Virtual Reality Scenarios Research Articles

Multi-modal physiological signals based fear of heights analysis in virtual reality scenes

Fear of heights (FoH) analysis and its association to physiological signals can better help understand people’s emotion and quantify human’s behavior, which have been found important in many applications, such as disease analysis, affective computing, etc. Existing studies are mainly on how to alleviate FoH while little literature on FoH analysis has been reported in the past. In this paper, we present the studies of correlation on FoH to multi-modal physiological signals in the virtual reality (VR). To stimulate the FoH to participants, 4 types of VR scenarios that consist of the virtual scene of the VR game “Richie’s plank experience” and the realistic stimulus of hitting by basketball are adopted in the experiment. The synchronized eye movement (EMO), pupil, and electrocardiogram (ECG) of 17 healthy subjects with an even mix of men and women are recorded for FoH analysis. The observations on the FoH analysis carried out in the paper are two-fold: (1) The recognition ability of multi-modal physiological signals for HoF has been evaluated using ReliefF feature selection algorithm. The results show that pupil feature based model generally achieves the best classification performance for FoH. Multiple features consisted of pupil diameter, power spectral density (PSD) of EMO, pupil, ECG, and mean value of EMO can effectively quantify the variability. (2) The FoH analysis model built on the correlation analysis algorithms combined with multi-modal feature-level fusion and strategy-level fusion methods can effectively overcome the drawbacks of conventional statistical models.

Buddy biking: a user study on social collaboration in a virtual reality exergame for rehabilitation

Virtual reality (VR)-based rehabilitation is a growing technological field, which gradually becomes integrated into existing programs. However, technology has to support human behavior and -needs, including social relatedness, to achieve health-related outcomes. Elderly people have high risk of loneliness, and VR has technological affinity for natural social interaction. Previous studies have relied on competitiveness rather than collaborative elements, but research shows that competitiveness can lead to (feelings of) stress and aggressive behavior in some individuals. This article presents a mixed methods study to gather end-user feedback on a social VR scenario that encourages inter-player collaboration on a virtual tandem bike. Outpatients (n=11, 64% males, 60pm 11 years) were invited to participate with a co-player (friend or family). Participants biked on average 10.7 (± 3) minutes with a mean speed of 14.8 kmph (± 5.8). The results indicate potential and feasibility for the collaborative social biking application. Participants reported excellent usability-scores (85 ± 5), high intrinsic motivation in all categories: enjoyment (6.5 ± 0.5), effort/importance (6.4 ± 0.3), relatedness (6.3 ± 0.7) and minimal increase in symptoms of nausea, oculomotor and disorientation. Furthermore, participants found the social aspect enjoyable, agreed that collaboration eased tasks and that they lost track of exercise duration. Interpersonal interaction between participants varied, but was mostly positively rated valence, even if the sense of copresence was limited by physical constraints and avatar representation. Most participants expressed that they would use the program again, but future studies should explore how to improve location and appearance of the virtual coactor, as well as implement additional tasks.

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

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

Exploring the Role of Virtual Reality to Support Clinical Diabetes Training-A Pilot Study.

It is estimated that 16 to 25% of patients in hospital have diabetes and 1 in 25 inpatients with Type 1 Diabetes develop diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). It is vital that non-specialist doctors recognize and appropriately manage diabetes emergencies. Simulation training is increasingly being used in healthcare and virtual reality (VR) based educational resources is transforming medical education. This study aimed to evaluate the use of virtual reality to help non-specialist clinicians manage clinical scenarios related to diabetes. This pilot project, titled 'DEVICE' (Diabetes Emergencies: Virtual Interactive Clinical Education) was developed in collaboration with Oxford Medical Simulation. Fully interactive immersive VR scenarios were created to stimulate real life diabetes emergencies. Users then received personalized feedback and performance metrics. Feedback surveys were provided before and after the participation in the VR scenario. Kirkpatrick's training evaluation model was used. Thirty-nine participants from 2 hospitals in UK provided feedback up to 3 months after attending the VR education sessions. Overall feedback was extremely positive, and participants found this immersive teaching experience very helpful. After use of virtual reality scenarios, the mean trainee confidence in managing DKA (on an 8-point Likert scale) increased from 3.92 (3.38-4.47) 95% CI to 5.41 (4.79-6.03) 95% CI (statistically significant). The VR study demonstrates Kirkpatrick level 3 in the follow up survey. VR based training scenarios in this pilot project increased confidence in managing diabetes emergencies and demonstrated positive changes in their behavior. VR education is a safe, useful and a well-liked training tool for diabetes emergencies.

The Potential of 360° Virtual Reality Videos and Real VR for Education-A Literature Review.

Virtual reality (VR) has a wide variety of potentials for education. Especially 360$^{\circ }$∘ videos can provide immersive educational experiences of otherwise not accessible real-world environments. But what potential do 360$^{\circ }$∘ videos in VR and real VR settings have for teaching? Research into the use of real VR, providing live-learning experience in the classroom is still scarce, which is why this article investigates this issue in the context of a systematic review. We discuss use cases, advantages, and limitations as well as interaction characteristics of the potential of 360$^{\circ }$∘ videos, and also the promises of real VR scenarios. By analyzing 64 articles in-depth, our results suggest that 360$^{\circ }$∘ videos can be used for a wide variety of topics. While only a few articles report technological benefits, there are indicators that 360$^{\circ }$∘ videos can benefit learning processes in terms of performance, motivation, and knowledge retention. Most papers report positive effects on other human factors such as presence, perception, engagement, emotions, and empathy. Furthermore, an open research gap has been identified in use cases for real VR.

See it, hear it, feel it: embodying a patient experience through immersive virtual reality

PurposeThe aim of the study was to explore aspects of learning in terms of gain in knowledge, confidence and empathy with immersive virtual reality (VR) from the patient perspective in undergraduate nursing students.Design/methodology/approachA pilot study integrating immersive VR experiences during clinical courses was facilitated based on the INACSL (2016) standards for simulation practices with a convenience sample of 165 nursing students in three levels of cohorts, using two different VR scenario simulations. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through pre- and post-surveys.FindingsStudent participants embodied patients with chronic disease using immersive VR. Findings showed substantial gains in most measures of knowledge, confidence and empathy, with slightly less difference seen in lower level nursing students particularly with empathy and understanding.Research limitations/implicationsEmbodiment through immersive VR scenarios was shown to increase learner development. The positive findings from the pilot study justified continuance of integration of immersive VR in nursing education, recommending further use and research.Originality/valueSimulated learning for nursing has known benefits on knowledge and understanding. Immersive VR is gaining recognition within nursing education as a method to enhance cognitive and affective knowledge. This paper hopes to add insights on the impact of immersive VR for student learning and encourage discussion about the future for innovative immersive teaching and learning approaches for experiential learning.

An Assessment of Individuals’ Systems Thinking Skills via Immersive Virtual Reality Complex System Scenarios

This study utilized the application of authentic Virtual Reality (VR) to replicate the real-world complex system scenarios of a large retail supply chain. The proposed VR scenarios were developed based on an established systems thinking instrument that consists of seven dimensions: level of complexity, independence, interaction, change, uncertainty, systems’ worldview, and flexibility. However, in this study, we only developed the VR scenarios for the first dimension, level of complexity, to assess an individual’s Systems Thinking Skills (STS) when he or she engages in a turbulent virtual environment. The main objective of this study was to compare a student’s STS when using traditional ST instruments versus VR scenarios for the complexity dimension. The secondary aim was to investigate the efficacy of VR scenarios utilizing three measurements: Simulation Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ), System Usability Scale (SUS), and Presence Questionnaire (PQ). In addition to the three measures, NASA TLX assessment was also performed to assess the perceived workload with regards to performing the tasks in VR scenarios. The results show students’ preferences in the VR scenarios are not significantly different from their responses obtained using the traditional systems skills instrument. The efficacy measures confirmed that the developed VR scenarios are user friendly and lie in an acceptable region for users. Finally, the overall NASA TLX score suggests that users require 36% perceived work effort to perform the activities in VR scenarios.

Colocation for SLAM-Tracked VR Headsets with Hand Tracking

In colocated multi-user Virtual Reality applications, relative user positions in the virtual environment need to match their relative positions in the physical tracking space. A mismatch between virtual and real relative user positions might lead to harmful events such as physical user collisions. This paper examines three calibration methods that enable colocated Virtual Reality scenarios for SLAM-tracked head-mounted displays without the need for an external tracking system. Two of these methods—fixed-point calibration and marked-based calibration—have been described in previous research; the third method that uses hand tracking capabilities of head-mounted displays is novel. We evaluated the accuracy of these three methods in an experimental procedure with two colocated Oculus Quest devices. The results of the evaluation show that our novel hand tracking-based calibration method provides better accuracy and consistency while at the same time being easy to execute. The paper further discusses the potential of all evaluated calibration methods.

Virtual reality classroom simulations: how school leaders improve instructional leadership capacity

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to explore the utility of a virtual reality (VR) classroom experience for improving the capacity of instructional leaders. Specifically, school leaders used VR to build their classroom observation and analysis skills to prepare to have more effective post-observation conversations with teachers. The authors provide insights from multiple data points that highlight the affordances of the virtual setting for improving classroom observation skills.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the application of simulations to practice classroom observations, the authors developed a VR experience in which participants tag observable elements of academic discourse using codes from two observation protocols. The protocols identify elements of equitable student access: how teachers call on students and how they design questions. Seventy-five school leaders used the VR platform to observe a classroom scenario and code evidence of equitable classroom access. The authors analyzed data from tagging in the virtual reality scenario and triangulated these data with survey data focused on observation practices from participants' schools. A reflection component is included on the platform to collect these qualitative data.FindingsThe study results indicate that the virtual reality platform provides an innovative process for leadership professional development focused on building school leaders' capacity to identify elements of academic discourse during classroom observations. Participants reported that the opportunity to practice classroom observations in a risk-free environment was useful. However, for school leaders to fully transfer the data to using in conversations with teachers, they benefit from leadership coaching.Originality/valueThis study ascertains the potential effectiveness of an advanced technology for enhancing instructional leadership by using evidence-based classrooms observations to drive improvements in teaching practice. Beyond the utility of the virtual reality tool, this study provides a proof of concept for the next generation of instructional leadership through teacher observations with augmented reality.

Using Virtual Reality to Assess and Promote Transfer of Memory Training in Older Adults With Memory Complaints: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

In this proof-of-concept study, we assessed the potential for immersive virtual reality (VR) to measure transfer following strategic memory training, and whether efficacy and transfer are increased when training is complemented by practice in an immersive virtual environment. Forty older adults with subjective memory complaints were trained with the method of loci. They were randomized to either a condition where they practiced the strategy in VR (n = 20) or a control condition where they were familiarized with VR using a non-memory task (n = 20). Training efficacy was measured with word recall, and transfer of the training benefit was measured with a recall task completed in two VR tasks (primary outcomes) as well as a self-report memory questionnaire (secondary outcomes). Testing was administered before (PRE), midway (POST 3), and after (POST 6) training. Participants improved their scores on word recall. Regarding transfer measures, participants improved their performance in the two VR recall tasks but not on the self-report memory questionnaire. No significant group effect was observed. Improvement was found when comparing PRE to POST 3 with no further improvement at POST 6. Thus, strategic memory training improved the memory of seniors with memory complaints on word recall and a transfer task relying on a VR scenario that resembles real-life. However, no evidence supporting an increase in transfer effects was found when enriching training with VR memory exercises.

Assessment of virtual reality as an anxiety and disgust provoking tool: The use of VR exposure in individuals with high contamination fear

Preliminary studies have provided promising results on the feasibility of virtual reality (VR) interventions for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. The present study investigated whether VR scenarios that were developed for contamination concerns evoke anxiety, disgust, and the urge to wash in individuals with high (n = 33) and low (n = 33) contamination fear. In addition, the feasibility of VR exposure in inducing disgust was examined through testing the mediator role of disgust in the relationship between contamination anxiety and the urge to wash. Participants were immersed in virtual scenarios with varying degrees of dirtiness and rated their level of anxiety, disgust, and the urge to wash after performing the virtual tasks. Data were collected between September and December 2019. The participants with high contamination fear reported higher contamination-related ratings than those with low contamination fear. The significant main effect of dirtiness indicated that anxiety and disgust levels increased with increasing overall dirtiness of the virtual scenarios in both high and low contamination fear groups. Moreover, disgust elicited by VR mediated the relationship between contamination fear and the urge to wash. The findings demonstrated the feasibility of VR in eliciting emotional responses that are necessary for conducting exposure in individuals with high contamination fear. In conclusion, VR can be used as an alternative exposure tool in the treatment of contamination-based OCD.

Personalized Virtual Reality Human-Computer Interaction for Psychiatric and Neurological Illnesses: A Dynamically Adaptive Virtual Reality Environment That Changes According to Real-Time Feedback From Electrophysiological Signal Responses.

Virtual reality (VR) constitutes an alternative, effective, and increasingly utilized treatment option for people suffering from psychiatric and neurological illnesses. However, the currently available VR simulations provide a predetermined simulative framework that does not take into account the unique personality traits of each individual; this could result in inaccurate, extreme, or unpredictable responses driven by patients who may be overly exposed and in an abrupt manner to the predetermined stimuli, or result in indifferent, almost non-existing, reactions when the stimuli do not affect the patients adequately and thus stronger stimuli are recommended. In this study, we present a VR system that can recognize the individual differences and readjust the VR scenarios during the simulation according to the treatment aims. To investigate and present this dynamically adaptive VR system we employ an Anxiety Disorder condition as a case study, namely arachnophobia. This system consists of distinct anxiety states, aiming to dynamically modify the VR environment in such a way that it can keep the individual within a controlled, and appropriate for the therapy needs, anxiety state, which will be called “desired states” for the study. This happens by adjusting the VR stimulus, in real-time, according to the electrophysiological responses of each individual. These electrophysiological responses are collected by an external electrodermal activity biosensor that serves as a tracker of physiological changes. Thirty-six diagnosed arachnophobic individuals participated in a one-session trial. Participants were divided into two groups, the Experimental Group which was exposed to the proposed real-time adaptive virtual simulation, and the Control Group which was exposed to a pre-recorded static virtual simulation as proposed in the literature. These results demonstrate the proposed system’s ability to continuously construct an updated and adapted virtual environment that keeps the users within the appropriately chosen state (higher or lower intensity) for approximately twice the time compared to the pre-recorded static virtual simulation. Thus, such a system can increase the efficiency of VR stimulations for the treatment of central nervous system dysfunctions, as it provides numerically more controlled sessions without unexpected variations.

A virtual reality study on postretrieval extinction of smoking memory reconsolidation in smokers

Exposure to smoking-related stimuli may induce the reconsolidation of smoking-related memories in smokers. Research has proposed that extinction applied after the retrieval of a smoking memory may inhibit reconsolidation and prevent craving. The aim of this study was to test the effect of postretrieval extinction (PRE) on the reconsolidation of smoking memory by using a virtual reality (VR) simulation in smokers. On the day 1 session, the study exposed 46 smokers to a neutral and then to a smoking VR scenario under a fixed-block protocol. On day 2, the study randomized participants into three groups (G) and exposed them to a 15-s VR immersion in smoking (G1, G3) or neutral (G2) scenario for memory retrieval. After 15 min, the study exposed G1 and G2 to a VR PRE during the temporal window of memory vulnerability, whereas the study exposed G3 to extinction immediately after retrieval. On day 3, the study exposed all groups to neutral and smoking scenarios similar to day 1. All groups significantly increased craving for cigarettes after exposure to the smoking scenario on day 1 (p < 0.01). On day 3, VR PRE after a 15-second VR smoking memory retrieval was able to inhibit reconsolidation in G1, but not in G3 exposed to PRE before the window of vulnerability, or in G2 not exposed to the smoking memory retrieval. These findings show the superiority of VR PRE after smoking memory retrieval compared to a standard extinction procedure.

Heter-Sim: Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems Simulation by Interactive Data-Driven Optimization.

Interactive multi-agent simulation algorithms are used to compute the trajectories and behaviors of different entities in virtual reality scenarios. However, current methods involve considerable parameter tweaking to generate plausible behaviors. We introduce a novel approach (Heter-Sim) that combines physics-based simulation methods with data-driven techniques using an optimization-based formulation. Our approach is general and can simulate heterogeneous agents corresponding to human crowds, traffic, vehicles, or combinations of different agents with varying dynamics. We estimate motion states from real-world datasets that include information about position, velocity, and control direction. Our optimization algorithm considers several constraints, including velocity continuity, collision avoidance, attraction, direction control. Other constraints are implemented by introducing a novel energy function to control the motions of heterogeneous agents. To accelerate the computations, we reduce the search space for both collision avoidance and optimal solution computation. Heter-Sim can simulate tens or hundreds of agents at interactive rates and we compare its accuracy with real-world datasets and prior algorithms. We also perform user studies that evaluate the plausible behaviors generated by our algorithm and a user study that evaluates the plausibility of our algorithm via VR.

A novel point cloud quality assessment metric based on perceptual color distance patterns

In recent years, PCs have become very popular for a wide range of applications, such as immersive virtual reality scenarios. As a consequence, in the last couple of years, there has been a great effort to develop novel acquisition, representation, compression, and transmission solutions for PC contents in the research community. In particular, the development of objective quality assessment methods that are able to predict the perceptual quality of PCs. In this paper, we present an effective novel method for assessing the quality of PCs, which is based on descriptors that extract perceptual color distance-based texture information of PC contents, called Perceptual Color Distance Patterns (PCDP). In this framework, the statistics of the extracted information are used to model the PC visual quality. Experimental results show that the proposed framework exhibit good and robust performance when compared with several state-of-the-art point cloud quality assessment (PCQA) methods.

Training in a virtual environment for high risk work at heights

Falls from a height are a common reason for workplace fatalities in the construction industry. Such high-risk work is likely to remain inherent in construction tasks requiring further efforts to reduce the risk of falling. As an underlying instability in balance may promote the development of height phobia, the current study investigated the role of fear of heights, and individual's postural response (PR) to the perturbation of an elevated work platform while exposed to simulated heights scenarios in virtual reality (VR). Postural responses were measured during the VR training experiment and the Acrophobia questionnaire and motion sickness susceptibility questionnaire were administered. Results indicated that the height anxiety (a sub-scale of the acrophobia questionnaire) was reduced after the 50-minute VR session comprising five trials. Postural response improvement also correlated with decreases in fear of heights. Findings indicate that construction workers may benefit from inclusion of VR exposure to heights as part of preparation to work at heights.

Towards Higher Sense of Presence: A 3D Virtual Environment Adaptable to Confusion and Engagement

Virtual Reality scenarios where emitters convey information to receptors can be used as a tool for distance learning and to enable virtual visits to company physical headquarters. However, immersive Virtual Reality setups usually require visualization interfaces such as Head-mounted Displays, Powerwalls or CAVE systems, supported by interaction devices (Microsoft Kinect, Wii Motion, among others), that foster natural interaction but are often inaccessible to users. We propose a virtual presentation scenario, supported by a framework, that provides emotion-driven interaction through ubiquitous devices. An experiment with 3 conditions was designed involving: a control condition; a less confusing text script based on its lexical, syntactical, and bigram features; and a third condition where an adaptive lighting system dynamically acted based on the user's engagement. Results show that users exposed to the less confusing script reported higher sense of presence, albeit without statistical significance. Users from the last condition reported lower sense of presence, which rejects our hypothesis without statistical significance. We theorize that, as the presentation was given orally and the adaptive lighting system impacts the visual channel, this conflict may have overloaded the users' cognitive capacity and thus reduced available resources to address the presentation content.

Induction and Profiling of Strong Multi-Componential Emotions in Virtual Reality

Psychological theories of emotion have often defined an emotion as simultaneous changes in several mental and bodily components. In addition, appraisal theories assume that an appraisal component elicits changes in the other emotion components (e.g., motivational, behavioural, experiential). Neither the componential definition of emotion nor appraisal theory have been systematically translated to paradigms for emotion induction, many of which rely on passive emotion induction without a clear theoretical framework. As a result, the observed emotions are often weak. This study explored the potential of virtual reality (VR) to evoke strong emotions in ecologically valid scenarios that fully engaged the mental and bodily components of the participant. Participants played several VR games and reported on their emotions. Multivariate analyses using hierarchical clustering and multilevel linear modelling showed that participants experienced intense, multi-componential emotions in VR. We identified joy and fear clusters of responses, each involving changes in appraisal, motivation, physiology, feeling, and regulation. Appraisal variables were found to be the most predictive for fear and joy intensities, compared to other emotion components, and were found to explain individual differences in VR scenarios, as predicted by appraisal theory. The results advocate for upgraded methodologies for the induction and analysis of emotion processes.

Virtual reality training of lucid dreaming.

Metacognitive reflections on one's current state of mind are largely absent during dreaming. Lucid dreaming as the exception to this rule is a rare phenomenon; however, its occurrence can be facilitated through cognitive training. A central idea of respective training strategies is to regularly question one's phenomenal experience: is the currently experienced world real, or just a dream? Here, we tested if such lucid dreaming training can be enhanced with dream-like virtual reality (VR): over the course of four weeks, volunteers underwent lucid dreaming training in VR scenarios comprising dream-like elements, classical lucid dreaming training or no training. We found that VR-assisted training led to significantly stronger increases in lucid dreaming compared to the no-training condition. Eye signal-verified lucid dreams during polysomnography supported behavioural results. We discuss the potential mechanisms underlying these findings, in particular the role of synthetic dream-like experiences, incorporation of VR content in dream imagery serving as memory cues, and extended dissociative effects of VR session on subsequent experiences that might amplify lucid dreaming training during wakefulness.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Offline perception: voluntary and spontaneous perceptual experiences without matching external stimulation'.

Smoking-related cue reactivity in a virtual reality setting: association between craving and EEG measures

BackgroundCue-reactivity is the array of responses that smokers exhibit when exposed to conditioned and contextual stimuli previously associated to substance use. The difficulty to experimentally recreate the complexity of smokers’ spatial experience and context requires more ecological models. Virtual reality (VR) creates a state of immersion close to reality allowing controlled assessments of behavioral responses. To date, no studies investigated brain activation associated to smoking cue-reactivity in VR using electroencephalography (EEG).AimsTo investigate whether a VR cue-reactivity paradigm (a) may increase smoking craving, (b) is feasible with EEG recording, and (c) induces craving levels associated to EEG desynchronization.MethodsSmokers (N = 20) and non-smokers (N = 20) were exposed to neutral and smoking-related VR scenarios, without and with smoking conditioned stimuli, respectively. EEG was recorded from occipital and parietal leads throughout the sessions to assess alpha band desynchronization. Smoking and food craving and presence visual analogue scales (VAS) were assessed during the session.ResultsTo be smoker, but not non-smoker, significantly influenced smoking craving VAS induced by smoking cue VR but not by neutral VR. No significant food craving changes was observed during the VR sessions. The new finding was that EEG alpha band power in posterior leads was significantly increased by the smoking context scenario only in smokers, and that the degree of smoking (i.e., heavy vs. light) was significantly associated to this neurophysiological measure.ConclusionsThis study demonstrated, for the first time, the feasibility of EEG recording in a VR setting, suggesting that EEG desynchronization may be a neurophysiological marker of smoking cue-reactivity.