It is not real until it feels real : testing a new method for simulation of eyewitness experience with virtual reality technology and equipment

Laboratory research in the psychology of witness testimony is often criticized for its lack of ecological validity, including the use of unrealistic artifcial stimuli to test memory performance. The purpose of our study is to present a method that can provide an intermediary between laboratory research and feld studies or naturalistic experiments that are difcult to control and administer. It uses Video-360° technology and virtual reality (VR) equipment, which cuts subjects of from external stimuli and gives them control over the visual feld. This can potentially increase the realism of the eyewitness's experience. To test the method, we conducted an experiment comparing the immersion efect, emotional response, and memory performance between subjects who watched a video presenting a mock crime on a head-mounted display (VR goggles; n=57) and a screen (n=50). The results suggest that, compared to those who watched the video on a screen, the VR group had a deeper sense of immersion, that is, of being part of the scene presented. At the same time, they were not distracted or cognitively overloaded by the more complex virtual environment, and remembered just as much detail about the crime as those viewing it on the screen. Additionally, we noted signifcant diferences between subjects in ratings of emotions felt during the video. This may suggest that the two formats evoke diferent types of discrete emotions. Overall, the results confrm the usefulness of the proposed method in witness research

Psychological and physiological human responses to simulated and real environments: A comparison between Photographs, 360° Panoramas, and Virtual Reality

[EN] Psychological research into human factors frequently uses simulations to study the relationship between human behaviour and the environment. Their validity depends on their similarity with the physical environments. This paper aims to validate three environmental-simulation display formats: photographs, 360° panoramas, and virtual reality. To do this we compared the psychological and physiological responses evoked by simulated environments set-ups to those from a physical environment setup; we also assessed the users' sense of presence. Analysis show that 360° panoramas offer the closest to reality results according to the participants' psychological responses, and virtual reality according to the physiological responses. Correlations between the feeling of presence and physiological and other psychological responses were also observed. These results may be of interest to researchers using environmental-simulation technologies currently available in order to replicate the experience of physical environments.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad. Spain (Project TIN2013-45736-R).Higuera-Trujillo, JL.; López-Tarruella Maldonado, J.; Llinares Millán, MDC. (2017). Psychological and physiological human responses to simulated and real environments: A comparison between Photographs, 360° Panoramas, and Virtual Reality. Applied Ergonomics. 65:398-409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2017.05.006S3984096

Presence, what is it good for? Exploring the benefits of virtual reality at evoking empathy towards the marginalized

2020 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.This study examines the relationship between physical presence and empathy across three technology modalities: 1) virtual reality head-mount displays, 2) desktop virtual reality, and 3) text narratives with photographs displayed on a computer screen. Additionally, it examines if public support for a novel public health intervention increases when participants engage in a perspective-taking exercise designed to evoke empathy. Last, the study explores whether the benefits of empathy arousal, specifically the reduction of stereotypes toward the marginalized, depend on the technology modality used in the perspective-taking exercise. Prior studies have consistently found a positive correlation between physical presence and fear and anxiety, especially studies that have used virtual reality head-mount displays to induce presence. However, few studies have examined the relationship between physical presence and empathy. Although some studies have found a positive correlation between physical presence and empathy, these studies are few, lack comprehensive and consistent measurement, and commonly do not test the superiority of virtual reality head-mount displays at evoking empathy against more traditional technology modalities. Last, studies using virtual reality head-mount displays have found inconsistent results in how empathy affects public support and stereotypes. A 1x4 lab experiment (N = 199) was carried out to fill in these research gaps. Results include the follow: 1) physical presence was higher in the virtual reality head-mount display condition compared to the desktop virtual-reality condition and the text narrative and photograph condition; 2) physical presence was positively correlated with all four dimensions of empathy—perspective taking, fantasy, personal distress, and empathic concern; however, the relationship between presence and empathic concern was moderated by participants' mental health; 3) the amount of empathy participants experienced did not differ by experimental condition; however, cognitive empathy was lower in the control condition compared to each experimental condition; 4) public support was positively correlated with three of the four dimensions of empathy including perspective taking, fantasy, and empathic concern; 5) perceptions of stereotypes of people who inject drugs were higher in the control condition compared to the desktop virtual-reality condition and text narrative condition, but not the virtual reality head-mount display condition. Overall, this study adds to a growing body of literature exploring the benefits of virtual-reality perspective-taking exercises in three important ways. First, this study strengthens the assertion that virtual-reality head-mount displays produce more physical presence compared to desktop virtual reality and text narratives with photographs. Second, aligned with prior research, this study provides evidence of a positive correlation between physical presence and empathy arousal. However, in this study, empathy arousal appears to be increasing presence, which is a different causal pathway then the study predicted.Last, this study found that the virtual-reality head-mount display condition was the only experimental condition that did not significantly reduce stereotypes. Together, these results suggest both potential advantages and disadvantages for using virtual reality in perspective-taking exercises

An Analysis of Physiological and Psychological Responses in Virtual Reality and Flat Screen Gaming

Recent research has focused on the effectiveness of Virtual Reality (VR) in games as a more immersive method of interaction. However, there is a lack of robust analysis of the physiological effects between VR and flatscreen (FS) gaming. This paper introduces the first systematic comparison and analysis of emotional and physiological responses to commercially available games in VR and FS environments. To elicit these responses, we first selected four games through a pilot study of 6 participants to cover all four quadrants of the valence-arousal space. Using these games, we recorded the physiological activity, including Blood Volume Pulse and Electrodermal Activity, and self-reported emotions of 33 participants in a user study. Our data analysis revealed that VR gaming elicited more pronounced emotions, higher arousal, increased cognitive load and stress, and lower dominance than FS gaming. The Virtual Reality and Flat Screen (VRFS) dataset, containing over 15 hours of multimodal data comparing FS and VR gaming across different games, is also made publicly available for research purposes. Our analysis provides valuable insights for further investigations into the physiological and emotional effects of VR and FS gaming.Comment: This work has been submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl

Remote Visual Observation of Real Places Through Virtual Reality Headsets

Virtual Reality has always represented a fascinating yet powerful opportunity that has attracted studies and technology developments, especially since the latest release on the market of powerful high-resolution and wide field-of-view VR headsets. While the great potential of such VR systems is common and accepted knowledge, issues remain related to how to design systems and setups capable of fully exploiting the latest hardware advances. The aim of the proposed research is to study and understand how to increase the perceived level of realism and sense of presence when remotely observing real places through VR headset displays. Hence, to produce a set of guidelines that give directions to system designers about how to optimize the display-camera setup to enhance performance, focusing on remote visual observation of real places. The outcome of this investigation represents unique knowledge that is believed to be very beneficial for better VR headset designs towards improved remote observation systems. To achieve the proposed goal, this thesis presents a thorough investigation of existing literature and previous researches, which is carried out systematically to identify the most important factors ruling realism, depth perception, comfort, and sense of presence in VR headset observation. Once identified, these factors are further discussed and assessed through a series of experiments and usability studies, based on a predefined set of research questions. More specifically, the role of familiarity with the observed place, the role of the environment characteristics shown to the viewer, and the role of the display used for the remote observation of the virtual environment are further investigated. To gain more insights, two usability studies are proposed with the aim of defining guidelines and best practices. The main outcomes from the two studies demonstrate that test users can experience an enhanced realistic observation when natural features, higher resolution displays, natural illumination, and high image contrast are used in Mobile VR. In terms of comfort, simple scene layouts and relaxing environments are considered ideal to reduce visual fatigue and eye strain. Furthermore, sense of presence increases when observed environments induce strong emotions, and depth perception improves in VR when several monocular cues such as lights and shadows are combined with binocular depth cues. Based on these results, this investigation then presents a focused evaluation on the outcomes and introduces an innovative eye-adapted High Dynamic Range (HDR) approach, which the author believes to be of great improvement in the context of remote observation when combined with eye-tracked VR headsets. Within this purpose, a third user study is proposed to compare static HDR and eye-adapted HDR observation in VR, to assess that the latter can improve realism, depth perception, sense of presence, and in certain cases even comfort. Results from this last study confirmed the author expectations, proving that eye-adapted HDR and eye tracking should be used to achieve best visual performances for remote observation in modern VR systems

RCEA-360VR: Real-time, continuous emotion annotation in 360◦ VR videos for collecting precise viewport-dependent ground truth labels

Precise emotion ground truth labels for 360◦ virtual reality (VR) video watching are essential for fne-grained predictions under varying viewing behavior. However, current annotation techniques either rely on post-stimulus discrete self-reports, or real-time, con- tinuous emotion annotations (RCEA) but only for desktop/mobile settings. We present RCEA for 360◦ VR videos (RCEA-360VR), where we evaluate in a controlled study (N=32) the usability of two peripheral visualization techniques: HaloLight and DotSize. We furthermore develop a method that considers head movements when fusing labels. Using physiological, behavioral, and subjective measures, we show that (1) both techniques do not increase users’ workload, sickness, nor break presence (2) our continuous valence and arousal annotations are consistent with discrete within-VR and original stimuli ratings (3) users exhibit high similarity in viewing behavior, where fused ratings perfectly align with intended labels. Our work contributes usable and efective techniques for collecting fne-grained viewport-dependent emotion labels in 360◦ VR

What is the best way of delivering virtual nature for improving mood?: An experimental comparison of high definition TV, 360º video, and computer generated virtual reality

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this record. Exposure to ‘real’ nature can increase positive affect and decrease negative affect, but direct access is not always possible, e.g. for people in health/care settings who often experience chronic boredom. In these settings ‘virtual’ forms of nature may also have mood-related benefits (e.g. reducing boredom) but it has been difficult to separate effects of nature content from those of delivery mode. The present laboratory-based study explored whether exposure to three different delivery modes of virtual nature could reduce negative affect (including boredom) and/or increase positive affect. Adult volunteer participants (n = 96) took part in a boredom induction task (to simulate the emotional state of many people in health/care settings) before being randomly assigned to view/ interact with a virtual underwater coral reef in one of three experimental conditions: (a) 2D video viewed on a high-definition TV screen; (b) 3600 video VR (360-VR) viewed via a head mounted display (HMD); or (c) interactive computer-generated VR (CG-VR), also viewed via a HMD and interacted with using a hand-held controller. Visual and auditory content was closely matched across conditions with help from the BBC’s Blue Planet II series team. Supporting predictions, virtual exposure to a coral reef reduced boredom and negative affect and increased positive affect and nature connectedness. Although reductions in boredom and negative affect were similar across all three conditions, CG-VR was associated with significantly greater improvements in positive affect than TV, which were mediated by greater experienced presence and increases in nature connectedness. Results improve our understanding of the importance of virtual nature delivery mode and will inform studies in real care settings.EU Horizon 202