A cluster of research in Affective Computing suggests that it is possible to infer some characteristics of users' affective states by analyzing their electrophysiological activity in real-time. However, it is not clear how to use the information extracted from electrophysiological signals to create visual representations of the affective states of Virtual Reality (VR) users. Visualization of users' affective states in VR can lead to biofeedback therapies for mental health care. Understanding how to visualize affective states in VR requires an interdisciplinary approach that integrates psychology, electrophysiology, and audio-visual design. Therefore, this review aims to integrate previous studies from these fields to understand how to develop virtual environments that can automatically create visual representations of users' affective states. The manuscript addresses this challenge in four sections: First, theories related to emotion and affect are summarized. Second, evidence suggesting that visual and sound cues tend to be associated with affective states are discussed. Third, some of the available methods for assessing affect are described. The fourth and final section contains five practical considerations for the development of virtual reality environments for affect visualization.
As a result of an increasingly automatized and digitized industry, processes are becoming more complex. Augmented Reality has shown considerable potential in assisting workers with complex tasks by enhancing user understanding and experience with spatial information. However, the acceptance and integration of AR into industrial processes is still limited due to the lack of established methods and tedious integration efforts. Meanwhile, deep neural networks have achieved remarkable results in computer vision tasks and bear great prospects to enrich Augmented Reality applications . In this paper…
This study aims to better understand the emotional and physiological correlates of being caressed in VR depending on the type of multisensory feedback provided and the animate or inanimate nature of the virtual representation that touches an embodied virtual body. We evaluated how pleasure, arousal, embodiment, and the illusion of being touched in VR were influenced by the inclusion of only visual feedback compared to visuotactile stimulation conditions, where participants, in addition to seeing an avatar or feather caressing their virtual bodies, also perceived congruent mid-air ultrasonic ta…
With the advancements in social robotics and virtual avatars, it becomes increasingly important that these agents adapt their behavior to the mood, feelings and personality of their users. One such aspect of the user is empathy. Whereas many studies measure empathy through offline measures that are collected after empathic stimulation (e.g. post-hoc questionnaires), the current study aimed to measure empathy online, using brain activity collected during the experience. Participants watched an affective 360 video of a child experiencing domestic violence in a virtual reality headset while their…
Affective virtual reality (VR) environments with varying visual style can impact users' valence and arousal responses. We applied Neural Style Transfer (NST) to generate 360$^\circ$ VR environments that elicited users' varied valence and arousal responses. From a user study with 30 participants, findings suggested that generative VR environments changed participants' arousal responses but not their valence levels. The generated visual features, e.g., textures and colors, also altered participants' affective perceptions. Our work contributes novel insights about how users respond to generative …
In this position paper, we outline our research challenges in Affective Interactive Systems, and present recent work on visualizing avatar biosignals for social VR entertainment. We highlight considerations for how biosignals animations in social VR spaces can (falsely) indicate users' availability status.
Evaluating the user experience of a software system is an essential final step of every research. Several concepts such as flow, affective state, presences, or immersion exist to measure user experience. Typical measurement techniques analyze physiological data, gameplay data, and questionnaires. Qualitative feedback methods are another approach to collect detailed user insights. In this position paper, we will discuss how we used questionnaires and qualitative feedback methods in previous mixed reality work to measure user experience. We will present several measurement examples, discuss thei…
Love in the Age of AI: An Integrative Process Model of Romantic Human-Chatbot Relationships
University of Duisburg-Essen（杜伊斯堡-埃森大学）；INTITEC Research Group, University of Duisburg-Essen（杜伊斯堡-埃森大学 INTITEC 研究组）；Research Center Trustworthy Data Science and Security, University Alliance Ruhr（鲁尔大学联盟可信数据科学与安全研究中心）；Centre for Justice, Queensland University of Technology（昆士兰科技大学司法中心）
Augmented Reality (AR) learning games, on average, have been shown to have a positive impact on student learning. However, the exploration of AR learning games in special education settings, where accessibility is a concern, has not been well explored. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore the use of AR games in accessible learning applications and to provide a comprehensive understanding of its advantages over traditional learning approaches. In this paper, we present our systematic review of previous studies included in major databases in the past decade. We explored the characterist…
CoGen3D: An Agentic Human-AI Co-Design Pipeline for 3D Asset Generation for Virtual Reality
Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology（南京信息工程大学）；Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology（日本科学技术大学）；The University of Sydney（悉尼大学）；University of Copenhagen（哥本哈根大学）；TU Dortmund University（多特蒙德技术大学）；Research Center Trustworthy Data Science and Security（可信数据科学与安全研究中心）
The importance of emotions in service and in product design is well known. However, it is still not very well understood how users' emotions can be incorporated in a product or service lifecycle. We argue that this gap is due to a lack of a methodological framework for an effective investigation of the emotional response of persons when using products and services. Indeed, the emotional response of users is generally investigated by means of methods (e.g., surveys) that are not effective for this purpose. In our view, Virtual Reality (VR) technologies represent the perfect medium to evoke and …
Virtual Reality is used successfully to treat people for regular phobias. A new challenge is to develop Virtual Reality Exposure Training for social skills. Virtual actors in such systems have to show appropriate social behavior including emotions, gaze, and keeping distance. The behavior must be realistic and real-time. Current approaches consist of four steps: 1) trainee social signal detection, 2) cognitive-affective interpretation, 3) determination of the appropriate bodily responses, and 4) actuation. The "cognitive" detour of such approaches does not match the directness of human bodily …
University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）；University College London（伦敦大学学院）；Emteq Ltd（Emteq有限公司）
Cognitive training has shown promising results for delivering improvements in human cognition related to attention, problem solving, reading comprehension and information retrieval. However, two frequently cited problems in cognitive training literature are a lack of user engagement with the training programme, and a failure of developed skills to generalise to daily life. This paper introduces a new cognitive training (CT) paradigm designed to address these two limitations by combining the benefits of gamification, virtual reality (VR), and affective adaptation in the development of an engagi…
Introducing WARM-VR: Benchmark Dataset for Multimodal Wearable Affect Recognition in Virtual Reality
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ottawa（Ottawa 大学电气工程与计算机科学学院）；Computer Science, University of Ottawa（Ottawa 大学计算机科学系）；Computer Vision Department, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence（摩根·bin·扎耶德人工智能大学计算机视觉部门）
This paper presents an experiment to assess the feasibility of using secondary input data as a method of determining user engagement in immersive virtual reality (VR). The work investigates whether secondary data (biosignals) acquired from users are useful as a method of detecting levels of concentration, stress, relaxation etc. in immersive environments, and if they could be used to create an affective feedback loop in immersive VR environments, including educational contexts. A VR Experience was developed in the Unity game engine, with three different levels, each designed to expose the user…
