The Impact of Changes to Daylight Illumination level on Architectural experience in Offices Based on VR and EEG

This study investigates the influence of varying illumination levels on architectural experiences by employing a comprehensive approach that combines self-reported assessments and neurophysiological measurements. Thirty participants were exposed to nine distinct illumination conditions in a controlled virtual reality environment. Subjective assessments, collected through questionnaires in which participants were asked to rate how pleasant, interesting, exciting, calming, complex, bright and spacious they found the space. Objective measurements of brain activity were collected by electroencephalogram (EEG). Data analysis demonstrated that illumination levels significantly influenced cognitive engagement and different architectural experience indicators. This alignment between subjective assessment and EEG data underscores the relationship between illuminance and architectural experiences. The study bridges the gap between quantitative and qualitative assessments, providing a deeper understanding of the intricate connection between lighting conditions and human responses. These findings contribute to the enhancement of environmental design based on neuroscientific insights, emphasizing the critical role of well-considered daylighting design in positively influencing occupants' cognitive and emotional states within built environments

Bright paint makes interior-space surfaces appear farther away

Previous studies have reported that bright ceilings appear higher than dark ceilings, irrespective of the other colorimetric properties of the ceiling color (hue, saturation) and irrespective of the luminance of the remaining room surfaces (walls, floor). In the present study, we expand these findings to width and depth estimates. We presented stereoscopic full-scale room simulations on a head-mounted display and varied the luminance of the side walls, rear wall, and ceiling independently of each other. Participants judged the width and depth of the simulated rooms. Our results show that the perceived spatial layout of a given room is significantly influenced by the luminance of the direct bounding surfaces (e.g., the side walls when judging perceived width) but less affected by the luminance of the other surfaces. In the discussion, we provide an overall picture of effects of surface luminance on the perceived layout of interior spaces and discuss the conclusions in the context of existing interior-design guidelines

Visual Anxiolytics: developing theory and design guidelines for abstract affective visualizations aimed at alleviating episodes of anxiety

Visual Anxiolytics is a novel term proposed to describe affective visualizations of which affective quality is predetermined and designed to alleviate anxiety and anxious pathology. This thesis presents ground theory and visual guidelines to inform the design of screen-based interfaces to give users aspects of a restorative and anxiolytic environment at a time when attention restoration is least likely and anxiety highly probable; during sedentary screen-time. Visual Anxiolytics are introduced as an affective layer of the interface capable of communicating affect through aesthetic, abstract, ambient emotion visualizations existing in the periphery of the screen and users’ vision. Their theory is brought into the field of Visual Communication Design from a number of disciplines; primarily Affective Computing, Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, and Neuroscience. Visual Anxiolytics attempt to alleviate anxiety through restoration of attentional cognitive resources by rendering the digital environment restorative and by elicitation of positive emotions through affect communication. Design guidelines analyse and describe properties of anxiolytic affective visual attributes color, shape, motion, and visual depth, as well as compositional characteristics of Visual Anxiolytics. Potential implications for future research in emotion visualization and affect communication are discussed

The Aha! Experience of Spatial Reorientation

The experience of spatial re-orientation is investigated as an instance of the wellknown phenomenon of the Aha! moment. The research question is: What are the visuospatial conditions that are most likely to trigger the spatial Aha! experience? The literature suggests that spatial re-orientation relies mainly on the geometry of the environment and a visibility graph analysis is used to quantify the visuospatial information. Theories from environmental psychology point towards two hypotheses. The Aha! experience may be triggered by a change in the amount of visual information, described by the isovist properties of area and revelation, or by a change in the complexity of the visual information associated with the isovist properties of clustering coefficient and visual control. Data from participants’ exploratory behaviour and EEG recordings are collected during wayfinding in virtual reality urban environments. Two types of events are of interest here: (a) sudden changes of the visuospatial information preceding subjects' response to investigate changes in EEG power; and (b) participants brain dynamics (Aha! effect) just before the response to examine differences in isovist values at this location. Research on insights, time-frequency analysis of the P3 component and findings from navigation and orientation studies suggest that the spatial Aha! experience may be reflected by: a parietal alpha power decrease associated with the switch of the representation and a frontocentral theta increase indexing spatial processing during decision-making. Single-trial time-frequency analysis is used to classify trials into two conditions based on the alpha/theta power differences between a 3s time-period before participants’ response and a time-period of equal duration before that. Behavioural results show that participants are more likely to respond at locations with low values of clustering coefficient and high values of visual control. The EEG analysis suggests that the alpha decrease/theta increase condition occurs at locations with significantly lower values of clustering coefficient and higher values of visual control. Small and large decreases in clustering coefficient, just before the response, are associated with significant differences in delta/theta power. The values of area and revelation do not show significant differences. Both behavioural and EEG results suggest that the Aha! experience of re-orientation is more likely to be triggered by a change in the complexity of the visual-spatial environment rather than a change in the amount, as measured by the relevant isovist properties

Sonic interaction with a virtual orchestra of factory machinery

This paper presents an immersive application where users receive sound and visual feedbacks on their interactions with a virtual environment. In this application, the users play the part of conductors of an orchestra of factory machines since each of their actions on interaction devices triggers a pair of visual and audio responses. Audio stimuli were spatialized around the listener. The application was exhibited during the 2013 Science and Music day and designed to be used in a large immersive system with head tracking, shutter glasses and a 10.2 loudspeaker configuration.Comment: Sonic Interaction for Virtual Environments, Minneapolis : United States (2014

Object-based reverberation for spatial audio

Object-based audio is gaining momentum as a means for future audio content to be more immersive, interactive, and accessible. Recent standardization developments make recommendations for object formats; however, the capture, production, and reproduction of reverberation is an open issue. In this paper parametric approaches for capturing, representing, editing, and rendering reverberation over a 3D spatial audio system are reviewed. A framework is proposed for a Reverberant Spatial Audio Object (RSAO), which synthesizes reverberation inside an audio object renderer. An implementation example of an object scheme utilizing the RSAO framework is provided, and supported with listening test results, showing that: the approach correctly retains the sense of room size compared to a convolved reference; editing RSAO parameters can alter the perceived room size and source distance; and, format-agnostic rendering can be exploited to alter listener envelopment

Търговската марка като икономическа стойност и знак. Позиционирането като инструмент за създаване на отличимост

ABSTRACT: This article is dedicated on brand issues, especially on its role of economic value sign as well as social sign (symbol), and also comments the four main theories in marketing and advertising concerning communication positioning. РЕЗЮМЕ: Статията е посветена на проблемите на търговската марка и по-специално на нейната роля като икономически знак за стойност, както и като социален знак (символ); също така текстът обръща внимание на четирите основни теории, възприети в маркетинга и рекламата, които засягат комуникационното позициониране на брандовете