12 research outputs found
Virtual reality and stimulation of touch and smell for inducing relaxation: A randomized controlled trial
The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of a mood-induction procedure in a Virtual Reality (VR-MIP) environment for inducing relaxation and generating sense of presence, and to test whether the stimulation of the senses of touch and smell improves the efficacy of this VR-MIP. A controlled study was carried out with four experimental conditions. All of them included the VR-MIP to induce relaxation, but varying the senses stimulated. The sample consisted of 136 participants randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions. Emotions and sense of presence were evaluated. The results showed statistical differences before and after mood-induction and a high sense of presence in all groups. However, no statistical differences were found among the four groups on emotions and sense of presence. The results showed that the VR-MIP was effective; however, the stimulation of the senses of touch and smell did not show significate improve of the mood-induction or the sense of presence. It was identified a trend in favor of the groups where the sense of touch was stimulated, they seemed more relaxed and the sense of presence was higher. We hypothesized that the stimulation of sense of touch, could improve the efficacy when using VR-MIP because it provides more sensory information.This work was funded by the 4Senses project (PSE-020400-2007-1) and the Consolider project (SEJ2006-14301/PSIC) of the Ministry of Science and Innovation in Spain (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación de España)
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Olfaction-enhanced multimedia: Perspectives and challenges
This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2011 Springer VerlagOlfactionâor smellâis one of the last challenges which multimedia and multimodal applications have to conquer. Enhancing such applications with olfactory stimuli has the potential to create a more complexâand richerâuser multimedia experience, by heightening the sense of reality and diversifying user interaction modalities. Nonetheless, olfaction-enhanced multimedia still remains a challenging research area. More recently, however, there have been initial signs of olfactory-enhanced applications in multimedia, with olfaction being used towards a variety of goals, including notification alerts, enhancing the sense of reality in immersive applications, and branding, to name but a few. However, as the goal of a multimedia application is to inform and/or entertain users, achieving quality olfaction-enhanced multimedia applications from the usersâ perspective is vital to the success and continuity of these applications. Accordingly, in this paper we have focused on investigating the user perceived experience of olfaction-enhanced multimedia applications, with the aim of discovering the quality evaluation factors that are important from a userâs perspective of these applications, and consequently ensure the continued advancement and success of olfaction-enhanced multimedia applications
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Mulsemedia: State of the art, perspectives, and challenges
Mulsemedia-multiple sensorial media-captures a wide variety of research efforts and applications. This article presents a historic perspective on mulsemedia work and reviews current developments in the area. These take place across the traditional multimedia spectrum-from virtual reality applications to computer games-as well as efforts in the arts, gastronomy, and therapy, to mention a few. We also describe standardization efforts, via the MPEG-V standard, and identify future developments and exciting challenges the community needs to overcome
Digitizing the chemical senses: possibilities & pitfalls
Many people are understandably excited by the suggestion that the chemical senses can be digitized; be it to deliver ambient fragrances (e.g., in virtual reality or health-related applications), or else to transmit flavour experiences via the internet. However, to date, progress in this area has been surprisingly slow. Furthermore, the majority of the attempts at successful commercialization have failed, often in the face of consumer ambivalence over the perceived benefits/utility. In this review, with the focus squarely on the domain of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), we summarize the state-of-the-art in the area. We highlight the key possibilities and pitfalls as far as stimulating the so-called âlowerâ senses of taste, smell, and the trigeminal system are concerned. Ultimately, we suggest that mixed reality solutions are currently the most plausible as far as delivering (or rather modulating) flavour experiences digitally is concerned. The key problems with digital fragrance delivery are related to attention and attribution. People often fail to detect fragrances when they are concentrating on something else; And even when they detect that their chemical senses have been stimulated, there is always a danger that they attribute their experience (e.g., pleasure) to one of the other senses â this is what we call âthe fundamental attribution errorâ. We conclude with an outlook on digitizing the chemical senses and summarize a set of open-ended questions that the HCI community has to address in future explorations of smell and taste as interaction modalities
A tutorial for olfaction-based multisensorial media application design and evaluation
© ACM, 2017. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in PUBLICATION, {VOL50, ISS5, September 2017} https://doi.org/10.1145/310824
The influence of olfaction on the perception of high-fidelity computer graphics
The computer graphics industry is constantly demanding more realistic images and
animations. However, producing such high quality scenes can take a long time, even
days, if rendering on a single PC. One of the approaches that can be used to speed
up rendering times is Visual Perception, which exploits the limitations of the Human
Visual System, since the viewers of the results will be humans. Although there
is an increasing body of research into how haptics and sound may affect a viewer's
perception in a virtual environment, the in
uence of smell has been largely ignored.
The aim of this thesis is to address this gap and make smell an integral part of
multi-modal virtual environments.
In this work, we have performed four major experiments, with a total of 840 participants.
In the experiments we used still images and animations, related and
unrelated smells and finally, a multi-modal environment was considered with smell,
sound and temperature. Beside this, we also investigated how long it takes for an
average person to adapt to smell and what affect there may be when performing a
task in the presence of a smell.
The results of this thesis clearly show that a smell present in the environment
firstly affects the perception of object quality within a rendered image, and secondly,
enables parts of the scene or the whole animation to be selectively rendered in high
quality while the rest can be rendered in a lower quality without the viewer noticing
the drop in quality. Such selective rendering in the presence of smell results in
significant computational performance gains without any loss in the quality of the
image or animations perceived by a viewer
The Effect of Increased Immersion and its Relationship with Presence on Episodic Memory Performance within Virtual Reality Environments
Although virtual reality (VR) represents a promising tool for psychological research, much remains unknown about how different properties of VR environments may affect episodic memory performance. Two closely related characteristics of VR are immersion (i.e., the objective degree to which VR naturalistically portrays a facsimile of an analogous real-world environment) and presence (i.e., the subjective sense of being âmentally transportedâ to the virtual world). While some research has demonstrated a benefit of increased immersion on VR-based learning, it is uncertain how broadly and consistently this benefit might extend to individual components of immersion in isolation. Additionally, it is unclear whether immersion itself is what influences memory performance in these instances, or if presence is a mediating factor which explains the relationship between immersion and memory. To address these issues, the current study assessed how presence and memory were affected by three individual manipulations of immersion: field of view, unimodal (visual only) vs. bimodal (visual and auditory) environments, and the realism of lighting effects (e.g., the occurrence or absence of shadows). Results varied between different manipulations of immersion, suggesting that outcomes of one property of immersion may not be representative of immersion in general. However, no evidence for a mediating effect of presence emerged in any of the individual experiments, nor in a combined inter-experimental analysis. This outcome demonstrates a degree of independence between immersion and presence with regard to their influence on episodic memory performance, and further implies that presence may not be a critical factor in memory in VR.Doctor of Philosoph
An Exploration of the Role of Virtual Reality in Early Childhood: A Qualitative Study Focusing on Parentsâ and Carersâ Perspectives
This study aims to investigate the potential role of virtual reality (VR) in the early childhood development (ages four to six) of Saudi children based on a qualitative approach: subjective data were collected by interviewing 20 parents or carers of Saudi children who use VR. Each childâs parents or carers were selected for the interview as a couple. A semi-structured interview was held with each mother, father or carer. Traditional views in Saudi Arabia were compared with those of Saudis living in the UK, which has a different culture. Participants reported some positive effects of VR on their children: they perceived it as a source of distraction from pain and fear, in some cases at the physiological level. Participants considered VR to be beneficial for developing cognitive and academic skills, self-awareness, self-confidence and empathy. VR also improved self-regulation at the emotional and behavioural levels, including attention control, working memory, impulse inhibition, waiting for oneâs turn and task completion. However, participants also reported adverse effects, indicating specific health risks, false memories and addiction at the physiological level; reservations existed concerning inappropriate content at the cognitive level. Other undesirable effects attributed to VR included social isolation, inability to control emotional expression at the emotional and social levels and encouragement of anger at the behavioural level. These results indicate that VR is a viable choice for young children, though adult supervision is still required. However, they also offer a warning about the effects that may result from VR overuse or misuse. The study also showed a lack of meaningful content and variety in commercial VR games, and thus it would benefit from the participation of educators and specialists in developing design strategies. This project represents a novel preliminary approach for future research concerning the influence of VR on the essential aspects of early childhood development
A Biosymtic (Biosymbiotic Robotic) Approach to Human Development and Evolution. The Echo of the Universe.
In the present work we demonstrate that the current Child-Computer Interaction
paradigm is not potentiating human development to its fullest â it is associated with
several physical and mental health problems and appears not to be maximizing childrenâs
cognitive performance and cognitive development. In order to potentiate childrenâs
physical and mental health (including cognitive performance and cognitive development)
we have developed a new approach to human development and evolution.
This approach proposes a particular synergy between the developing human body,
computing machines and natural environments. It emphasizes that children should be
encouraged to interact with challenging physical environments offering multiple possibilities
for sensory stimulation and increasing physical and mental stress to the organism.
We created and tested a new set of computing devices in order to operationalize
our approach â Biosymtic (Biosymbiotic Robotic) devices: âAlbertâ and âCratusâ. In
two initial studies we were able to observe that the main goal of our approach is being
achieved. We observed that, interaction with the Biosymtic device âAlbertâ, in a natural
environment, managed to trigger a different neurophysiological response (increases
in sustained attention levels) and tended to optimize episodic memory performance in
children, compared to interaction with a sedentary screen-based computing device, in
an artificially controlled environment (indoors) - thus a promising solution to promote
cognitive performance/development; and that interaction with the Biosymtic device
âCratusâ, in a natural environment, instilled vigorous physical activity levels in children
- thus a promising solution to promote physical and mental health
Restorative Properties of Semi-Outdoor Space in the Workplace: Towards an atmospheric quality of architecture
The biophilic design philosophy embraces the creation of dynamic multi-sensory built environments
through the incorporation of nature for its restorative properties, including the restoration of
attentional capacity, reduction of stress, and improvement of mood. However, current literature
focuses almost exclusively on the visual experience while neglecting the thermal sense.
This thesis argues for the central role played by thermal sense in occupantsâ restorative experience
of nature within the built environment. Experimental methods are used to address the question âTo
what extent does the thermal realm contribute to the multisensory experience of nature and its
restorative benefits in semi-outdoor environments?â
A pre-and-post-test experiment was conducted to compare the restorative effects of a workplace
semi-outdoor space presenting two distinct thermal scenarios, one devoid of adaptive opportunities,
just direct sunlight exposure, and the other condition including the adaptive opportunity for subjects to
select between direct sunlight or shade. The experiment used a multisensory virtual reality method to
simulate the dynamic environmental conditions of an actual semi-outdoor space.
Significant associations between thermal pleasure, thermal adaptive opportunities, and restorative
benefits were found. This study observed cultural differences in participantsâ thermal preferences and
restorative outcomes. Relationships between the thermal realm and psychological restoration were
proposed based on the empirical findings.
This project brings empirical evidence to the architectural discourse and critique of âocular-centrismâ
and advocates the key role of thermal pleasure and delight within the biophilia theme in
contemporary architecture. The methodological innovation and findings from the project invite new
lines of inquiry that focus on the psychological benefits of thermal pleasure in the outdoor urban
context