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In real life, it is well understood how stress can be induced and how it is measured. While virtual reality (VR) applications can resemble such stress inducers, it is still an open question if and how stress can be measured in a non-intrusive way during VR exposure. Usually, the quality of VR applications is estimated by user acceptance in the form of presence. Presence itself describes the individual's acceptance of a virtual environment as real and is measured by specific questionnaires. Accordingly, it is expected that stress strongly affects this presence and thus also the quality assessment. Consequently, identifying the stress level of a VR user may enable content creators to engage users more immersively by adjusting the virtual environment to the measured stress. In this paper, we thus propose to use a commercially available eye tracking device to detect stress while users are exploring a virtual environment. We describe a user study in which a VR task was implemented to induce stress, while users' pupil diameter and pulse were measured and evaluated against a self-reported stress level. The results show a statistically significant correlation between self-reported stress and users' pupil dilation and pulse, indicating that stress measurements can indeed be conducted during the use of a head-mounted display. If this indication can be successfully proven in a larger scope, it will open up a new era of affective VR applications using individual and dynamic adjustments in the virtual environment.

In this paper, we present a virtual learning environment for an industrial assembly task, which combines an easyto-use interaction with an intuitive user experience. It is shown that such a virtual environment can be used for initial training to introduce tasks to new employees, but also experts may benefit from advanced training in case of new products, or new assembly routines. Consequently, this application was validated twice. First, in a lab pilot study showing that the simple interactions and helpful instructions were appreciated by the participants. Second, professionals from industry were asked to perform the task and to evaluate the usefulness of the virtual learning environment considering its industrial applicability. Based on the achieved scores in common evaluative questionnaires and the post-study interviews, both, the lab pilot and the industrial study, have performed well and will be further developed in close collaboration with the industrial partner.

Due to current trends in the manufacturing industry, such as mass customization, manual operations contribute drastically to the overall costs of a product. Methods-Time-Measurement (MTM) identifies the optimization potential of manual workplaces, which significantly influences a worker’s productivity. However, traditional MTM requires great efforts to observe and transcribe manual assembly processes. Yet, various digital approaches exist that facilitate MTM analyses. While most of these approaches require the existence of real workplaces or cardboard mock-ups, it would be beneficial to conduct a virtual MTM in earlier phases of production planning. However, the quality of virtual MTM analyses compared to traditional MTM conducted in reality has not been assessed yet. This paper is addressing it by conducting a comparative user study with 21 participants completing the same task both at a real and virtual workplace, which they access via virtual reality technology. Our results show that participants’ MTM-2 values achieved at the VR workplace are comparable to those at the real workplace. However, time study data reveals that participants moved considerably slower in VR and thus needed more time to accomplish the task. Consequently, for the measurement of manual work in VR, it is even necessary to utilize predetermined times, such as MTM-2 since time study data is insufficient. This paper also serves as a proof of concept for future studies, investigating automated transcription systems that would further decrease the efforts conducting MTM analyses.