Virtual reality to assess visual attraction and perceived interest to daylit scene variations

Façades and light pattern composition have been shown to influence the spatial experience and physiological responses of humans [1,2]. The present study examines the effect of sunlight penetration and window size on fixations to the floor of the scene, and the relation between visual interest and fixations in an experiment using 360° scenes displayed in Virtual Reality. One hundred participants were shown the same daylit interior space with varying presence of sun patches (based on sky type and time-of-day variations) and window size in a mixed experimental design. Participants' head movements were recorded during the first 25 seconds of silent free-viewing exposure to each scene, after which they rated the visual interest of the scene. Fixation areas were derived from head movement data and were used to extract the percentage of fixations towards different areas in the scene. Linear Mixed Model (LMM) analyses showed that sun patch presence influenced the percentage of fixations towards both the front part of the floor (near the façade) and the whole floor. Pairwise comparisons showed that participants spent more time fixating towards the floor in the presence of small sun patch compared to no sun patch. Adding visual interest as a fixed factor in the LMM did not show a statistically significant relation between fixations towards the floor and visual interest ratings. Although limited to Virtual Reality and thus to its relatively small luminance range, these findings show that the presence of a sun patch in one's field of view elicits visual attraction.

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Marilyne Andersen, Caroline Karmann, Bahar Aydemir, Kynthia Chamilothori
2021
Conference paper

Abstract

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/292097?ln=en

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Related concepts (5)

Virtual reality

Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), education (such as medical or military training) and business (such as virtual meetings). Other distinct types of VR-style technology include augmented reality and mixed reality, sometimes referred to as extended reality or XR, although definitions are currently changing due to the nascence of the industry.

Area

Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or plane area refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while surface area refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-dimensional object. Area can be understood as the amount of material with a given thickness that would be necessary to fashion a model of the shape, or the amount of paint necessary to cover the surface with a single coat.

Design of experiments

The design of experiments (DOE or DOX), also known as experiment design or experimental design, is the design of any task that aims to describe and explain the variation of information under conditions that are hypothesized to reflect the variation. The term is generally associated with experiments in which the design introduces conditions that directly affect the variation, but may also refer to the design of quasi-experiments, in which natural conditions that influence the variation are selected for observation.