Design of a virtual environment for physiological and subjective monitoring of user presence in VR

Abstract

User presence is a natural construct of the human psyche that is central to VR development. If analyzed well, presence can indicate the effectiveness of VR settings on amplifying a user's sense of 'being' in the environment. Consequently, allowing VR developers to save time and money. Several methods of measuring presence exist, and are classified as subjective or objective, with the latter being the most omnipresent. This paper discusses the process of designing a VR environment for subjective and objective presence measurement. The main physiological cue this study aims to inspect is grip-force, and its possible consistency with changes in other physiological responses, such as heart rate and respiratory response. In order to engender measurable variations in grip-force, the developed VE was designed to incorporate a gripping task for consistent grip-force feedback, and a virtual height stimulus to evoke objective physiological changes. The environment consisted of three stages: a training stage, a transition-to-stimulus stage, and a stimulus stage. Based on initial user testing, it was concluded that a virtual height situation with an environment disconnect between the training stage and the stimulus stage induced subjective stress.