Analyzing and understanding embodied interactions in virtual reality systems

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) offers opportunities in human-computer interaction research, to embody users in immersive environments and observe how they interact with 3D scenarios under well-controlled environments. VR content has stronger influences on users physical and emotional states as compared to traditional 2D media, however, a fuller understanding of this kind of embodied interaction is currently limited by the extent to which attention and behavior can be observed in a VR environment, and the accuracy at which these observations can be interpreted as, and mapped to, real-world interactions and intentions. This thesis aims at the creation of a system to help designers in the analysis of the entire user experience in VR environment: how they feel, what is their intentions when interacting with a certain object, provide them guidance based on their needs and attention. A controlled environment in which the user is guided will help to establish a better intersubjectivity between designer intention who created the experience and users who lived it and will lead to a more efficient analysis of the user behavior in VR systems for the design of better experiences. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Systems and tools for interaction design; • Computing methodologies → Virtual reality.

Task-based methodology to characterise immersive user experience with multivariate data

“…Figure 2: Our study in VR [32] that produced the dataset. In the study, users crossed a virtual road with simulated car traffic, in six scenarios with a variable amount of interactivity and number of cars on the road.…”

“…The dataset we chose to exemplify our task-based methodology is the CREATTIVE3D multimodal dataset of user behaviour in virtual reality, publicly available from the VR study we conducted in our previous work [32]. The dataset presents the two characteristics necessary for our methodology: (1) a clear temporal segmentation of tasks and sub-tasks in scenarios, and (2) behaviour and 3D context data containing timestamps for synchronisation.…”

“…• System scene logs recording on Unity with the GUsT-3D tool [32] at 10Hz containing time-stamped entries of (1) the current state of the environment (i.e., traffic light colour, cars position, object positions), and (2) the object interactive properties (e.g., the book is on the table, the box is grabbed by the player)…”

“…To illustrate the advantages, we apply the task-based methodology on the CREATTIVE3D multimodal dataset of user behaviour in virtual reality from our previous user study [32], which is publicly available 1 . This dataset fulfils two important criteria for our approach: (i) it includes multivariate data providing varied metrics to characterise the experiential UX (ii) these metrics can be spatiotemporally aligned with low-level tasks and scene context.…”

T109 Evaluation of the GEM® Premier™ 5000 with intelligent quality management 2 (IQM®2) at Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, Tsinghua University (Beijing, China)

“…These devices play a pivotal role in creating seamless, immersive experiences. Recent studies have delved into innovative solutions aiming to prevent information overload [38], alleviate cognitive load [77], explore eye-tracking technologies [122], synchronize visual-motor responses [79], or leverage natural finger positioning [158]. These efforts aim to create more accessible and intuitive entry points into the physical world.…”