Empirical Comparisons of Virtual Environment Displays

There are many different visual display devices used in virtual environment (VE) systems. These displays vary along many dimensions, such as resolution, field of view, level of immersion, quality of stereo, and so on. In general, no guidelines exist to choose an appropriate display for a particular VE application. Our goal in this work is to develop such guidelines on the basis of empirical results. We present two initial experiments comparing head-mounted displays with a workbench display and a foursided spatially immersive display. The results indicate that the physical characteristics of the displays, users' prior experiences, and even the order in which the displays are presented can have significant effects on performance

The responses of people to virtual humans in an immersive virtual environment

This paper presents an experiment investigating the impact of behavior and responsiveness on social responses to virtual humans in an immersive virtual environment (IVE). A number of responses are investigated, including presence, copresence, and two physiological responses—heart rate and electrodermal activity (EDA). Our findings suggest that increasing agents’ responsiveness even on a simple level can have a significant impact on certain aspects of people’s social responses to humanoid agents. Despite being aware that the agents were computer-generated, participants with higher levels of social anxiety were significantly more likely to avoid “disturbing” them. This suggests that on some level people can respond to virtual humans as social actors even in the absence of complex interaction. Responses appear to be shaped both by the agents’ behaviors and by people’s expectations of the technology. Participants experienced a significantly higher sense of personal contact when the agents were visually responsive to them, as opposed to static or simply moving. However, this effect diminished with experienced computer users. Our preliminary analysis of objective heart-rate data reveals an identical pattern of responses

Contrasting the effectiveness and efficiency of virtual reality and real environments in the treatment of acrophobia

Previous studies reported good results in using virtual reality for the treatment of acrophobia. Similarly this paper reports the use of a virtual environment for the treatment of acrophobia. In the study, 10 subjects were exposed to three sessions of simulated heights in a virtual reality (VR) system, and 5 others were exposed to a real environment. Both groups revealed significant progress in a range of anxiety, avoidance and behaviour measurements when confronted with virtual as well as real height circumstances. Despite VR participants experiencing considerably shorter treatment times than the real-world subjects, significant improvements were recorded on the Behavioural Avoidance Test, the Attitudes Toward Heights Questionnaire and the Acrophobia Questionnaire. These results are suggestive of a possible higher effectiveness and efficiency of VR in treating acrophobia

From presence to consciousness through virtual reality

Immersive virtual environments can break the deep, everyday connection between where our senses tell us we are and where we are actually located and whom we are with. The concept of 'presence' refers to the phenomenon of behaving and feeling as if we are in the virtual world created by computer displays. In this article, we argue that presence is worthy of study by neuroscientists, and that it might aid the study of perception and consciousness

Virtual Reality Based Simulation Testbed for Evaluation of Autonomous Vehicle Behavior Algorithms

Validation of Autonomous Vehicle behavior algorithms requires thorough testing against a wide range of test scenarios. It is not financially and practically feasible to conduct these tests entirely in a real world setting. We discuss the design and implementation of a VR based simulation testbed that allows such testing to be conducted virtually, linking a computer-generated environment to the system running the autonomous vehicle\u27s decision making algorithms and operating in real-time. We illustrate the system by further discussing the design and implementation of an application that builds upon the VR simulation testbed to visually evaluate the performance of an Advance Driver Assist System (ADAS), namely Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) controller against an actor using vehicular navigation data from real traffic within a virtual 3D environment of Clemson University\u27s campus. With this application, our goal is to enable the user to achieve spatial awareness and immersion of physically being inside a test car within a realistic traffic scenario in a safe, inexpensive and repeatable manner in Virtual Reality. Finally, we evaluate the performance of our simulator application and conduct a user study to assess its usability

Configuaração emocional decorrente da visualização dos cenários de indução afectiva 3D

Recentemente, a indução de emoções em contexto laboratorial adoptou a tecnologia da Realidade Virtual com o propósito de aproximar a estimulação laboratorial das contingências do meio real. Nesse sentido, Monteiro, Barbosa e Silvério (2011), desenvolveram e validaram um conjunto de ambientes de RV com o propósito de testar a eficácia desta tecnologia, na indução emocional, comparativamente com a tecnologia tradicional. Os autores confirmaram que a RV provoca respostas emocionais de maior intensidade. No entanto, ficou por descobrir quais as emoções induzidas em cada um dos cenários desenvolvidos. Este trabalho surge então, na continuidade da investigação de Monteiro et al. (2011) e pretende revelar que emoções primárias de Izard são induzidas em cada Cenário de Indução Afectiva 3D (CIA 3D). Num estudo intra-sujeitos, a amostra foi constituída por 30 participantes apenas do sexo masculino, com idades compreendidas entre os 18 anos e os 50 anos. Os participantes visualizaram os diferentes cenários através de óculos de estereoscopia passiva por anaglifo. Além da escala EEPPO 94, recorremos ao registo das medidas fisiológicas periféricas empiricamente validadas para estudar emoções (Marques-Teixeira, 2001). Os resultados mostram que o cenário agradável desencadeou com mais intensidade emoções positivas, enquanto, que o cenário desagradável desencadeou mais intensamente emoções negativas

Virtual Reality: The Game Changer for Residential Real Estate Staging through Increased Presence

This study proposes a series of 3 experiments to explore how different types of staging, pictures versus virtual reality, impacts potential buyers’ likelihood of wanting to visit a home. Moreover, this study seeks to address how the type of market, hot versus cold, and type of home, luxury versus non-luxury, connects with staging and its impact on wanting to visit a home. In Experiment 1, participants will view 10 total homes, 5 randomly selected with staged pictures first followed by the remaining 5 with virtual reality, either within the hot or cold market. If VR increases presence, then people should be more likely to want to visit a house especially in a hot market given that there is a high demand for a constrained supply. Experiment 2 addressed the contrast effect limitation given that virtual reality staging always came after the pictures of staging within Experiment 1. Experiment 2 should replicate the results of Experiment 1 by removing the contrast effect. Finally, Experiment 3 will explore the impact of type of home, luxury versus non-luxury, and type of staging on wanting to visit a home. Researchers are expected to find that participants who viewed properties in virtual reality are more likely to want to visit the home compared to those that saw staged images because of increased presence, which will make them feel more connected to the home compared to viewing staged pictures. Ultimately, this study is important because it aims to identify the utility of VR in home sales

Virtual reality in psychotherapy: review

ABSTRACT Virtual reality (VR) has recently emerged as a potentially effective way to provide general and specialty health care services, and appears poised to enter mainstream psychotherapy delivery. Because VR could be part of the future of clinical psychology, it is critical to all psychotherapists that it be defined broadly. To ensure appropriate development of VR applications, clinicians must have a clear understanding of the opportunities and challenges it will provide in professional practice. This review outlines the current state of clinical research relevant to the development of virtual environments for use in psychotherapy. In particular, the paper focuses its analysis on both actual applications of VR in clinical psychology and how different clinical perspectives can use this approach to improve the process of therapeutic change. 22