Immersive Virtual Environment Technology to Supplement Environmental Perception, Preference and Behavior Research: A Review with Applications

Abstract

Immersive virtual environment (IVE) technology offers a wide range of potential benefits to research focused on understanding how individuals perceive and respond to built and natural environments. In an effort to broaden awareness and use of IVE technology in perception, preference and behavior research, this review paper describes how IVE technology can be used to complement more traditional methods commonly applied in public health research. The paper also describes a relatively simple workflow for creating and displaying 360° virtual environments of built and natural settings and presents two freely-available and customizable applications that scientists from a variety of disciplines, including public health, can use to advance their research into human preferences, perceptions and behaviors related to built and natural settings.

How do shared-street design and traffic restriction improve urban soundscape and human experience? —An online survey with virtual reality

“…Virtual reality (VR) is a 3D user-computer interface that generates a real or imaginary environment and simulates in real-time the user's presence in this environment through multiple sensorial channels (Burdea & Coiffet, 2003). Since the 1990's, VR has been widely used for environmental preference studies (Smith, 2015). While a majority of these studies were visual-oriented and based on VR applications only capable of real-time visualisation (e.g., Bateman et al, 2009;Bishop et al, 2001;Bishop et al, 2009), recent development in auralisation technology and increasing interest in soundscape have enabled and encouraged a growing number of multisensory environmental preference studies based on VR applications capable of real-time aura-visualisation (e.g., Baştürk et al, 2012;Maffei, 2012;Smyth et al, 2010;Stienen & Vorländer, 2015).…”

Enable, Reconnect and Augment: A New ERA of Virtual Nature Research and Application

“…HMDs have the advantage of allowing 360 • vision of the virtual world while eliminating the visual contact with the external environment. These devices are the basis of the so-called immersive virtual environment technology, which consists of a flow of synthetic sensory information that, through an HMD, provides a surrounding and continuous stream of stimuli, creating the illusory perception of being enclosed within and interacting with a real environment [16,18]. This type of technology is considered more immersive compared to other forms of virtual nature, such as digital images and videos, and is consequently likely to increase the viewers' sense of presence in the environment.…”

“…The concept of technological nature has received increased attention in the research community. In particular, attention has been directed, often with some concerns, towards so-called virtual nature [15] and especially immersive virtual environments technology [16]. The combination of these two concepts has been defined as immersive virtual nature (IVN) [17], which combines visual and auditory stimuli to create an immersive nature experience.…”

Integrating Spatially Explicit Representations of Landscape Perceptions into Land Change Research

“…The field has made significant advancements in technology to capture the landscape experience including 3D environment technologies [48] that can be projected on large screens to simulate walking and experiencing an environment [49,50] or immerse individuals in the designed environment using 3D goggles [37•]. These immersive virtual environments also enable identifying specific features associated with the respondents' values, either by recording user-provided coordinates or by tracking the users' movements [51]. Visualizations can also be made spatially explicit by coupling various types of virtual imaging techniques (e.g., photorealistic rendering, image draping, virtual worlds, and augmented realities) with features from GIS data [49].…”