Virtual reality (VR) offers a compelling and immersive experience; however, cybersickness (or VR sickness) stands as a significant obstacle to its widespread adoption. When a user experiences cybersickness, one's physical condition deteriorates with various symptoms, often accompanied by an increased and destabilized heart rate and even altered perception of one's state. In this paper, we propose to provide ``False but Stable Heart rate (FSH)'' feedback through auditory and vibrotactile stimulation to reversely induce a stably perceived heart rate and, thereby, alleviate cybersickness while navigating a sickness-inducing VR content. The validation of the human experiment confirmed the intended effect in a statistically significant way. Furthermore, it was found that the lesser compatible FSH feedback had a more substantial sickness reduction effect but distracted the user with the reduced immersive experience. The compatible FSH feedback still showed moderate sickness reduction with the maintained sense of presence and immersion.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642072
Source confusion occurs when individuals attribute a memory to the wrong source (e.g., confusing a picture with an experienced event). Virtual Reality (VR) represents a new source of memories particularly prone to being confused with reality. While previous research identified causes of source confusion between reality and other sources (e.g., imagination, pictures), there is currently no understanding of what characteristics specific to VR (e.g., immersion, presence) could influence source confusion. Through a laboratory study (n=29), we 1) confirm the existence of VR source confusion with current technology, and 2) present a quantitative and qualitative exploration of factors influencing VR source confusion. Building on the Source Monitoring Framework, we identify VR characteristics and assumptions about VR capabilities (e.g., poor rendering) that are used to distinguish virtual from real memories. From these insights, we reflect on how the increasing realism of VR could leave users vulnerable to memory errors and perceptual manipulations.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3641992
Social Virtual Reality (VR) typically entails users interacting in real time. However, asynchronous Social VR presents the possibility of combining the convenience of asynchronous communication with the high presence of VR. Because the tools to easily record and replay VR social interactions are fairly new, scholars have not yet examined how users perceive asynchronous VR social interactions, and how nonverbal transformations of recorded interactions influence user behavior. In this work, we study nonverbal transformations of group interactions around proxemics and gaze and present results from an exploratory user study (N=128) investigating their effects. We found that the combination of spatial accommodation and added gaze increases social presence, perceived attention, and mutual gaze. Results also showed an inverse relationship between interpersonal distance and perceived levels of dominance and threat of the recorded group. Finally, we outline implications for educators and virtual meeting organizers to incorporate these transformations into real-world scenarios.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642244
Drinking in social VR has become popular, yet little is known about how users perceive and experience alcohol consumption while immersed in virtual spaces with others, as well as its potential harm and negative effects on their offline and online lives. To better understand this emerging phenomenon from the perspective of both drinkers and non-drinkers, we analyzed public discussions from the r/VRchat online community on users' perceptions, and experiences with alcohol consumption in social VR. Heavy drinking is prevalent. We find that VR drinkers feel less intoxicated, which makes them drink more without being aware of it. Anti-cybersickness designs may affect users' perception of vertigo, even if the vertigo is not caused by VR. We discuss how affordances that support meaningful activities (i.e., sense of presence, embodiment, and social interactions) exacerbate alcohol abuse. We propose implications for the design of safer social VR experiences for both drinkers and non-drinkers.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642405
In virtual reality (VR), interactions may fail when users encounter new, unknown, or unexpected objects. We propose using feedforward in VR to help users interact with objects by revealing how such objects work. Feedforward lets users know what to do and how to do it by showing the available actions and outcomes before an interaction. In this article, we first chart the design space of feedforward in VR and illustrate how to design feedforward for specific VR interactions. We discuss starting the feedforward, previewing actions and outcomes, and returning the virtual world to its state before the feedforward. Second, we implement three real-world VR applications to show how feedforward can be applied to multistep interactions, perceived interactivity, and discoverability. Third, we conduct an evaluation of the design space with 14 VR experts to understand its usefulness. Finally, we summarize the findings of our work on VR feedforward in 15 guidelines.