Exploring thermal state in mixed immersive virtual environments

Saeidi, Sanaz; Rentala, Girish; Rizzuto, Tracey E.; Hong, Tianzhen; Johannsen, Neil M.; Zhu, Yimin

doi:10.1016/j.jobe.2021.102918

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…To date, only a few studies examined the adequacy of IVEs for validation purposes through the comparison with the real counterpart while assessing users' comfort levels and satisfaction (e.g. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]), productivity [17], occupant behaviour [8,9,18]. Hence, thermal behavioural and performance studies employing VR are still at the initial state.…”

Section: Ive Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immersive Virtual vs. Real Environment: a validation field-study to assess occupants’ work productivity and comfort

Giuseppe¹,

Latini²,

Perna³

2022

tema

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In order to maximise occupants’ well-being and work efficiency, keep satisfying environmental conditions, and minimise costs and impact related to the operative and energy use, a “human-centric” approach is more and more pursued in buildings’ design and performance assessment. In this context, the use of Virtual Reality (VR) is emerging due to its advantages (low cost, repeatability, and speed of execution) compared to physical study settings. However, in Immersive Virtual Environments (IVE), it is important to ensure that data represented and collected faithfully replicate the physical environments. In order to provide a further contribution in terms of IVE validation process in the building field, this research presents results from an experimental study, where subjects’ performance tests and comfort assessments were compared in real and virtual office settings under three different walls colour layouts and two air temperature levels. “Internal”, “ecological” and “construct” validity of the IVE have been demonstrated. Findings revealed no statistically significant differences in productivity and sensation votes and in the impact of colour and temperature variables. Results then highlight a strong agreement of the two tested environments, revealing that VR is a potentially reliable tool to measure its real counterparts in terms of occupants’ productivity, perception, and behaviour under different test conditions.

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Section: Ive Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immersive Virtual vs. Real Environment: a validation field-study to assess occupants’ work productivity and comfort

Giuseppe¹,

Latini²,

Perna³

2022

tema

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“…Three of these sensors were mounted at ASHRAE's suggested heights of 4/0.1, 24/0.6, and 43/1.1 inches/meters from the floor [45]. Among them, the sensor placed at the height of 24/0.6 inches/meters was chosen as the closest-participant air temperature (i.e., the control temperature) (Figure 2) [71]. Temperature data was sent at one-second intervals and recorded using Logger Pro 13.…”

Section: Indoor Temperaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Outdoor Temperature Variations on Thermal State in Experiments Using Immersive Virtual Environment

2021

Self Cite

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Recent studies have established immersive virtual environments (IVEs) as promising tools for studying human thermal states and human–building interactions. One advantage of using immersive virtual environments is that experiments or data collection can be conducted at any time of the year. However, previous studies have confirmed the potential impact of outdoor temperature variations, such as seasonal variations on human thermal sensation. To the best of our knowledge, no study has looked into the potential impact of variations in outdoor temperatures on experiments using IVE. Thus, this study aimed to determine if different outdoor temperature conditions affected the thermal states in experiments using IVEs. Experiments were conducted using a head mounted display (HMD) in a climate chamber, and the data was analyzed under three temperature ranges. A total of seventy-two people participated in the experiments conducted in two contrasting outdoor temperature conditions, i.e., cold and warm outdoor conditions. The in situ experiments conducted in two cases, i.e., cooling in warm outdoor conditions and heating in cold outdoor conditions, were used as a baseline. The baseline in-situ experiments were then compared with the IVE experiments conducted in four cases, i.e., cooling in warm and cold outdoor conditions and heating in warm and cold outdoor conditions. The selection of cooling in cold outdoor conditions and heating in warm outdoor conditions for IVE experiments is particularly for studying the impact of outdoor temperature variations. Results showed that under the experimental and outdoor temperature conditions, outdoor temperature variations in most cases did not impact the results of IVE experiments, i.e., IVE experiments can replicate a temperature environment for participants compared to the ones in the in situ experiments. In addition, the participant’s thermal sensation vote was found to be a reliable indicator between IVE and in situ settings in all studied conditions. A few significantly different cases were related to thermal comfort, thermal acceptability, and overall skin temperature.

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“…The experiments (both IVE and in-situ sessions) were performed in a climate chamber using the experimental procedure described in previous studies (Rentala et al, 2021;Saeidi et al, 2021). The details of the climate chamber and its IVE model have also been explained in those earlier studies.…”

Section: Experiments Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of Causal Inference to the Analysis of Occupant Thermal State and Energy Behavioral Intentions in Immersive Virtual Environments

Rentala

Zhu

Mukhopadhyay

2021

Front. Sustain. Cities

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Identification and quantitative understanding of factors that influence occupant energy behavior and thermal state during the design phase are critical in supporting effective energy-efficient design. To achieve this, immersive virtual environments (IVEs) have recently shown potential as a tool to simulate occupant energy behaviors and collect context-dependent behavior data for buildings under design. On the other hand, prior models of occupant energy behaviors and thermal states used correlation-based approaches, which failed to capture the underlying causal interactions between the influencing factors and hence were unable to uncover the true causing factors. Therefore, in this study, the authors investigate the applicability of causal inference for identifying the causing factors of occupant/participant energy behavioral intentions and their thermal states in IVE condition and compare those results with the baseline in-situ condition. The energy behavioral intentions here are a proximal antecedent of actual energy behaviors. A set of experiments involving 72 human subjects were performed through the use of a head-mounted device (HMD) in a climate chamber. The subjects were exposed to three different step temperatures (cool, neutral, warm) under an IVE and a baseline in-situ condition. Participants' individual factors, behavioral factors, skin temperatures, virtual experience factors, thermal states (sensation, acceptability, comfort), and energy behavioral intentions were collected during the experiments. Structural causal models were learnt from data using the elicitation method in conjunction with the PC-Stable algorithm. The findings show that the causal inference framework is a potentially effective method for identifying causing factors of thermal states and energy behavioral intentions as well as quantifying their causal effects. In addition, the study shows that in IVE experiments, the participants' virtual experience factors such as their immersion, presence, and cybersickness were not the causing factors of thermal states and energy behavioral intentions. Furthermore, the study suggests that participants' behavioral factors such as their attitudes toward energy conservation and perceived behavioral control to conserve energy were the causing factors of their energy behavioral intentions. Also, the indoor temperature was a causing factor of general thermal sensation and overall skin temperature. The paper also discusses other findings, including discrepancies, limitations of the study, and recommendations for future studies.

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Exploring thermal state in mixed immersive virtual environments

Cited by 15 publications

References 61 publications

Immersive Virtual vs. Real Environment: a validation field-study to assess occupants’ work productivity and comfort

Immersive Virtual vs. Real Environment: a validation field-study to assess occupants’ work productivity and comfort

Impact of Outdoor Temperature Variations on Thermal State in Experiments Using Immersive Virtual Environment

Application of Causal Inference to the Analysis of Occupant Thermal State and Energy Behavioral Intentions in Immersive Virtual Environments

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