New Citations | VR Hazard Training for Astronauts

Space Flight Simulations Prevent Disasters

Under psychological and physical stress, astronauts can put their  mission and crew in danger. Looking into this issue, researchers created a potentially catastrophic spaceflight simulation using a virtual reality environment and recorded the heart rate of participants. Psychophysiological responses to the potentially disastrous flight simulation were recorded using a BIOPAC MP Series Data Acquisition Unit and AcqKnowledge software. Gradual exposure to stress was also factored in to examine how it affected psychophysiological responses. This was done by implementing low initial levels of smoke in the virtual spaceflight to indicate the gradual beginning of a fire onboard.

Read the Full Study: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Graduated Stress Exposure in Virtual Spaceflight Hazard Training (Finseth, Keren, Domeich, Franke, Anderson, and Shelley)

VR Games Reducing Difficulty of Learning Activities

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may have a more difficult time communicating, socially interacting and doing everyday activities. Today, virtual reality technology possesses the ability to present users a realistic enough experience to trick the mind, peaking the curiosity of researchers. Can VR experiences help individuals with ASD with everyday routines? To test this, a VR game was designed to teach people with ASD bus transportation routes and bus-taking routines.  Effectiveness of  users’ learning was measured by levels of anxiety was recorded using a BioNomadix Wireless PPG and EDA amplifier and a MP Series Data Acquisition Unit.

Read the Full Study: Virtual Travel Training for Autism Spectrum Disorder: Proof-of-Concept Interventional Study (Simoes, Bernardes, Barros, and Castelo-Branco)

Quantifying Threat Response with VR

Current research into virtual reality acknowledges its the potential to enhance various emotional responses to stimuli. Which responses does VR enhance in particular? Proximal and conditioned threat responses were further examined in a VR environment. Proximity threat response was studied through the physiological responses of a sudden appearance of characters in close space versus the appearance of characters from a distance. Conditioned threat responses were looked into by comparing individuals that either received a sudden shock or no shock, controlled using BIOPAC’s Constant Voltage Stimulator.

Read the Full Study: The Effect of Immersive Virtual Reality on Proximal and Conditioned Threat (Rosén, Kastrati, Reppling, Bergkvist, and Ahs)