VR Scenes Research Articles

VR Scene Detail Enhancement Method Based on Depth Reinforcement Learning Algorithm

In virtual reality, due to factors such as light sources and surface materials of objects, the details of the scene exhibit extremely complex changes, making it difficult to capture environmental modeling relationships and reducing the quality of scene details. Therefore, a VR scene detail enhancement method based on deep reinforcement learning algorithm is proposed. Using the Total Variation (TV) denoising algorithm to decompose the VR scene, the VR scene is divided into two parts: noisy and non-noisy, to complete the noise removal. Based on the denoised VR scene, a Hessian matrix is constructed to extract VR scene features using the SURF algorithm. Using deep reinforcement learning algorithms to train and process the extracted VR visual features, introducing meta-learning within the gradient descent method, updating the parameters of the deep reinforcement learning Expose framework, and accelerating the training speed of the deep reinforcement learning Expose framework. By designing L1 loss, structural similarity loss, content perception loss, and sharpness loss functions, the enhancement effect of VR visual details can be improved. The experimental results show that the proposed method enhances the gray-scale values and distribution of VR scene detail images to be higher and more uniform. When the magnification is different, the studied method can effectively enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of VR scenes. Therefore, it indicates that the VR scene detail enhancement effect of the method proposed in this article is good.

The Role of Personalization in Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy During the Treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder

IntroductionIn Cue-Exposure-Therapy (CET), clients are exposed to triggers through objects, people and environments that arouse craving (Sinha et al. Neuropsychopharmacol. 2009;34 1198–1208). Virtual Reality Exposure therapy (VRET) is used to experience these triggers in a realistic, safe, and personalized way. VR has been used successfully in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. It has not yet been developed and sufficiently tested as an adjuvant in the clinical post-detoxification phase of treatment of alcohol use disorders (AUD) (e.g. Bordnick et al. Addict.Behav 2008;33 743-756; Hone-Blanchet et al. Front.Hum.Neurosci. 2014; 8(844) 1-15). Additionally, these treatment methods have been tested for effect, but not for effectiveness around different VR technologies (Ghita & Gutierrez-Maldonado. Addict.Behav 2018; 81 1-11; ). This study focuses on VRET-Recovry to examine to what extent VR worlds could be personalized in an effective manner to help treat AUD as well as clarifying on the ways in which the VR worlds could be optimized to achieve its goal.ObjectivesThe primary objectives of this study are to assess the necessity of personalization in VR environments for AUD treatment, identify the critical elements for personalization, and examine their impact on craving in AUD patients.MethodsThe study included 10 AUD patients diagnosed according to DSM-V criteria, aged between 18 and 65, who were in the final week of clinical detoxification at a large addiction clinic in The Netherlands. A controlled experiment was conducted using the Recovry 1.0 VR system on Samsung Gear VR and Samsung Galaxy S9. The experiment involved exposure to various VR scenes (CG and 360o), including a neutral setting, a bar scene, and a home situation, with the duration and sequence controlled by a therapist. Data collection consisted of pre- and post-exposure questionnaires, heart rate and blood pressure measurements, and interviews.ResultsCraving was remarkably low in the VR bar scene, primarily due to its unsociable context, limited alcohol visibility, and absence of peer pressure. Technical limitations, such as suboptimal resolution, also affected the feeling of presence. Positive results were shown that craving was predominantly stimulated in the apartment scene, driven by the presence of alcohol-related visual cues and social elements, resembling relaxed drinking with others.ConclusionsThis study underscores that some degree of personalization is needed on all craving dimensions with clear preference was given to CG or 360°. The environments were dependent on the personal history and associations they represent to different levels of alcohol visibility (messy or clean), and types of drink (based on past drinking behavior), and different emotional contexts are needed (positive and negative).Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Scene-aware Foveated Neural Radiance Fields.

Foveated rendering provides an idea for improving the image synthesis performance of neural radiance fields (NeRF) methods. In this paper, we propose a scene-aware foveated neural radiance fields method to synthesize high-quality foveated images in complex VR scenes at high frame rates. Firstly, we construct a multi-ellipsoidal neural representation to enhance the neural radiance field's representation capability in salient regions of complex VR scenes based on the scene content. Then, we introduce a uniform sampling based foveated neural radiance field framework to improve the foveated image synthesis performance with one-pass color inference, and improve the synthesis quality by leveraging the foveated scene-aware objective function. Our method synthesizes high-quality binocular foveated images at the average frame rate of 66 frames per second (FPS) in complex scenes with high occlusion, intricate textures, and sophisticated geometries. Compared with the state-of-the-art foveated NeRF method, our method achieves significantly higher synthesis quality in both the foveal and peripheral regions with 1.41-1.46× speedup. We also conduct a user study to prove that the perceived quality of our method has a high visual similarity with the ground truth.

Task and Environment-Aware Virtual Scene Rearrangement for Enhanced Safety in Virtual Reality.

Emerging VR applications have revolutionized user experiences by immersing individuals in digitally crafted environments. However, fully immersive experiences introduce new challenges, notably the risk of physical hazards when users are unaware of their surroundings. Existing solutions, including guardian spaces and locomotion systems, present trade-offs that either disrupt the immersive experience or risk inducing motion sickness. To address these challenges, we propose a novel approach that dynamically rearranges VR scenes according to users' physical spaces, seamlessly embedding physical constraints and interaction tasks into the virtual environment. We design a computational model to optimize the rearranged scene through a cost function, ensuring collision-free interactions while maintaining visual fidelity and the goal of interaction tasks. The experiments demonstrate improvements in user experience and safety, presenting an innovative solution to harmonize physical and virtual environments in VR applications.

Joint optimization of task scheduling and computing resource allocation for VR video services in 5G‐advanced networks

AbstractWith the development of 5G networks and related hardware equipment, the demand for various VR video services including panoramic video live broadcast and immersive game is increasing day by day. Due to the explosive growth of data volume and the trend toward lightweight VR equipment, traditional local computing architecture faces problems of insufficient computing power and high cost. As an emerging computing paradigm, the remote computing architecture of cloud‐edge collaboration frees users from cumbersome local restrictions. However, edge computing resources are often limited, and the remote cloud has inconsistent network latency. Therefore, how to adaptively schedule and allocate computing resources is the key to determining VR service quality. Based on an in‐depth analysis of the characteristics of VR video services and network environments, this article first builds a cloud‐edge‐network coorperation computing and transmission architecture for VR video services. This architecture can adaptively offload concurrent computing tasks and allocate computing power to them in VR scenes based on network conditions provided by the 5G‐Advanced networks via network information exposure interface. This paper proposes a general optimization problem to maximize user experience. And a single‐slot delay optimization model was constructed. Combining convex optimization theory and deep learning algorithms, this paper designs a task scheduling and computing power allocation strategy based on deep reinforcement learning. The policy gradually learns optimal task scheduling and resource allocation decisions to maximize delay‐related rewards in the long run. This article further introduces the graph neural network under the attention mechanism to solve the problem of changes in the number of concurrent tasks. Finally, through Cloudsim simulation, this article verifies the superiority of task scheduling and computing power allocation strategies based on deep reinforcement learning compared to other common strategies in terms of resource utilization, client latency, scalability and decision time.

The analgesic effects and neural oscillatory mechanisms of virtual reality scenes based on distraction and mindfulness strategies in human volunteers

BackgroundVirtual reality (VR) has been widely used as a non-pharmacological adjunct to pain management. However, there is no consensus on what type of VR content is the best for pain alleviation and by what means VR modulates pain perception. We used three experiments to explore the analgesic effect of VR scenes in healthy adult volunteers. MethodsWe first compared the effect of immersive VR on pain perception with active (i.e. non-immersive, two-dimensional video) and passive (i.e. no VR or audiovisual input) controls at both subjective perceptual (Experiment 1) and electrophysiological (electroencephalography) levels (Experiment 2), and then explored possible analgesic mechanisms responsible for VR scenes conveying different strategies (e.g. exploration or mindfulness; Experiment 3). ResultsThe multisensory experience of the VR environment lowered pain intensity and unpleasantness induced by contact heat stimuli when compared with two control conditions (P=0.001 and P<0.001, respectively). The reduced pain intensity rating correlated with decreased P2 amplitude (r=0.433, P<0.001) and increased pre-stimulus spontaneous gamma oscillations (r=−0.339, P=0.004) by 32-channel electroencephalography. A VR exploration scene induced a strong sense of immersion that was associated with increased pre-stimulus gamma oscillations (r=0.529, P<0.001), whereas a VR mindfulness meditation scene had a minor effect on immersive feelings but induced strong pre-stimulus alpha oscillations (r=−0.550, P<0.001), which led to a comparable analgesic effect. ConclusionsDistinct neural mechanisms are responsible for VR-induced analgesia, deepening our understanding of the analgesic benefits of VR and its neural electrophysiological correlates. These findings support further development of digital healthcare.

A VR User Behavior Classification Method Integrating Scene Information and Operation Information

With the rapid growth of the virtual reality industry, the number of users participating in virtual reality has rapidly increased, and analyzing user behavior in virtual reality scenarios has become increasingly important. Compared with general time series classification tasks, the input sources in virtual reality are more complex and diverse, and traditional time series classification models are difficult to handle this complexity. This article designs a series of methods for classifying VR user behavior and conducts experiments. Apply video motion recognition methods to VR motion recognition based on VR scene data. Due to the ability to obtain a series of image data from both videos and scenes, this article uses the method of video action recognition to process VR scene data. On this basis, a series of fusion methods were designed to fuse the operational information of VR. Experiments have shown that these methods can effectively handle action recognition problems in VR scenes.

Research on the Relationship between Motion Performance and User Experience of Golf Virtual Simulation Putting Simulator

This paper designs and develops a virtual golf simulation putting simulator based on the existing computer technology and conducts in-depth research and analysis on the relationship between its motion performance and user experience. The network architecture of the distributed virtual golf simulation system and the scene data management model are established, based on which the server-side system design and the client-side network communication module design of the distributed virtual golf simulation system are carried out. In the requirement analysis, the functional requirements such as building VR scenes, data communication and recognition models, and the non-functional requirements such as system security and ease of use are analyzed; in the outline design, the hardware equipment and logical architecture of the automatic user experience optimization system are described; in the detailed design, the functional modules of the system are designed in detail, including VR induction experience, physiological signal dataset user experience identification, data communication, optimization strategy, and so on, and important class diagrams and flowcharts are given. The intervention effects of positive thinking training on sports performance and improving athletes’ attention and receptivity have been verified and recognized by coaches and athletes. The putting simulator in the experimental class had higher hole-in-hole parameters than the control class, a highly significant difference; the putting simulator in the experimental class had higher hole-in-hole parameters than the control class, with a highly significant difference. These 3D models may contain more detailed information. In a virtual scene, the more detailed information a model contains, the more polygons the model needs, so that the computer needs to draw many polygons per frame, which has a great impact on the real-time performance of scene drawing. The parameters of the 5-yard chip-and-shoot in the experimental class were higher than those in the control class, and there was a very significant difference between the parameters of the 15-yard chip-and-shoot in the experimental class and those in the control class. The experimental results show that the model optimization processing method and rendering acceleration technology proposed in this paper can largely improve the rendering efficiency of 3D virtual scenes.

Adaptive VR Video Data Transmission Method Using Mobile Edge Computing Based on AIoT Cloud VR

Aiming at the high requirements of cloud service-based virtual reality in AIoT for data transmission rate and delay sensitivity, a cloud VR system scheme based on MEC (Mobile Edge Computing) is proposed, which mainly incorporates viewpoint-based VR video data processing and hybrid digital-to-analog (HDA) transmission optimization and can be served for AIoT transmission filed. Firstly, a learning-driven multiaccess MEC offloading strategy is designed, in which the VR terminal automatically selects the optimal MEC server for task offloading, thereby effectively improving network efficiency and reducing service delay. Secondly, the progressive transmission of the VR data is realized through viewpoint-aware dynamic streaming based on RoI (region of interest) and the priorities of different objects. The transmission priority of each object in the scene is determined through the ROI layering, which effectively solves the contradiction between the large data volume in the VR scenes and the network bandwidth limitation when applied in AIoT domain, and further improves the real-time performance of the system. Then, the HDA (hybrid digital-analog) technique is introduced to optimize the transmission. Finally, the base station protocol stack is modified on the basis of the LTE (Long-Term Evolution) system, and the MEC technology is integrated to realize a complete cloud VR system in AIoT. The experimental results show that compared with other advanced schemes, the proposed scheme can achieve more robust and efficient data transmission performance and provide better VR user experience.

Research on Rehabilitation Training Strategies Using Multimodal Virtual Scene Stimulation.

It is difficult for stroke patients with flaccid paralysis to receive passive rehabilitation training. Therefore, virtual rehabilitation technology that integrates the motor imagery brain-computer interface and virtual reality technology has been applied to the field of stroke rehabilitation and has evolved into a physical rehabilitation training method. This virtual rehabilitation technology can enhance the initiative and adaptability of patient rehabilitation. To maximize the deep activation of the subjects motor nerves and accelerate the remodeling mechanism of motor nerve function, this study designed a brain-computer interface rehabilitation training strategy using different virtual scenes, including static scenes, dynamic scenes, and VR scenes. Including static scenes, dynamic scenes, and VR scenes. We compared and analyzed the degree of neural activation and the recognition rate of motor imagery in stroke patients after motor imagery training using stimulation of different virtual scenes, The results show that under the three scenarios, The order of degree of neural activation and the recognition rate of motor imagery from high to low is: VR scenes, dynamic scenes, static scenes. This paper provided the research basis for a virtual rehabilitation strategy that could integrate the motor imagery brain-computer interface and virtual reality technology.

Design Innovation and Entrepreneurship Organization Based on Psychological Cognitiveness of the Space Narrative.

The high-quality workspace can be used as a physical carrier for design innovation and entrepreneurial organizational culture to continuously change the psychological cognition and behavior of employees in community of practice. The spatial narrative of the culture of design innovation and entrepreneurial organizations means to integrate entrepreneurship and organizational culture into the space through visual presentation. Whether the spatial narrative is successful or not needs to be judged by whether the change of people’s psychological cognition achieves the expected effect. The traditional qualitative research methods such as interviews and questionnaires cannot fully and accurately present the psychological cognitive mechanism of design Innovation and entrepreneurship organization members. We use virtual reality technology combined with electrophysiological technology to conduct experiments. We use these technologies to conduct quantitative experiments on psychological cognition in community of practice. This study will select a design innovation and entrepreneurial organization, randomly select 20 participants, and divide them into 2 groups for experimentation. The VR scene is based on their real office space as a prototype. Put the visual elements of corporate culture in one of the VR scenes. The other VR scene as a reference does not incorporate visual elements of organizational culture. Participants participated in the experiment in these two VR scenarios. There are many advanced devices that can accurately test individual psychological changes, but the ErgoLab man-machine environment test platform, can collect and compare these data [physiological data, electroencephalogram (EEG) data, and behavior data] in real-time and comprehensively, which is its advantage. According to the experimental results, judge the changes in the psychological cognitive data of the participants before and after the placement of the spatial narrative in design innovation and entrepreneurial organizations. The experiment combined interviews and questionnaires to ensure the authenticity of the quantitative data. The conclusion of the experiment will produce an accurate quantitative study on the psychological cognition of the spatial narrative of design innovation and entrepreneurial organizational culture. A sense of organizational belonging, collective sense, pride, mission, and work fun can be generated in the workspace.

ASSESSMENT OF VISUAL ENVIRONMENT NECESSARY FOR BUSINESS CONTINUITY IN EMERGENCIES (PART 1) ： A STUDY OF VISUAL ENVIRONMENT ASSESSMENT USING HEAD MOUNTED DISPLAY VIRTUAL REALITY SYSTEM

Natural disasters that had recently happened in Japan, including Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, destroyed social infrastructure especially electricity systems for more than several months. During this period, electric supply tremendously decreases and caused many problems to emergency response, lifeline infrastructure management, life supporting related activities in hospitals and refugee accommodations and also government administrative business. In order to sustain these basic activities, we need minimal lighting systems to facilitate workers in offices maintaining these activities. However, most of lighting research on emergency, Boyce et al., Akizuki among others, concentrate on emergency escape lighting system. Mochizuki et al. studied the impacts of shortage of electricity on office lighting environment during Great East Japan Earthquake aftermath. To our knowledge, there are no studies analyzing the minimum lighting system required in offices during emergency period. Appropriate assessment of visual environment for business in disaster effected areas is required. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to develop a virtual reality simulation system (VRS) which can provide real focal-ambient lighting environment for workers in the office and to find the minimum lighting environment required to continue working for more than 10 days during emergencies. 2400 observations from 20 participants (9 students and 11 office workers, 9 female and 11 male) assessing 30 VR scenes on 4 business continuing periods (1 day, 3 days, 10 days, over 10 days) were obtained in the experiment. We found the following results from the experiment: 1. VRS can provide focal-ambient lighting environment for experiment participants more realistically than other devices. It has high 96.7% accuracy representation percentage of real environment luminance-chromaticity values of VR scenes and provides 360 degrees experience of real visual environment at 3 degrees of freedom to participants. 2. Minimum lighting on working surfaces can be as small as 75 lux for more than 10 days office work in emergency. 3. Ambient lighting is strongly required to keep comfortable room brightness and focal ambient lighting system for the workers. At working surface illuminance of 75 lux, 100% of participants can continue to work for more than 10 days with ambient light and only 85% of participants can continue to work for 10 days without ambient light. 4. There may exist some possibilities that student participants of experiments may not have strong tolerance against less lighting than office workers. Office workers can work for 10 days with 15 lux on working surface while students require twice this illuminance of 30 lux. i.e. we need to study more about the effects of participants’ attributes on experiment results. 5. 360 degrees Brightness Estimation Image can be used to assess how much ambient and focal brightness is required in the given visual environment. 6. Ambient visual environment is confirmed to be strongly correlated with how much light is available in desk surroundings, walls, and ceilings and not with horizontal surfaces such as floor discussed in the literature.

Magnetorheological Fluid Haptic Shoes for Walking in VR.

In this article, present RealWalk, a pair of haptic shoes for HMD-based VR, designed to create realistic sensations of ground surface deformation, and texture using Magnetorheological fluid (MR fluid). RealWalk offers a novel interaction scheme through the physical interaction between the shoes, and the ground surfaces while walking in VR. Each shoe consists of two MR fluid actuators, an insole pressure sensor, and a foot position tracker. The MR fluid actuators are designed in the form of multi-stacked disc structure with a long flow path to maximize the flow resistance. With changing the magnetic field intensity in MR fluid actuators based on the ground material in the virtual scene, the viscosity of MR fluid is changed accordingly. When a user steps on the ground with the shoes, the two MR fluid actuators are pressed down, creating a variety of ground material deformation such as snow, mud, and dry sand. We built an interactive VR application, and compared RealWalk with vibrotactile-based haptic shoes in four different VR scenes: grass, sand, mud, and snow. We report that, compared to vibrotactile-haptic shoes, RealWalk provides higher ratings in all scenes for discrimination, realism, and satisfaction. We also report qualitative user feedback for their experiences.

The Representation of Food-Related Environments in Virtual Reality

Abstract Objectives Virtual reality (VR) potentially provides an innovative tool for nutrition education/counselling. The objective of this study was to determine the a) sense of ‘presence’ (the feeling of being in a scene) experienced in two food related VR scenes b) capture information regarding the participants experiences in VR. Methods Two 3D, food-related scenes were created for this study: supermarket or fast food restaurant. The scenes were displayed using a VR head mounted display or on a standard PC monitor. The participants were able to move around each scene and could interact with various elements to obtain nutrition information about a food. Thirty-one adults were recruited for this study and reported to the laboratory on 4 occasions separated by at least 48 hours. Participants were randomized to a treatment order. On reporting to the laboratory, the participants had surface electrodes attached to determine heart rate and electrodermal activity. The participant was then required to sit quietly for 10 minutes for baseline measures to be collected. Then, in the VR treatments, a VR headset was placed on the participants head and the relevant scene displayed. For the PC treatments, the same scenes were displayed on a PC monitor. The participants were required to remain in the different scenes for at least 5 minutes. Then, the headset was removed and the participant completed questionnaires regarding their experiences in the VR and PC scenes. Results Participants ranged in age from &amp;lt;25 years to over 65 years. All participants used computers in their daily life but generally had no or little experience in VR. Participants reported a higher sense of presence in the VR treatments compared to the PC treatments (P &amp;lt; 0.05). The VR scenes also created a greater sense of the scene being the ‘dominant reality’ and elicited a greater sense that the participant were actually in the scene (P &amp;lt; 0.05). There was no difference in the participant's ability to complete tasks in the VR and PC scenes. Moreover, feelings of nausea were not different between the VR and PC scenes. The participant's heart rate was significantly higher in the VR treatments (P &amp;lt; 0.05). Conclusions This study provides data that supports the development of VR as a nutrition education/counselling tool. Further research is required to develop VR as an effective education tool. Funding Sources None.

Motivations, design, and preliminary testing for a 360° vision simulator

Contemporary virtual reality systems enable academics to more efficiently explore and analyze complex three-dimensional (3D) content, but their utility is limited by visual short-term memory. Janus, a geometry agnostic shader script, circumvents this cognitive limitation by automatically rendering complex object meshes to fit entirely within the field-of-view of consumer head-mounted displays. The resulting 360° vision experience represents an advantage over existing scientific data visualization tools, which have sought to replicate real-world viewing experiences but have inadvertently replicated associated limitations as well. By presenting data in such a way so as to effectively circumvent cognitive loads associated with body (or object) movement, academics can use the Janus shader to more readily engage in the exploratory analysis of complex 3D data sets, thereby facilitating scientific insight. This paper explores the motivations and design of the Janus shader and describes preliminary results from user testing conducted under controlled conditions. For the 24 study participants (N = 24), statistically significant time-to-completion decreases were observed for spatial analysis tasks taking place in intervention (Janus-enabled) VR scenes of low-to-moderate complexity.

Design and Evaluation of Affective Virtual Reality System Based on Multimodal Physiological Signals and Self-Assessment Manikin

Affective materials have always been an important factor in improving the efficiency of affect related research for their ecological validity. In order to achieve high ecological validity in emotion elicitation, this paper proposed a novel Affective Virtual Reality System (AVRS) by utilizing the immersion, privacy and design flexibility of virtual reality. Design elements including subject features, sound features, motion features and color features were extracted by referring to the referenced emotion materials, art works and the existing VR scenes. Affective VR scenes were then designed by Unreal Engine 4.12 and their effectiveness was validated by Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM). Furthermore, arousal was used as an indicator to compare the difference of ecological validity between VR and video emotional materials with an intergroup experiment through Electroencephalography (EEG), Heart Rate (HR), Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), and SAM. Results proved that VR scenes could achieve the same emotion elicitation as video. Especially, there was significant difference in measures of Fearful in SAM evaluation, indicating that VR emotion materials were expected to deliver a good effect on negative emotional scenes. The proposed AVRS as well as the multimodal physiological signal database with valence, arousal and dominance (VAD) labels could help the development of emotion related studies.

Exploring Students Cultural Experiences in an International Learning Project Using Digital Reality – Talktech

The TalkTech 2018 project presents a learning scenario where students interact as members of international teams to create and exchange VR scenes that share aspects of local culture and landmarks. Most students agree that their participation in the TalkTech project taught them about culture, collaboration, working on international teams, and the tools to carry out these tasks. They saw the promise of digital reality technologies in education and in business. Students also learned that creating, sharing, and exploring VR scenes can change how they experience virtual worlds, as well as how they apply their knowledge gained in those virtual worlds, to the real world. By creating, sharing, and experiencing immersive VR scenes, results suggest that student’s use of VR has a favourable impact on their understanding and appreciation of the culture of their international partners.

New design and comparative analysis of smartwatch metaphor-based hand gestures for 3D navigation in mobile virtual reality

With the advent of various mobile VR HMDs, they have been widely used in different applications by providing a higher degree of immersion. However, in particular, due to limited input interfaces such as a click button and an inertial sensor in most mobile VR HMDs, it is very difficult for users to naturally navigate VR scenes and to effectively interact with VR contents. This paper presents a new design and comparative analysis of a smartwatch metaphor-based hand gesture interface for supporting more natural 3D navigation in mobile VR. The interaction using the smartwatch metaphor-based interface is implemented based on the drone flying principle, which can support more user-centric 3D navigation as well as 3D manipulation, regardless of the location and limited capability of the mobile device. Furthermore, quantitative and qualitative experiments are performed to compare and analyze task performances with different mobile VR interfaces, and with different desktop VR interfaces. In the first experiment, we compare the proposed approach with widely used mobile VR interfaces for evaluating 3D navigation tasks such as 1) button and inertial sensor-based interface and 2) hand gesture interface in front of the mobile HMD. In the second experiment, in particular, we compare the proposed approach with two desktop VR interfaces such as 1) desktop-based VR interface with keyboard and 2) desktop-based VR interface with the hand gesture. Experiment results proves that the proposed smartwatch metaphor for mobile VR navigation outperformed traditional mobile VR interfaces. We also confirm that the task performance with the proposed approach is good enough to be compared with desktop VR interfaces. One of the main features in the proposed approach is to decouple the degree of freedom (DOF) of navigation and the DOF of visualization in mobile VR so that it can support user’s free head and body movement during the navigation and interaction.

VREX: an open-source toolbox for creating 3D virtual reality experiments

BackgroundWe present VREX, a free open-source Unity toolbox for virtual reality research in the fields of experimental psychology and neuroscience.ResultsDifferent study protocols about perception, attention, cognition and memory can be constructed using the toolbox. VREX provides a procedural generation of (interconnected) rooms that can be automatically furnished with a click of a button. VREX includes a menu system for creating and storing experiments with different stages. Researchers can combine different rooms and environments to perform end-to-end experiments including different testing situations and data collection. For fine-tuned control VREX also comes with an editor where all the objects in the virtual room can be manually placed and adjusted in the 3D world.ConclusionsVREX simplifies the generation and setup of complicated VR scenes and experiments for researchers. VREX can be downloaded and easily installed from vrex.mozello.com

Virtual reality and persecutory delusions: Safety and feasibility

ObjectiveVirtual reality (VR) has begun to be used to research the key psychotic symptom of paranoia. The initial studies have been with non-clinical individuals and individuals at high risk of psychosis. The next step is to develop the technology for the understanding and treatment of clinical delusions. Therefore the present study investigated the acceptability and safety of using VR with individuals with current persecutory delusions. Further, it set out to determine whether patients feel immersed in a VR social environment and, consequently, experience paranoid thoughts. MethodTwenty individuals with persecutory delusions and twenty non-clinical individuals spent 4 min in a VR underground train containing neutral characters. Levels of simulator sickness, distress, sense of presence, and persecutory ideation about the computer characters were measured. A one-week follow-up was conducted to check longer-term side effects. ResultsThe VR experience did not raise levels of anxiety or symptoms of simulator sickness. No side effects were reported at the follow-up. There was a considerable degree of presence in the VR scenario for all participants. A high proportion of the persecutory delusions group (65%) had persecutory thinking about the computer characters, although this rate was not significantly higher than the non-clinical group. ConclusionsThe study indicates that brief experiences in VR are safe and acceptable to people with psychosis. Further, patients with paranoia can feel engaged in VR scenes and experience persecutory thoughts. Exposure to social situations using VR has the potential to be incorporated into cognitive behavioural interventions for paranoia.