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Odour enhances the sense of presence in a virtual reality environment
Virtual reality (VR) headsets provide immersive audio-visual experiences for users, but usually neglect to provide olfactory cues that can provide additional information about our environment in the real world. This paper examines whether the introduction of smells into the VR environment enhances u...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8967033/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35353816 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265039 |
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author | Archer, Nicholas S. Bluff, Andrew Eddy, Andrew Nikhil, Chreshall K. Hazell, Nick Frank, Damian Johnston, Andrew |
author_facet | Archer, Nicholas S. Bluff, Andrew Eddy, Andrew Nikhil, Chreshall K. Hazell, Nick Frank, Damian Johnston, Andrew |
author_sort | Archer, Nicholas S. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Virtual reality (VR) headsets provide immersive audio-visual experiences for users, but usually neglect to provide olfactory cues that can provide additional information about our environment in the real world. This paper examines whether the introduction of smells into the VR environment enhances users’ experience, including their sense of presence through collection of both psychological and physiological measures. Using precise odour administration with an olfactometer, study participants were exposed to smells while they were immersed in the popular PlayStation VR game “Resident Evil 7”. A within-subject study design was undertaken where participants (n = 22) walked-through the same VR environment twice, with or without the introduction of associated congruent odour stimuli. Directly after each gameplay, participants completed a questionnaire to determine their sense of presence from the overall gameplay and their sense of immersion in each of the virtual scenes. Additionally, physiological measurements (heart rate, body temperature and skin electrodermal activity) were collected from participants (n = 11) for each gameplay. The results showed the addition of odours significantly increased participants’ sense of spatial presence in the VR environment compared to VR with no odour. Participants also rated the realism of VR experience with odour higher compared to no odour, however odour addition did not result in change in emotional state of participants (arousal, pleasure, dominance). Further, the participants’ physiological responses were impacted by the addition of odour. Odour mediated physiological changes were dependent on whether the VR environment was novel, as the effect of odour on physiological response was lost when participants experienced the aroma on the second gameplay. Overall, the results indicate the addition of odours to a VR environment had a significant effect on both the psychological and physiological experience showing the addition of smell enhanced the VR environment. The incorporation of odours to VR environments presents an opportunity to create a more immersive experience to increase a person’s presence within a VR environment. In addition to gaming, the results have broader applications for virtual training environments and virtual reality exposure therapy. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8967033 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-89670332022-03-31 Odour enhances the sense of presence in a virtual reality environment Archer, Nicholas S. Bluff, Andrew Eddy, Andrew Nikhil, Chreshall K. Hazell, Nick Frank, Damian Johnston, Andrew PLoS One Research Article Virtual reality (VR) headsets provide immersive audio-visual experiences for users, but usually neglect to provide olfactory cues that can provide additional information about our environment in the real world. This paper examines whether the introduction of smells into the VR environment enhances users’ experience, including their sense of presence through collection of both psychological and physiological measures. Using precise odour administration with an olfactometer, study participants were exposed to smells while they were immersed in the popular PlayStation VR game “Resident Evil 7”. A within-subject study design was undertaken where participants (n = 22) walked-through the same VR environment twice, with or without the introduction of associated congruent odour stimuli. Directly after each gameplay, participants completed a questionnaire to determine their sense of presence from the overall gameplay and their sense of immersion in each of the virtual scenes. Additionally, physiological measurements (heart rate, body temperature and skin electrodermal activity) were collected from participants (n = 11) for each gameplay. The results showed the addition of odours significantly increased participants’ sense of spatial presence in the VR environment compared to VR with no odour. Participants also rated the realism of VR experience with odour higher compared to no odour, however odour addition did not result in change in emotional state of participants (arousal, pleasure, dominance). Further, the participants’ physiological responses were impacted by the addition of odour. Odour mediated physiological changes were dependent on whether the VR environment was novel, as the effect of odour on physiological response was lost when participants experienced the aroma on the second gameplay. Overall, the results indicate the addition of odours to a VR environment had a significant effect on both the psychological and physiological experience showing the addition of smell enhanced the VR environment. The incorporation of odours to VR environments presents an opportunity to create a more immersive experience to increase a person’s presence within a VR environment. In addition to gaming, the results have broader applications for virtual training environments and virtual reality exposure therapy. Public Library of Science 2022-03-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8967033/ /pubmed/35353816 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265039 Text en © 2022 Archer et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Archer, Nicholas S. Bluff, Andrew Eddy, Andrew Nikhil, Chreshall K. Hazell, Nick Frank, Damian Johnston, Andrew Odour enhances the sense of presence in a virtual reality environment |
title | Odour enhances the sense of presence in a virtual reality environment |
title_full | Odour enhances the sense of presence in a virtual reality environment |
title_fullStr | Odour enhances the sense of presence in a virtual reality environment |
title_full_unstemmed | Odour enhances the sense of presence in a virtual reality environment |
title_short | Odour enhances the sense of presence in a virtual reality environment |
title_sort | odour enhances the sense of presence in a virtual reality environment |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8967033/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35353816 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265039 |
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