Influencing Human Affective Responses to Dynamic Virtual Environments

Abstract

Detecting and measuring emotional responses while interacting with virtual reality (VR), and assessing and interpreting their impacts on human engagement and “immersion,” are both academically and technologically challenging. While many researchers have, in the past, focused on the affective evaluation of passive environments, such as listening to music or the observation of videos and imagery, virtual realities and related interactive environments have been used in only a small number of research studies as a mean of presenting emotional stimuli. This article reports the first stage (focusing on participants' subjective responses) of a range of experimental investigations supporting the evaluation of emotional responses within a virtual environment, according to a three-dimensional (Valence, Arousal, and Dominance) model of affects, developed in the 1970s and 1980s. To populate this three-dimensional model with participants' emotional responses, an “affective VR,” capable of manipulating users' emotions, has been designed and subjectively evaluated. The VR takes the form of a dynamic “speedboat” simulation, elements (controllable VR parameters) of which were assessed and selected based on a 35-respondent online survey, coupled with the implementation of an affective power approximation algorithm. A further 68 participants took part in a series of trials, interacting with a number of VR variations, while subjectively rating their emotional responses. The experimental results provide an early level of confidence that this particular affective VR is capable of manipulating individuals' emotional experiences, through the control of its internal parameters. Moreover, the approximation technique proved to be fairly reliable in predicting users' potential emotional responses, in various affective VR settings, prior to actual experiences. Finally, the analysis suggested that the emotional response of the users, with different gender and gaming experiences, could vary, when presented with the same affective VR situation.

Affective Recognition in Dynamic and Interactive Virtual Environments

“…To construct the psychophysiological database, the designed and evaluated Affective VR, presented in [17], has been used as the source of emotional stimuli. The Affective VR was based on a speedboat simulation 5 (Figure 1) acting as the background scenario.…”

“…A number of parameters (called affective incidents) were implemented in the VR to change the affective power of the environment, within the Circumplex of Affect, presented by Russell in 1980s [18]. As an illustration, participants were challenged by driving the boat and collecting scores 'freely', in a 'minefield' or whilst 'being targeted by torpedoes', in various experimental setups, such as, coloured images, black and white or inverse black and white screens, using a mouse, or joystick with or without simple force feedback (for more details, refer to [17]).…”

“…In [17] we conceptualised, designed and evaluated an Affective Virtual Reality (Affective VR), capable of evoking various emotional experiences on the part of the human user. In the present study, by employing the designed Affective VR, an affective computing system was conceptualised, designed and evaluated.…”

“…In the present study, by employing the designed Affective VR, an affective computing system was conceptualised, designed and evaluated. To do this, the relationship between psychophysiological signals and human emotions, evoked through the designed Affective VR (presented in [17]), has been the focus of investigation. To support this research:…”

“…A psychophysiological experiment has been conducted, in which simple Electroencephalography (EEG), galvanic skin response (GSR) and Heart Rate signals of 30 participants have been recorded whilst playing the most powerful affective games, identified in [17]. These physiological signals provided a comprehensive database for further analysis and for the construction and evaluation of an Affective Recognition system (Section 2 of the present paper).…”