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      The Impact of Virtual Reality Nature Environments on Calmness, Arousal and Energy: a Multi-Method Study

      Published
      proceedings-article
      ,
      34th British HCI Conference (HCI2021)
      Post-pandemic HCI – Living Digitally
      20th - 21st July 2021
      Virtual Reality, Digital Wellbeing, Digital Nature
      Bookmark

            Abstract

            Virtual Reality is the current media's epitome of Immersiveness, Presence and Suspension of Disbelief. Both research and gaming industry communities have been building on this in order to exhaustively research and explore feelings of high-adrenaline, scariness, panic and other visceral and instinctive feelings. We take the opposite approach and try to prove that Virtual Reality can also be used to induce feelings of relaxation and soothingness effectively and strongly. Therefore, it could be used to improve the mental health of people who cannot be exposed to situations that induce said feelings. In our experiments, we found that Virtual Reality can be used to induce a strong sense of Calmness and to reduce the sense of Arousal and Energy, with a high degree of significance, having an effect with short-duration exposures. We also found hints that Virtual Reality may have an effect in the circadian cycle's regulation by exposing the subjects to a virtual sunset.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Contributors
            Conference
            July 2021
            July 2021
            : 36-47
            Affiliations
            [0001]ITI/LARSyS - University of Madeira

            Polo Científico e Tecnológico da Madeira,

            Caminho da Penteada, piso -2 9020-105 Funchal

            Portugal
            Article
            10.14236/ewic/HCI2021.3
            f32eab9a-ea7f-4f7f-b2db-182ee79d8d16
            © Noronha et al. Published by BCS Learning & Development Ltd. Proceedings of the BCS 34th British HCI Conference 2021, UK

            This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

            34th British HCI Conference
            HCI2021
            34
            London, UK
            20th - 21st July 2021
            Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)
            Post-pandemic HCI – Living Digitally
            History
            Product

            1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

            Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2021.3
            Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/
            Categories
            Electronic Workshops in Computing

            Applied computer science,Computer science,Security & Cryptology,Graphics & Multimedia design,General computer science,Human-computer-interaction
            Digital Nature,Digital Wellbeing,Virtual Reality

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