effectively humanised is particularly noted. The introduction of VR to online ITE students has additional ramifications for them as future teachers. This is a potential area of related study.

Experiencing a Food Production Site Using Wearable Devices: The Indirect Impact of Immersion and Presence in VR Tours

Virtual reality (VR) is among the main technologies revolutionizing numerous sectors, including tourism. In the latter context, virtual tours (VTs) are finding increasing application. Providing an immersive and realistic human–machine interaction, VR tours can bring visitors to virtually experience destination areas. The proposed research presents a theoretical and empirical investigation of the role played by some technical VR features (i.e., presence, immersion, ease-of-use) on VR visitors’ enjoyment, satisfaction, and, accordingly, on the physical visit intention of the production site and neighboring areas. After having experienced a 360-degree VR tour of a food production site, created specifically for this study, 140 visitors were surveyed online. Results—emerging from a PLS structural equation model—show that immersion and presence both directly impact the enjoyment and indirectly the user’s VR tour satisfaction and visit intention. Further, if the VR tour is perceived as easy to use, it influences visitors’ satisfaction and physical visit intention. This study contributes to the novel VR literature, applied in the tourism sector, evidencing how immersive and enjoyable scenarios, experienced via widespread devices such as smartphones, may impact tourists’ choices. In food tourism, VR technologies can be fundamental in attracting new visitors to the production sites and neighboring areas.

Point specification in collaborative visualization for 3D scalar fields using augmented reality

We compared three techniques to specify 3D positions for collaborative augmented reality (AR) visualization. AR head-mounted displays allow multiple users to share the same physical space, while keeping seamless social interactions. Interactions being key parts of exploratory visualization tasks, we adapted from the virtual reality literature three distinct techniques to specify points in 3D space, such as for placing annotations for which they cannot rely on existing data objects. We evaluated these techniques on their accuracy and speed, the user’s subjective workload and preferences, as well as their co-presence, mutual understanding, and behavior in collaborative tasks. Our results suggest that all the three techniques provide good mutual understanding and co-presence among collaborators. They differ, however, in the way users behave, their accuracy, and their speed.

An Evaluation of the Effects of a Virtual Museum on Users’ Attitudes towards Cultural Heritage

(1) Background: Several opportunities have appeared for the dissemination of culture and heritage thanks in part to the widespread use of information and communications technologies. Virtual museums have appeared as innovative technological products but often lack an evaluation of the impact that they have and their success in achieving their purpose. In this sense, this work seeks to evaluate the impact of a virtual museum on users’ attitudes toward cultural heritage. (2) Methods: We used a factorial design of 2 (direction of thoughts: positive vs. negative) × 2 (presence level: high vs. low) × 2 (virtual museum vs. interactive website). (3) Results: Attitudes toward heritage can change as a function of a multimedia experience, thought favorability, and presence. In a virtual museum, when general attitudes are evaluated, a sense of high psychological presence reduces the effect that thoughts (especially when negative) have on attitudes. However, in the case of visiting an interactive website, the effect of the direction of thoughts on attitudes occurred regardless of conditions of high or low presence. Similar tendencies are observed for specific attitudinal objects. (4) Conclusion: A virtual museum can have different effects depending on the interaction of important variables from the virtual reality literature and not only the classic main effects. Recommendations for interventions and future practical and theoretical work are presented.

Distance Compression in the HTC Vive Pro: A Quick Revisitation of Resolution

Spatial perception in immersive virtual environments, particularly regarding distance perception, is a well-studied topic in virtual reality literature. Distance compression, or the underestimation of distances, is and has been historically prevalent in all virtual reality systems. The problem of distance compression still remains open, but recent advancements have shown that as systems have developed, the level of distance compression has decreased. Here, we add evidence to this trend by beginning the assessment of distance compression in the HTC Vive Pro. To our knowledge, there are no archival results that report any findings about distance compression in this system. Using a familiar paradigm for studying distance compression in virtual reality hardware, we asked users to blind walk to a target object placed in a virtual environment and assessed their judgments based on those distances. We find that distance compression in the HTC Vive Pro mirrors that of the HTC Vive. Our results are not particularly surprising, considering the nature of the differences between the two systems, but they lend credence to the finding that resolution does not affect distance compression. More extensive study should be performed to reinforce these results.

Virtual reality in K‐12 and higher education: A systematic review of the literature from 2000 to 2019

AbstractThis study is a systematic review of 20 years of research on the usage of virtual reality (VR) in K‐12 and higher education settings, which aims to consolidate, evaluate, and communicate evidence that can inform both the theory and practice of VR‐based instruction. A total of 149 articles were selected from three major academic databases using search strings and manual screening protocols. The literature analysis emphasized four interrelated aspects of VR‐based instruction: instructional context, instructional design, technological affordances, and research findings. The results revealed evolving trends in the VR literature in terms of publication patterns, pedagogical assumptions, equipment usage, and research methodologies, as well as the contextual factors behind VR adoption in education. Additionally, a meta‐analysis was conducted to examine the efficacy of VR‐based instruction, with results indicating an overall medium effect and several moderating factors. Finally, practical implications and a future research agenda for VR‐based instruction are discussed.

How Does Virtual Reality Matter? Evidence from an Online Real Estate Platform

Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging vision technology that constructs a simulated 3D environment to mimic the real world. The technique has been used as a tool for online product presentation, which enables consumers to obtain rich product information through interacting with the simulated interface. In recent years, VR has been adopted by leading online real estate platforms worldwide as a novel function for online house tours, referred to as VR Tour. In this study, we analyze the impact of VR Tour on properties’ selling time. Using data from a large online real estate platform in China, we conduct survival analyses and employ multiple identification strategies to investigate the impact of VR Tour. Our results show that VR Tour could significantly reduce the property’s selling time. Properties that support VR Tour benefit from both attracting consumers to their webpage through the display of a VR badge and sustaining consumers’ purchase interest after consumers exploit the VR Tour function and obtain property information. The effectiveness of VR Tour varies over time, with a deceleration effect on the selling process in the short run, but an acceleration effect in the long run. The temporal deceleration effect could attribute to consumers’ lack of experience in using the VR Tour function, hurting both the consumers’ purchase experience and the property’s selling process. Furthermore, we find a substitution effect of VR Tour over pictures on the property selling process, resulting in a longer selling time when more pictures are posted for VR-enabled properties. Our work provides insights into both VR literature and managerial practice.

Does virtual reality attract visitors? The mediating effect of presence on consumer response in virtual reality tourism advertising

An experimental study was conducted to test the mediating effect of presence on the consumer response to tourism promotion using virtual reality (VR) technology. Hong Kong college students (N = 203) were assigned to three experimental groups in which they were exposed to a hotel advertorial on an online blog, a VR 360° video on a mobile phone, or a VR 360° video using Google Cardboard goggles. The results supported the hypothesis that presence plays a mediating role in the relationship between the use of VR in tourism advertising and consumer response. As one of the first studies in the tourism field to investigate the effects of a virtual depiction of a real-world environment on consumption intentions, the findings reveal how VR technology can be used to promote a hotel by generating a sense of presence. This study makes a further contribution to the VR literature by finding that the use of Cardboard goggles did not produce a significantly greater sense of presence in the experience of advertorial viewers. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of the findings for the use of VR technology in branding and promotion are discussed.

Abstract spin in physiotherapy interventions using virtual reality or robotics: protocol for two Meta-research reviews

Background Emerging technologies such as robotics and virtual reality (VR) are being trialled and implemented into physiotherapy practice. As emerging technologies compete for market share, trials on emerging technologies are at risk of spin. For consumers to make informed decisions about whether to use a new technology, trials should accurately portray the results. If spin is present, outcomes may not be comparable to the results reported when interventions are implemented clinically. Objectives To determine the amount and type of spin in abstracts of physiotherapy clinical trials that use robotic or VR interventions. A secondary objective is to determine the agreement between raters, both experienced and inexperienced, using an existing 7-item checklist with updated item definitions. Methods We will perform two meta-research reviews on a random set of 100 robotics (study 1) and 100 VR (study 2) trials, from any year, indexed in the PEDro database. Using the updated spin checklist, the abstract of each trial will be assessed in corroboration with full-text. The total spin score and proportion of studies with spin for each item will be reported. Agreement between experienced and inexperienced raters will be determined using kappa statistics. Rater confidence in rating each item will be collected. Discussion We will identify if spin is present in robotics and VR literature and evaluate if the spin checklist can be confidently and consistently used by raters. We hope this research will facilitate best-practice reporting of research findings so emerging technologies will be implemented with realistic expectation of clinical outcome.

Investigating online consumers’ responses to product presentation modes

Purpose With the proliferation of virtual reality (VR) applications in electronic commerce, investigations on the effects of VR on consumer responses are important. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of online presentation modes (i.e. situational VR, pure VR and picture) on consumer responses for three product types (i.e. geometric, material and mechanical). Design/methodology/approach This study conducted a 3×3 between-subjects experiment to validate the research model and hypotheses. Findings The results revealed that both the situational VR mode and the pure VR mode had a greater impact on product knowledge and purchase intention than the picture mode. The situational VR mode yielded a higher level of product knowledge and purchase intention than the pure VR mode although it was not statistically significant. Furthermore, the pattern of VR modes superiority was found to be consistent across geometric, material and mechanical product types. Originality/value This research study contributes to the VR literature by investigating a new type of VR: situational VR, and offering a more comprehensive picture of consumer responses to online product presentations. The authors then drew the implications from the findings to suggest guidelines for practitioners to efficiently allocate resources and maximize the effectiveness of online presentation modes.

Recommendations for Methodology of Virtual Reality Clinical Trials in Health Care by an International Working Group: Iterative Study.

BackgroundTherapeutic virtual reality (VR) has emerged as an efficacious treatment modality for a wide range of health conditions. However, despite encouraging outcomes from early stage research, a consensus for the best way to develop and evaluate VR treatments within a scientific framework is needed.ObjectiveWe aimed to develop a methodological framework with input from an international working group in order to guide the design, implementation, analysis, interpretation, and communication of trials that develop and test VR treatments.MethodsA group of 21 international experts was recruited based on their contributions to the VR literature. The resulting Virtual Reality Clinical Outcomes Research Experts held iterative meetings to seek consensus on best practices for the development and testing of VR treatments.ResultsThe interactions were transcribed, and key themes were identified to develop a scientific framework in order to support best practices in methodology of clinical VR trials. Using the Food and Drug Administration Phase I-III pharmacotherapy model as guidance, a framework emerged to support three phases of VR clinical study designs—VR1, VR2, and VR3. VR1 studies focus on content development by working with patients and providers through the principles of human-centered design. VR2 trials conduct early testing with a focus on feasibility, acceptability, tolerability, and initial clinical efficacy. VR3 trials are randomized, controlled studies that evaluate efficacy against a control condition. Best practice recommendations for each trial were provided.ConclusionsPatients, providers, payers, and regulators should consider this best practice framework when assessing the validity of VR treatments.

Presence in video game play and nighttime dreams: an empirical inquiry

Presence, or the sense of being there, is often studied in the virtual reality literature and increasingly measured in the video game studies literature. It has been suggested that night time dreams offer the gold standard upon which other measures of presence can be compared. This is an empirical examination of that claim. Self reported presence in a video game just played under different playing conditions, were compared to the same presence items solicited after a night time dream following the game play session. Results suggest that dreams may not be the gold standard of presence in today’s increasingly sophisticated world of virtual realities.