The Future of VR: A Personalised, Adaptive and Holistic Approach
October 10th, 2024
Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, has been dubbed the "digital native" generation, with research showing that their tech-savvy nature makes them prime candidates for VR adoption. However, a curious gap has emerged—despite their affinity for technology, young adults between 16-25 are only the third-largest customer group for VR venues like The Park Playground in Belgium. This puzzling trend prompts an important question: why isn’t Gen Z leading the VR charge as expected?
To understand this disconnect, we explored what factors might be slowing down VR adoption among Flemish adolescents (ages 16-20). By applying the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2), we assessed two main contexts: education and entertainment. This dual focus allowed us to identify key influences on Gen Z's decision-making in different VR settings, providing insights into how we might boost their engagement.
In the education context, peer pressure emerged as an influencer, with students more inclined to embrace VR when they sense social expectations from their peers. Positive attitudes towards VR, coupled with a favourable evaluation of its role in education, significantly boosted students' intentions to adopt this immersive technology. Habit formation played a predictable yet pivotal role, as habitual use seemed to amplify students' likelihood of continued VR integration in educational settings. Lastly, the belief in the benefits of VR for academic pursuits proved to be a driving force for VR adoption rates.
When it comes to using VR for entertainment, we found that the anticipation of an enjoyable experience significantly boosted student's intention to use it. On the flip side, those expecting VR to be easy to use showed a decreased intention to adopt it. The interplay between expectations of enjoyment and perceived ease of use shapes the landscape of VR adoption, revealing the crucial role these factors play in influencing user intentions.
The full report can be found in the blog post called “Cracking the Code: What Drives and Hinders VR Adoption in Adolescents” on this website.
Making VR More Personal: The Need for Adaptive Experiences
Beyond adoption barriers, we explored how to create a more engaging and personalized VR experience. A key factor in improving VR enjoyment is adapting the experience to each user's individual needs. People react differently to immersive environments, as pointed out by researcher Slater (2003). Adaptive games, which are modified based on a user’s prior experience, can create a tailor-made experience for everyone, regardless of their familiarity with VR.
One of the challenges of adaptive VR is figuring out how to measure real-time responses in a non-invasive way. In our research we identified stress as a measurable factor, using it as a real-time indicator of user engagement. Why stress? Stress responses in high-pressure situations, such as in horror games, have been shown to trigger dopamine, leading to feelings of pleasure when users recognize the threat as false (de Lima et al., 2022). This stress-pleasure dynamic makes stress an excellent metric for enhancing VR experiences.
We focused on measuring electrodermal activity (EDA), a reliable way to track stress through the skin's conductivity changes. EDA signals reflect how users respond to stimuli in virtual environments, making it a valuable tool for adapting VR experiences in real time. The EmotiBit sensor box, an open-source wearable, was chosen to measure these signals, allowing full access to raw data for in-depth analysis.
To test the feasibility of the EDA signal and the EmotiBit sensor box, we asked 17 people to go through a custom-made horror-like game in which they had to clean up a haunted kitchen while we introduced to them different stressors — a screaming zombie flying towards them, a ghost-like woman in the corner of the room, a creepy spider crawling towards them. We took two main findings from this study. First, there are specific EDA features (i.e., SCR Peak Amplitude) that show individual differences between people in their experiences of the stressors. Second, the EmotiBit sensor box is a valuable addition to our research methodology, however, it needed to be integrated better into the VR hardware, to avoid loss of data. If you want to learn more about this experiment, you can access the full academic paper here.
To comfortably integrate the EmotiBit into the VR experience, the team developed two prototypes of what we named the EmotiGrip - a custom strap for the HTC Vive Focus 3 controller. This ergonomic prototype allows for effective data collection without disrupting the user experience. We have outlined this process in this blog post.
Next, based on the insights on the significance of the SCR Peak Amplitude we devised an adaptive feedback loop (see the image below) that adjusts the game stimuli (i.e., stressors such as the ones used in the experiment outlined above) based on the real-time stress levels of the person going through the game. With this, we hope to be a step closer to refining how VR environments respond dynamically to users' reactions. We are excited to share that we are currently conducting a study that will test the feasibility of this loop, so stay tuned for more updates on that.
For the curious heads who want to know the nitty-gritty details of all the research outlined above - here is the full report.