Immersive Virtual Environments for Emotional Engineering: Description and Preliminary Results

Abstract

[EN] This work aims to identify the arousal and presence level during an emotional engineering study. During the experimental sessions, a high-immersion Virtual Reality (VR) system, a CAVE-like configuration, will be used. Thirty-six volunteers will navigate through virtual houses that can be customized and that have been designed for emotional induction. Emotional induction will be obtained by stimulating the senses of sight, hearing and smell. For this purpose, the ambient lighting, music and smell will be controlled by the researcher, who will create a comfortable environment for the subject. Several physiological variables –Electrocardiogram (ECG), Respiratory signal and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) – will be recorded during the sessions. The obtained results will help furniture companies identify the senses that have more influence on emotions and will be the basis for new studies about user needs in the sector of furniture and interior decoration.