Immersion and Presence in Virtual Reality to Alleviate Anxiety Disorder

Mediated communication has become essential as the current development of technology advances. Virtual reality as an audiovisual technology with the ability to simulate a virtual environment similar to the environment in the real world plays a vital role in mediating communication. On the other hand, nowadays, issues about mental health, especially anxiety disorder, spread vastly and become a public concern. This paper aims to see how virtual reality as a medium of communication can reduce anxiety disorders by creating ambient co-presence. The method used was meta-synthesis with a meta-aggregation approach to get comprehensive results. The research found that two main factors exist in virtual reality, namely immersion and presence, which are important factors in mediated communication. These two factors can create ambient co-presence, so they can be applied to reduce mental illness, namely anxiety disorder

Virtual supermarket setting: Exploring antecedents of emotions and purchase intentions

Virtual Reality is based on three key characteristics: immersion, interactivity (Boyd & Koles, 2018). Firstly, when exposed to a virtual environment, the individual experiences the sense of immersion or presence within that environment. The user feels like being there and escaping or becoming isolated from the real world. Beside immersion, VR provides a very dynamic environment (Loureiro et al., 2019), which is important to create consumer involvement. Hence, the current study explores antecedents of emotions and purchase intention in virtual supermarket setting.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Psychological Presence in Immersive Virtual Environments

Immersive virtual environments are simulated locations that attempt to create a sense of presence, or the psychological feeling that an individual is acting within the simulated environment rather than their physical one. When interfacing with an interactive virtual environment, evidence suggests that aspects of psychological presence are affected, such as time perception and situation awareness. As such, this study hypothesized presence as the construct by which immersive virtual environment usage influences time perception and situation awareness. Two levels of presence were manipulated using a monitor and Oculus Rift. Forty-one participants were tasked with a scavenger hunt in both monitor and virtual reality conditions, reported their perception of how much time has passed, and answered probe questions testing their situation awareness. Manipulating level of immersion did not significantly affect presence between conditions. Time perception was not significantly correlated with presence scores in either condition. Situation awareness was not significantly correlated with presence in the virtual reality condition but was found to be negatively correlated with presence in the monitor condition. Presence was not found to have a positive relationship with situation awareness and time perception as predicted, but higher levels of immersion was found to increase situation awareness and lengthen subjective experience of time. Presence does not appear to be the construct responsible for changes in situation awareness and time perception and further study is required

Bridging the Gap Between Real and Artificial Worlds: The Next Generation Classroom

Students today represent a new generation of learner which requires us to look beyond our tradition training methods. Augmented Reality (AR) has already shown great promise of transforming the way interact with students in any technically driven education such as aviation. The operation and maintenance of modern aircraft requires an understanding of several interrelated human and machine components requiring practice and immersion. The immersive experience can be enhanced with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Relevant to the task at hand, they both have the ability to alter our perception of the world, give real-time feedback, improve the efficiency of skills transfer and increased knowledge retention. Where they differ, is the perception of our presence

Fully Immersed, Fully Present: Examining the User Experience Through the Multimodal Presence Scale and Virtual Reality Gaming Variables

Over the past few years, video games have served as a catalyst for virtual reality (VR) technology to become more accessible to the average consumer, resulting in an increased interest in VR’s potential applications across several disciplines. To best capitalize on these applications, however, researchers require a thorough understanding of the user’s experience in virtual environments. And while many studies on VR experiences tend to focus on presence, video games offer another angle of approach: immersion. This study uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the relationships between the VR experience of presence and the gaming experience of immersion. First, a focus group of individuals with VR gaming experience explored variables impacting presence. Then a survey questionnaire consisting of items from the multimodal presence scale (MPS), Jennett et al.’s (2008) immersion questionnaire, and the focus group was distributed online. Finally, the collected data was analyzed using factor analysis and linear regression to explore the relationships between presence and immersion. Results of the analysis identified involvement to be an important factor impacting a user’s perceived presence in a VR gaming experience

Virtual reality in foreign language training at higher educational institutions

The paper deals with the urgent problem of application of virtual reality in foreign language training. Statistical data confirms that the number of smartphone users, Internet users, including wireless Internet users, has been increasing for recent years in Ukraine and tends to grow. The coherence of quick mobile Internet access and presence of supplementary equipment enables to get trained or to self-dependently advance due to usage of virtual reality possibilities for education in the stationary classrooms, at home and in motion. Several important features of virtual reality, its advantages for education are discussed. It is noted that virtual reality is remaining a relatively new technology in language learning. Benefits from virtual reality implementation into foreign language learning and teaching are given. The aspects of immersion and gamification in foreign language learning are considered. It is emphasized that virtual reality creates necessary preconditions for motivation increasing. The results of the survey at two higher education institution as to personal experience in using VR applications for learning foreign languages are presented. Most students at both universities have indicated quite a low virtual reality application usage. Six popular virtual reality applications for foreign language learning (Mondly, VRSpeech, VR Learn English, Gold Lotus, AltSpaceVR and VirtualSpeech) are analyzed. It is stated that the most preferred VR application for foreign language learning includes detailed virtual environment for maximal immersion, highlevel visual effects similar to video games, simple avatar control, thorough material selection and complete complicity level accordance of every element and aspect, affordability, helpful and unobtrusive following up

An Application of Virtual Reality in Fire Emergency Preparedness – Impacts of Information and System Attributes

Virtual reality (VR) is gaining significant attention as a tool for supporting learning and education. However, most studies of virtual reality focus on system aspects such as presence and immersion and their impacts. Few have examined the information aspect of VR applications. Focusing on public fire safety and preparedness education, this study examines the impacts of system and information characteristics on learning and intention to create an escape plan in the event of a fire incident following participant exposure to the ‘Escape My House’, a virtual reality tool that enables people to experience a house fire. The results show that information aspects have significant impacts on learning and intention, and fully mediates the impact of system aspects (i.e. presence) on learning. Implications for future research and practice are discussed

Influence of immersion on user's spatial presence and memory in virtual environments

This study examines the influence of immersion on users' sense of spatial presence and spatial memory in virtual environments. The single factor was systematically manipulated in three conditions. A sample of 32 participants was used to test the study hypotheses. This study employed a between-subject design, and participants were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental conditions. The results from statistical analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed the influence of immersion on the spatial presence and spatial memory. The results of this study revealed that higher level of immersion including a wider field of view and the stereoscopic display did lead to a greater sense of presence and improved spatial memory performance. This study has practical implications across various domains including architectural design and visualization, developing virtual reality systems, and training simulators.Includes bibliographical reference

The Three Pillars of Virtual Reality? Investigating the Roles of Immersion, Presence, and Interactivity

Virtual reality (VR) technologies enable a new media consumption experience. Although VR’s origins trace back at least to the 1960s, it is still unclear how VR’s postulated key features immersion, presence, and interactivity contribute to that experience. Furthermore, it is unclear whether flow as a construct closely related to immersion offers explanatory power in investigating VR. On the basis of a quantitative survey in a VR center with 294 participants, I analyze the interplay of the key features and exemplify their influence in a VR context by relating them to satisfaction with the VR experience. Using a flow-based conceptualization of immersion, I find that presence as well as interactivity contribute to immersion. In addition, interactivity contributes to presence. Furthermore, my results show that immersion influences satisfaction with a VR experience, indicating that a flow-based conceptualization of immersion is a suitable predictor in VR contexts

Cross-benefits between virtual reality and games

electronic version (8 pp.)International audienceIn one hand, video games are dedicated to entertainment. In recent years, the emerging of consumers hardware dedicated to games induced great progress for realism and gameplay. Graphics rendering and physical engines, digital surround sound and new interaction interfaces are examples of areas which have benefited of these last improvements and widely contribute to the gaming experience. In another hand, virtual reality focus on user's presence which is its indubitable feeling of belonging to the virtual environment. As this goal is very hard to reach, studies have to focus on human through several research directions like immersion (3D vision, sound spatialization, haptic devices) and interaction which has to be as natural and non intrusive as possible. Recent researches on intersensoriality possibilities, metaphorical interactions or brain computer interfaces are examples of what would be achieved in immersion and interaction. At this point, we can argue that virtual reality can be a provider of new methods and resources for games. Unfortunately virtual reality room are expensive and difficult to deploy, what is probably the main reasons why virtual reality is still a laboratory experiment or confined to industrial simulator. Here is our double contribution : to combine video games and virtual reality through two different virtual reality game solutions and to design them with consumer grade components. This paper first presents a survey of both current video game evolutions and virtual reality researches. We will also give some examples of cross-benefits between video games and virtual reality. To illustrate this last point we will describe two virtual reality applications created by our research team and dedicated to gaming. Finally, as a prospective talk we will deal with three points : some recent virtual reality systems supposedly applicable to home gaming, some good points from DG that VR developers should incorporate in VR systems and last point, some lines of enquiry so that the union between VR and DG be at last consummate