Biomove: Biometric user identification from human kinesiological movements for virtual reality systems

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Virtual reality (VR) has advanced rapidly and is used for many entertainment and business purposes. The need for secure, transparent and non-intrusive identification mechanisms is important to facilitate users’ safe participation and secure experience. People are kinesiologically unique, having individual behavioral and movement characteristics, which can be leveraged and used in security sensitive VR applications to compensate for users’ inability to detect potential observational attackers in the physical world. Additionally, such method of identification using a user’s kinesiological data is valuable in common scenarios where multiple users simultaneously participate in a VR environment. In this paper, we present a user study (n = 15) where our participants performed a series of controlled tasks that require physical movements (such as grabbing, rotating and dropping) that could be decomposed into unique kinesiological patterns while we monitored and captured their hand, head and eye gaze data within the VR environment. We present an analysis of the data and show that these data can be used as a biometric discriminant of high confidence using machine learning classification methods such as kNN or SVM, thereby adding a layer of security in terms of identification or dynamically adapting the VR environment to the users’ preferences. We also performed a whitebox penetration testing with 12 attackers, some of whom were physically similar to the participants. We could obtain an average identification confidence value of 0.98 from the actual participants’ test data after the initial study and also a trained model classification accuracy of 98.6%. Penetration testing indicated all attackers resulted in confidence values of less than 50% (\u3c50%), although physically similar attackers had higher confidence values. These findings can help the design and development of secure VR systems

Collaborative behavior, performance and engagement with visual analytics tasks using mobile devices

Interactive visualizations are external tools that can support users’ exploratory activities. Collaboration can bring benefits to the exploration of visual representations or visu‐ alizations. This research investigates the use of co‐located collaborative visualizations in mobile devices, how users working with two different modes of interaction and view (Shared or Non‐Shared) and how being placed at various position arrangements (Corner‐to‐Corner, Face‐to‐Face, and Side‐by‐Side) affect their knowledge acquisition, engagement level, and learning efficiency. A user study is conducted with 60 partici‐ pants divided into 6 groups (2 modes×3 positions) using a tool that we developed to support the exploration of 3D visual structures in a collaborative manner. Our results show that the shared control and view version in the Side‐by‐Side position is the most favorable and can improve task efficiency. In this paper, we present the results and a set of recommendations that are derived from them

The Effect of Touch Simulation in Virtual Reality Shopping

This study aims to explore the effect of touch simulation on virtual reality (VR) store satisfaction mediated by VR shopping self-efficacy and VR shopping pleasure. The moderation effects of the autotelic and instrumental need for touch between touch simulation and VR store satisfaction are also explored. Participants wear a head-mounted display VR device (Oculus Go) in a controlled laboratory environment, and their VR store experience is recorded as data. All participants’ responses (n = 58) are analyzed using SPSS 20.0 for descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and the Process macro model analysis. The results show that touch simulation positively influences VR store satisfaction, which is mediated by the self-efficacy and by the dual path of the self-efficacy and the pleasure. Furthermore, the relation between touch simulation and pleasure is moderated by need for touch. For individuals with a high level of autotelic need for touch, the effect of touch simulation on the pleasure is heightened. However, instrumental need for touch does not moderate the path of touch simulation on the self-efficacy

Gathering pre-purchase information for a cruise vacation with virtual reality: The effects of media technology and gender

Purpose: Our study’s aim was to apply theory on consumer learning in virtual experiences to compare how media technologies (i.e., virtual reality [VR] and standard websites) and users’ gender influence the ways in which tourists gather pre-purchase information. Design/methodology/approach: A laboratory experiment with fully immersive VR was conducted to examine consumers’ behavior in gathering pre-purchase information. The sample comprised 128 consumers who had taken a cruise vacation or who were considering purchasing a cruise package in the near future. Findings: The results generally reveal the central role of the feeling of presence, which in turn positively impacts users’ enjoyment and aspects of consumer learning (i.e., brand attitude, product knowledge, and purchase intent). In particular, the results suggest that compared with standard websites, VR facilitated the tourists’ learning as consumers, especially among women, who tend to dominate the information-gathering stage of planning family vacations. Practical implications: The results imply that travel agencies and tourism centers working with cruise vacation companies should incorporate VR in order to make their offers more attractive, especially to women. Originality: Our study was the first to apply theory on consumer learning in the cruise tourism industry, specifically to compare fully immersive VR devices versus standard websites and gauge the effect of gender