Search results for "Virtual Reality"
showing 10 items of 376 documents
Positive mood induction procedures for virtual environments designed for elderly people
2012
Positive emotions have a significant influence on mental and physical health. Their role in the elderly’s wellbeing has been established in numerous studies. It is therefore worthwhile to explore ways in which elderly people can increase the number of positive experiences in their daily lives. This paper describes two Virtual Environments (VEs) that were used as mood induction procedures (MIPs) for this population. In addition, the VEs’ efficacy at increasing joy and relaxation in elderly users is analyzed. The VEs contain exercises for generating positive-autobiographic memories, mindfulness and slow breathing rhythms. The total sample comprised 18 participants over 55 years old who used t…
Design of virtual environments for the treatment of agoraphobia: Inclusion of culturally relevant elements for the population of the Dominican Republ…
2020
Abstract Virtual Reality is a powerful tool for the treatment of agoraphobia. However, how effective is the use of these scenarios when they do not resemble the sociocultural context? Literature suggests that the inclusion of culturally relevant elements increases the ecological validity and transferability of learning since it reduces the gap between the virtual and real context. Unfortunately, in Latin America, the development of virtual environments is incipient, and the use of generic virtual environments is commonplace. The objective of this study was to develop virtual environments that include elements that are culturally relevant to the population of the Dominican Republic. Three hu…
Virtual Reality in Education : Focus on the Role of Emotions and Physiological Reactivity
2019
Cognitive and emotional dimensions are often linked to each other in learning experiences. Moreover, emotions and engagement can lead to better outcomes at the cognitive level. Previous research has indicated that virtual reality (VR) provides a feeling of presence and immersion, which can trigger emotionally engaging learning situations. In this study, we explore the opportunities and challenges related to the use of VR in an educational context. The focus of this article is threefold: First, we explore interdisciplinary research literature related to the use of VR for educational purposes. Second, we introduce our VR pilot study in teacher education, applying three different kinds of VR a…
Evidence Against a Correlation Between Ease of Use and Actual Use of a Device in a Walk-in Virtual Environment
2013
Technology acceptance and its use are assumed to be based on the perceived usefulness and ease of use of the technology. We studied one aspect of that by focusing on a possible correlation between the actual use of a device and its perceived ease of use. For studying technology that is new to users, we investigated the use of a locomotion control device in a walk-in virtual environment. We organized a user test in which participants browsed virtual shopping items by walking or by controlling locomotion with a device. Data were gathered in two ways: First, we observed their actual device use, and second, we asked users to evaluate the ease of use of the device. The analysis illustrates that …
A milestone in the era of esports: The Olympics through the lens of virtual reality
2022
Whether the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ever includes electronic sports (esports) in the official program of the Olympic Games, the popularity of competitive gaming continues to grow—sports present a modern audience powerhouse the world cannot fail to notice. By the end of 2025, the number of viewers in esports is expected to reach 640.8 million and revenue growth of 1,866.2 billion U.S. dollars (Gough, 2022). Over 170 colleges in the United States have established varsity esports teams and offer esports players' educational opportunities, including partial or full scholarships (Lyman, 2022). Esports has also found its place in schools, largely influencing the youth (Rothwell and …
Effects of Exergaming in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease Compared to Conventional Cardiac Rehabilitation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
2022
Background: Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs are used for improving prognosis and quality of life in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Nonetheless, adherence to these programs is low, and exercise-based CR programs based on virtual reality (i.e., exergaming) have been proposed as an alternative to conventional CR programs. However, whether exergaming programs are superior to conventional CR programs in patients with CVD is not known. Objective: This systematic review with meta-analysis was conducted to explore whether exergaming enhances exercise capacity, quality of life, mental health, motivation, and exercise adherence to a greater extent than conventional CR…
Immersive Virtual Reality in Experiential Learning : A Value Co-creation and Co-destruction Approach
2023
Immersive Virtual Reality (later VR) has its potential in enabling learning experiences. Several studies adopt experiential learning as a key concept to understand the outcomes of VR. This study consists of two parts – the first part conducts a systematic literature review on VR experiential learning and suggests seven main dimensions for the concept identified by the existing literature: engagement, sociability, contextual information, physical sensation, interactivity, cognitions, and presence. The second part adopts a value co-creation and co-destruction approach to empirically test the construction underlying VR experiential learning. The findings indicate 33 value co-creation and 19 va…
Experiential Learning of Chemistry Concepts Using Virtual Reality Technology
2016
Master's thesis Multimedia and Educational Technology MM500 - University of Agder 2016 Chemistry is a wide subject with many theoretical concepts. These theoretical concepts may be hard to grasp without experimental work. In a school class there are often students who are visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners who need appropriate tools for triggering engagement and active learning. This research discusses how adding student activities and experiments using a Virtual Reality (VR) based solution, can contribute to an enhanced learning experience for students during chemistry class. In order to produce a usable interactive VR based solution, this work followed the Human Centered Design pro…
Evaluating the Authenticity of Virtual Environments: Comparison of Three Devices
2016
Immersive virtual environments (VEs) have the potential to provide novel cost effective ways for evaluating not only new environments and usability scenarios, but also potential user experiences. To achieve this, VEs must be adequately realistic. The level of perceived authenticity can be ascertained by measuring the levels of immersion people experience in their VE interactions. In this paper the degree of authenticity is measured via anauthenticity indexin relation to three different immersive virtual environment devices. These devices include (1) a headband, (2) 3D glasses, and (3) a head-mounted display (HMD). A quick scale for measuring immersion, feeling of control, and simulator sick…
Assisting immersive virtual reality development with user experience design approach
2017
In our study we explored how to design a biography of a late Finnish artist as a VR experience. We conducted a development process assisted by user experience (UX) design methods, which increased the process efficiency, and resulted in a research prototype. Through previous research and our development process, we identified components affecting the user experience. These components are: Immersion, Presence, Disorientation, Sense of Control, Pleasantness, Exploration and Simulator Sickness. From our user study with 13 participants, we were able to draw implications that relate to these components. While the set of components could be incomplete or subject to change, shows that further resea…