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Jingyi Li, Yong Ma, Puzhen Li, Andreas Butz
A Journey Through Nature: Exploring Virtual Restorative Environments as a Means to Relax in Confined Spaces
In C&C'21 & '22: Proceedings of the 13th & 14th Conferences on Creativity & Cognition. (bib)

Virtual Reality (VR) technologies can counteract stress or fatigue and restore attention, e.g., by recreating the beauty of nature in a Virtual Restorative Environment (VRE). This has gained additional relevance in the current pandemic: When facing the stress of physical restrictions and a limited activity space, how can VR technologies provide the individual experience of being away? We created a VRE that can be used during trips in automated cars using a captured natural environment and simulated artifacts that communicate vehicle information during VR relaxation. In a user study (N=21), we compared the proposed in-car VRE to simply closing the eyes. We found that the VRE strongly improved the subjective ratings of mood and slightly increased attentional capacity and the objectively measured performance in a working memory test. Our results provide a concrete starting point for exploring calming VR experiences for future passengers, but also users at home.