Title: Investigation of Wellbeing and Situation Awareness in Virtual Reality

Date: Thursday, March 2nd, 2023 

Time: 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM EST 

Location: Teams Link (passcode: yjjZ2j) 

Nadia Fereydooni

Human-Centered Computing Ph.D. Student

School of Interactive Computing 

Georgia Institute of Technology

Committee: 

Dr. Bruce Walker (Advisor) – School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology 

Dr. Maribeth Coleman – School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology 

Dr. John Stasko – School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology 

Dr. Andrew Kun – Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of New Hampshire  

Dr. Blair MacIntyre – AR/VR/IoT in Global Technology Applied Research, JPMorgan Chase Co.

Abstract: 

An increasing number of users of various ages, physical and cognitive abilities, and backgrounds are using Virtual Reality (VR) devices as its technology becomes more ubiquitous and affordable. Similar to other digital technologies, VR impacts human wellbeing in positive and negative ways. Hence, it is important for designers and developers to understand these effects and to intentionally commit to promoting wellbeing in VR, as the fallout could have a wide range of individual and social implications. In this proposed line of research, I view wellbeing from the lens of positive computing and particularly focus on the mindfulness dimension — the state of being attentive and aware of what is happening at the present moment.

VR devices can both improve and hurt users’ mindful attention; VR systems are exceptional at immersing the user into the virtual environment, effectively blocking out the immediate external (i.e., “real”) world which can enhance the virtual experience and improve users’ mindful attention to the virtual environment and task. However, maintaining mindful attention in VR could be more challenging when the user is using the device in dynamic real-world environments (e.g. ,work from home, cars) since the user needs to maintain a mental representation of the dynamic real- world environment as well. In other words, devoting cognitive resources to maintain a representation of the real world in the virtual environment may negatively influence users’ mindful attention to the VR task. The goal of this program of research is to investigate the effect of providing information about the real world in the virtual environment on users’ perception, cognition, and VR experience, and to optimize it in an effort to improve users’ mindful attention and ultimately, wellbeing in VR.

In this work, I first created a framework for wellbeing in VR and developed a subjective questionnaire to measure it. I conducted an online survey and a user experiment to investigate the use of VR in cars and study the effect of providing information about the real world in the virtual environment. I next propose to explore the 1) perceptual aspect of these situation awareness cues and 2) their information architecture when using VR in work-from-home environments.