Virtual Reality User Research Articles

Hooked on the metaverse? Exploring the prevalence of addiction to virtual reality applications

Similar to debates about other new media technologies in the past, with the popularization of virtual reality (VR) technologies, concerns are raised about their potential to breed media addiction. In response to these concerns, the aim of this research was to provide a first examination of the prevalence of addiction to VR application use. An online survey was conducted among frequent VR users (N= 754), and measures of the different components of addiction were obtained, as well as demographics, hours of weekly use, type of apps used, and feelings of spatial presence and embodiment during VR app use. The results indicate that between 2% and 20% of users reveal compulsive VR use, depending on the classification criteria used. These prevalence estimates are similar to those of other activities such as the use of (non-VR) video games or the use of social networking sites. Therefore, the results suggest that VR applications do not have a higher addictive potential than other more traditional technologies. However, feelings of embodiment when using VR positively predict addiction. This may suggest that future developments of VR technology could, perhaps, also increase its addictive potential compared to other technologies.

"Acting Out" Queer Identity: The Embodied Visibility in Social Virtual Reality

This paper focuses on embodied visibility emerging in social Virtual Reality (VR) as a new lens to explore how queer users build and experience visibility in nuanced ways. Drawing on 29 queer social VR users' experiences across various countries and cultures, we identify three main strategies for building and experiencing embodied visibility in social VR, limitations of each strategy, and impacts of such visibility on queer users' identity practices online and offline. We broaden current studies on queer visibility online and expand the traditional lens of selective visibility by highlighting how embodiment both supports and challenges the multidimensional online presentations of queer identity. We also propose potential design considerations to further support diverse queer users' visibility in social VR and inform future directions for creating inclusive online social experiences.

Incorporating Situation Awareness Cues in Virtual Reality for Users in Dynamic in-Vehicle Environments.

The increasing ubiquity and mobility of virtual reality (VR) devices has introduced novel use cases, one of which is using VR in vehicles, both human-driven and fully automated. However, the effects of the adoption of VR-in-the-car on user task performance, safety, trust, and perceived risk are still largely unknown or not fully understood. Blocking out the physical world and substituting it with a virtual environment has many potential benefits including fewer distractions and greater productivity. However, one shortcoming of this seclusion is losing situation awareness which becomes critical in dynamic, in-vehicle environments, even when the user is not in the driver's seat. Hence, this study aims to understand the effects of providing VR users with situation awareness cues about the real world, when riding in a human-driven or a fully automated car. The results of this driving simulator experiment provide valuable insights into passengers' experience and their information needs while immersed in VR environments. Identifying passengers' unique challenges and needs, as well as developing solutions for them, is expected to improve users' travel experience towards a wider adoption of VR devices.

Objects May Be Farther Than They Appear: Depth Compression Diminishes Over Time with Repeated Calibration in Virtual Reality.

Prior research in depth perception and perceptuo-motor calibration have primarily focused on participants completing experiments in single sessions and therefore do not empirically evaluate changes over time. Further, these studies do not typically take into account the amount of experience that the participants have in virtual reality (VR) prior to participation, the role of experience during participation, or calibration that may occur throughout the experiment session. In this contribution, we conducted a novel empirical evaluation of how calibration affects perception-action coordination over time. We recruited novice VR users and they completed eight sessions of a depth perception reaching experiment over the course of 12 weeks. During these experiments, we examined how participants' ability to estimate depth in a virtual environment changed as they gradually gained experience. While previous literature has shown that participants tend to underestimate distances, we found that this underestimation diminished over time as they gained experience in the virtual environment. Our study highlights the need for carrying out VR studies over time and the influence that longitudinal calibration can have on spatial perception in long-term 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.

AP Association Algorithm Based on VR User Behavior Awareness

With the rapid development of virtual reality (VR) technology, this paper proposes an access point (AP) correlation method based on VR user behavior awareness to address the problem of how current AP correlation methods only focus on the performance improvements of ordinary users and ignore the impact of VR user behavior on service quality. This paper analyzes the AP association method under the coverage scenario of a multi-access point (multi-AP) scenario environment and controls the performance improvement of VR user APs or APs under the access controller (AC) by association. Firstly, the VR network application scenario and system model were constructed, and secondly, the user behavior was sensed by analyzing the viewing habits of users. Then, the VR user association problem based on VR user behavior perception was transformed into a “many-to-many” matching problem between VR user devices and APs, and the generalized multidimensional multiple choice knapsack (GMMKP) model was established to solve the problem using the backpack problem theory; the suboptimal solution algorithm was selected to obtain the best VR user AP association strategy. The experimental results show by simulation that the proposed algorithm in this paper performed better in terms of the AP load balancing and average network download latency compared to the comparison algorithms.

Digital Twin as Industrial Robots Manipulation Validation Tool

The adoption of Digital Twin (DT) solutions for industrial purposes is increasing among small- and medium-sized enterprises and is already being integrated into many large-scale companies. As there is an increasing need for faster production and shortening of the learning curve for new emerging technologies, Virtual Reality (VR) interfaces for enterprise manufacturing DTs seem to be a good solution. Furthermore, with the emergence of Industry 5.0 (I5.0) paradigm, human operators will be increasingly integrated in the systems interfaces though advanced interactions, pervasive sensors, real time tracking and data acquisition. This scenario is especially relevant in collaborative automated systems where the introduction of immersive VR interfaces based on production cell DTs might provide a solution for the integration of the human factors in the modern industrial scenarios. This study presents experimental results of the comparison between users controlling a physical industrial robot system via a traditional teach pendant and a DT leveraging a VR user interface. The study group involves forty subjects including experts in robotics and VR as well as non-experts. An analysis of the data gathered in both the real and the virtual use case scenario is provided. The collected information includes time for performing a task with an industrial robot, stress level evaluation, physical and mental effort, and the human subjects’ perceptions of the physical and simulated robots. Additionally, operator gazes were tracked in the VR environment. In this study, VR interfaces in the DT representation are exploited to gather user centered metrics and validate efficiency and safety standards for modern collaborative industrial systems in I5.0. The goal is to evaluate how the operators perceive and respond to the virtual robot and user interface while interacting with them and detect if any degradation of user experience and task efficiency exists compared to the real robot interfaces. Results demonstrate that the use of DT VR interfaces is comparable to traditional tech pendants for the given task and might be a valuable substitute of physical interfaces. Despite improving the overall task performance and considering the higher stress levels detected while using the DT VR interface, further studies are necessary to provide a clearer validation of both interfaces and user impact assessment methods.

Rehabilitation of hand through leap motion control on burn injury patients

Burn injuries, especially severe burns, triggers immune and inflammation response, disturbances of metabolism and distributive type of shock, all of this can be said as hard to treat and may lead to cause multiple organ failure. The fact that the injury not only effects physical health but also mental health his mental health and quality of life is critical. As a result, people with burn injuries cannot be deemed recovered if wounds have healed; rather, burn injuries cause long-term fundamental changes that must be focused in order to improve quality of life. As a result, burn care providers encounter a variety of issues, including managing acute and critical care, long-term care, and rehabilitation. Hand is the most commonly injured body part out of all accidents that are work related , ranks third of all workplace injuries and necessitating surgical and lengthy recovery. Hand burns make it difficult to function. The rehabilitation process has benefited from the usage of virtual reality (VR). LMC is a form of virtual reality game that uses new technology to provide biofeedback and training for fine motor function and functional skills. According to this review paper, leap motion training will enable hand burns patient to enhance finger mobility, reduce scar thickness, and improve hand function along with enhancing quality of life of patient. Although improvement in condition depends on severity of burn but this gadget proved to be a boon for hand rehab. on burn population. . Finally in conclusion of review it can be said that leap motion training may aid patients with hand burns in increasing finger range of motion, reducing scar thickness, and improving hand function.

Content-, system-, and hardware-related effects on the experience of flow in VR gaming

ABSTRACT The aim of this research was to conceptualize and measure the flow experience of Virtual Reality (VR) gaming as well as to develop and empirically test a research model that explains flow experience and subsequent usage behavior. This model highlights the effects of content-, system-, and hardware-related factors on flow, as well as the relevance of interaction effects. Based on a large survey of 1,784 German VR users, the structural equation model showed that gaming motives, perceived content quality, content range, system quality and barriers to VR usage significantly influence the experience of flow in VR gaming and thus behavioral intention and usage. Age, gamer identification, and VR technology experience had interaction effects with several of these relationships. This study contributes a multidimensional conception of flow and a better understanding of its antecedents and consequences. It yields practical implications by highlighting the need not only to differentiate between self-identified gamers and non-gamers but also to consider previous VR experience and the impact of real-world circumstances in the development and marketing of VR games.

Game-Based Virtual Reality System for Upper Limb Rehabilitation After Stroke in a Clinical Environment: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

The use of virtual reality (VR) for stroke rehabilitation has been implemented during the last decade. At present, most studies still focus on the effects of VR on upper limb rehabilitation, and few studies have explored VR games, VR system designs, and rehabilitation modes for upper limb rehabilitation. This study aims to (1) evaluate the rehabilitation effect of stroke patients using a game-based VR upper limb rehabilitation system in clinical settings; (2) investigate the impact of custom and commercial VR games on patients in clinical settings; and (3) review VR upper limb rehabilitation modes. The PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Web of Science, and IEEE Xplore databases were searched, and related literature published through December 2021 was included. A total of 4700 articles were retrieved according to the search strategy. We identified 24 studies, including 793 patients. We conducted a systematic search for randomized controlled trials with adult stroke patients to analyze the effect of game-based VR upper limb rehabilitation systems. A meta-analysis was conducted to compare the effects of upper limb function, hand dexterity, daily living ability, and cognitive function between the experimental group (EG, using VR for upper limb rehabilitation) and control group (CG, receiving conventional rehabilitation, including physical therapy and occupational therapy). We also conducted an analysis of both custom and commercial games. The results of the meta-analysis proved that game-based VR upper limb rehabilitation therapy for cerebral apoplexy is an effective method of rehabilitation in clinical settings and is more effective than traditional rehabilitation in improving patients' upper limb function and hand mobility. Custom games heal better than commercial games. This study only includes nonimmersive device rehabilitation modes due to research constraints and classified them into four categories. The mode of VR games combined with rehabilitation instruments may solve the problem that patients with severe upper limb dysfunction cannot operate games. Whether the use of immersive VR devices and the fun of games will affect patients' rehabilitation motivation and effect is the direction of future research.

The right tools for the job: towards preference and performance considerations in the design of virtual reality interactions

ABSTRACT Virtual reality (VR) users interact with virtual objects using motion-tracked controllers. While many devices utilise abstract button pushes for interactions, some allow for limited finger tracking by estimating finger positions based on sensors. In this study, the Vive Wands and the Valve Index controllers were compared in three tasks: direct interaction with objects (throwing), tool usage (bow) and indirect control of a character (remote-control). Forty-four participants completed each task with both devices and rated the usability of the device after each task. Results showed only differences in preference for the remote-control task. Some participants noted that using the thumbstick of the Index instead of the touchpad of the Wands controller felt more natural in this task. However, performance did not differ between devices in any task. Therefore, future research should not only compare designs of controllers but also consider assets and interactions, as there may be preference and performance differences for certain combinations.

Social rather than physical crowding reduces the required interpersonal distance in virtual environments.

Interpersonal distance plays an important role in human social interaction. With the increasing usage of virtual reality in social interaction, people's interpersonal distance in virtual space attracts great attention. It remains unclear whether and to what extent human-required interpersonal distance is altered by crowded virtual scenes. In this study, we manipulated crowd density in virtual environments and used the classical stop-distance paradigm to measure required interpersonal distances at different crowd densities. We found that people's required interpersonal distance decreased with increased social crowdedness but not with physical crowdedness. Moreover, the decrease of two types of interpersonal distance was associated with the globally averaged crowd density rather than local crowd density. The reduction is not due to the imitation of other virtual humans in the crowd. Moreover, we developed a model to describe the quantitative relationships between the crowdedness of the environment and the required interpersonal distance. Our finding provides insights into designing user-friendly virtual humans in metaverse virtual worlds.

Integrated concepts of the UTAUT and TPB in virtual reality behavioral intention

Upon entering 2022, Taiwan faced an epidemic that broke out in large numbers in a short time came to have the highest infection rate in the world, which has driven the demand for virtual reality (VR) tourism. The current study integrated the concepts of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to investigate users' VR tourism behaviour intention. Using a sample of 635 virtual reality (VR) users, the results indicate that UTAUT might indirectly influence behaviour through the perceived benefits of technology usage. Further, attitudes toward VR tourism have positively strengthened the relationships between UTAUT, perceived benefits, and behavioural intention. First-order factor and second-order factor analyses of alternative models were applied to implement a comparative design with the originally proposed models. The theoretical and managerial implications are discussed in the final section.

Influences of virtual reality on design creativity and design thinking

This study explores the influences of virtual reality (VR) on creative design performance and design thinking processes. In this pretest−posttest experiment, nonequivalent groups of 180 seventh-grade students from a junior high school in Taipei were enrolled as research participants. For interior design lesson activities, the experimental and control groups were taught using VR applications and multimedia lectures, respectively, after which their creative design performance and design thinking processes were assessed and compared. The main conclusions are as follows: VR has a significant and positive influence on the creative design process (particularly the design and planning, testing and modification, and thinking and sharing stages), but it did not influence the data collection stage; VR has moderate effects on the functional integrity, technical requirements, sophistication and esthetics, and originality and novelty of creative design outcomes; and VR users have comprehensive design thinking processes that transition smoothly from empathy to problem definition, creative ideation, prototyping, and testing and verification. The experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in empathy.

Content-Aware Proactive VR Video Caching for Cache-Enabled AP over Edge Networks

With the rapid development of virtual reality (VR) video networked applications, the use of network caching mechanisms to guarantee the quality of VR services has been proven to be a very effective method. Most of the existing methods on cache placement prediction only consider the one-sided information of user viewpoints and do not consider the video characteristic information of virtual reality, because the asymmetry of the two types of information causes the accuracy of current predictions to gradually decrease, which affects the cache hit rate and leads to VR performance metrics that cannot be guaranteed. In this paper, we analyze the demanding requirements of VR for low latency and high bandwidth in a multi-access point (multi-AP) scenario environment, and further improve the cache hit rate of user requests by increasing network throughput. First, the throughput of VR users after associating APs is analyzed using a Markov model. Second, a nonlinear mixed integer programming problem is constructed with the goal of maximizing the overall throughput of the network system. Finally, combining the characteristics of the VR video content itself and the popularity of the requested video content, the symmetry of the information is guaranteed by considering the ratio between the video characteristic information and the user feature information to determine the weights. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves the improvement of cache hit rate and the improvement of network throughput while ensuring the quality of service.

Meta-Reinforcement Learning for Reliable Communication in THz/VLC Wireless VR Networks

In this paper, the problem of enhancing the quality of virtual reality (VR) services is studied for an indoor terahertz (THz)/visible light communication (VLC) wireless network. In the studied model, small base stations (SBSs) transmit high-quality VR images to VR users over THz bands and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) provide accurate indoor positioning services for them using VLC. Here, VR users move in real time and their movement patterns change over time according to their applications, where both THz and VLC links can be blocked by the bodies of VR users. To control the energy consumption of the studied THz/VLC wireless VR network, VLC access points (VAPs) must be selectively turned on so as to ensure accurate and extensive positioning for VR users. Based on the user positions, each SBS must generate corresponding VR images and establish THz links without body blockage to transmit the VR content. The problem is formulated as an optimization problem whose goal is to maximize the average number of successfully served VR users by selecting the appropriate VAPs to be turned on and controlling the user association with SBSs. To solve this problem, a policy gradient-based reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm that adopts a meta-learning approach is proposed. The proposed meta policy gradient (MPG) algorithm enables the trained policy to quickly adapt to new user movement patterns. In order to solve the problem of maximizing the average number of successfully served users for VR scenarios with large numbers of users, a low-complexity dual method based MPG algorithm (D-MPG) with a low complexity is proposed. Simulation results demonstrate that, compared to a baseline trust region policy optimization algorithm (TRPO), the proposed MPG and D-MPG algorithms yield up to 26.8% and 21.9% improvement in the average number of successfully served users as well as 81.2% and 87.5% gains in the convergence speed, respectively.

How Does Virtual Reality Compare? The Effects of Avatar Appearance and Medium on Self-Disclosure

Digital communication methods such as social media, texting, video conferencing account for a significant amount of social interaction traffic; however, in the coming decade, virtual reality (VR) is likely to appropriate much of this space from traditional 2D computer-mediated applications. The current series of studies first compared how different digital communication mediums (i.e., voice only, video chat, and VR) affect self-disclosure and then, looking specifically at VR, evaluated how avatar appearance affects self-disclosure. Overall, study one indicated that VR users are more likely to reveal highly personal facts, attitudes, opinions, and emotions than video chat or voice only communication users. Looking only at VR communication, study two demonstrated that individuals with a human avatar are more likely to reveal emotional experiences and highly personal facts, attitudes, and emotions about themselves and their experiences compared to individuals using a robot avatar.

Virtual Reality Streaming for Remote Medical Training: Evaluation of Interface Usability with Physicians

A novel virtual reality (VR) system for streaming medical training was designed and evaluated from a user-centered perspective. We developed the VR user interface for remote medical training based on interviews with physicians who instruct medical simulation sessions. We then conducted usability tests with eleven board-certified physicians who specialize in Emergency Medicine or Obstetrics and Gynecology (OBGYN) Physicians used the novel VR system to watch stereoscopic video of a training simulation for an obstetrica emergency: management of shoulder dystocia. Physicians then rated the usability of the VR system. Th average usability rating was above an "A+" grade average on an industry benchmark scale.

DAVE: Deep Learning-Based Asymmetric Virtual Environment for Immersive Experiential Metaverse Content

In this study, we design an interface optimized for the platform by adopting deep learning in an asymmetric virtual environment where virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) users participate together. We also propose a novel experience environment called deep learning-based asymmetric virtual environment (DAVE) for immersive experiential metaverse content. First, VR users use their real hands to intuitively interact with the virtual environment and objects. A gesture interface is designed based on deep learning to directly link gestures to actions. AR users interact with virtual scenes, objects, and VR users via a touch-based input method in a mobile platform environment. A text interface is designed using deep learning to directly link handwritten text to actions. This study aims to propose a novel asymmetric virtual environment via an intuitive, easy, and fast interactive interface design as well as to create metaverse content for an experience environment and a survey experiment. This survey experiment is conducted with users to statistically analyze and investigate user interface satisfaction, user experience, and user presence in the experience environment.

Parsimonious Approach to in Analyzing Brainwaves for VR Users

For the development of virtual reality (VR) technology, research to solve the VR Sickness is essential. Many attempts have been made to measure and reduce VR Sickness using questionnaires, analysis, and bio-signals, but it is true that analytical research through clinical practice still lacks. In this paper, the researcher collected bio-signals and questionnaire data to analyze the correlation between VR Sickness and user and perform principal component analysis and chi-square independence test based on the collected data. As a result, the researcher was able to be aware of the user’s concentration and relaxation state by EEG and found they are correlated with VR Sickness. Finally, the result of the analysis was cross-checked to confirm that these correlations show a significant difference. The empirical result of this study is expected to be used for the research to reduce VR Sickness through bio-signal.