The primary goals of this research are to strengthen the understanding of the mechanisms underlying presence and cybersickness in relation to the body position and locomotion method when navigating a virtual environment (VE). In this regard, we compared two body positions (standing and sitting) and four locomotion methods (steering + embodied control [EC], steering + instrumental control [IC], teleportation + EC, and teleportation + IC) to examine the association between body position, locomotion method, presence, and cybersickness in VR. The results of a two-way ANOVA revealed a main effect of locomotion method on presence, with the sense of presence significantly lower for the steering + IC condition. However, there was no main effect of body position on presence, nor was there an interaction between body position and locomotion method. For cybersickness, nonparametric tests were used due to non-normality. The results of Mann-Whitney U tests indicated a statistically significant effect of body position on cybersickness. In particular, the level of cybersickness was significantly higher for a standing position than for a sitting position. In addition, the results of Kruskal-Wallis tests revealed that the locomotion method had a meaningful effect on cybersickness, with participants in the steering conditions feeling stronger symptoms of cybersickness than those in the teleportation conditions. Overall, this study confirmed the relationship between body position, locomotion method, presence, and cybersickness when navigating a VE.

Previous research has suggested that cognitive functions such as execution, attention, memory, and perception differ when body position changes. However, the influence of body position on these cognitive functions is still not fully understood. In particular, little is known about how physical self-positioning may affect the cognitive process of perceptual responses in a virtual environment (VE). In this regard, we compared three body positions (standing, sitting, and half-sitting) in two types of virtual reality (VR) game with different degrees of freedom in navigation (finite and infinite) to explore the association between body position and the sense of presence in VEs. A two-way ANOVA yielded a main effect for body position, with the sense of presence significantly higher for a standing position than for a half-sitting position. However, there was no main effect for game type, nor was there an interaction between body position and game type. In addition, a one-way ANOVA revealed that, for the game with infinite navigation, participants in a standing position felt stronger presence than those who were sitting or half-sitting, whereas no significant difference was found between the sitting and half-sitting positions. In contrast, there was no statistical difference between the three body positions when playing the game with finite navigation. Taken together, it can be speculated that the cognitive effects of body position on presence are correlated with the degree of freedom in navigation in a VE.

In this study, we explore how proprioception relates to the sense of presence in a virtual environment. To investigate this objective, we compared three body conditions (Standing vs. Sitting vs. Half-Sitting) to examine whether body position influences the level of presence when playing a virtual reality (VR) game. The results showed that participants who played the game in a standing position felt greater presence than those who were sitting or half-sitting, while the degree of presence was higher for sitting than for half-sitting participants. In addition, a correlation analysis of the control, sensory, and attention factor associated with presence revealed a strong connection between control and sensory factor, whereas attention factor was moderately linked to control and sensory factor. Based on these results, we may assume that variations in movement related to body position influence proprioception, which consequently affects the sense of presence. Overall, this study has confirmed the important association between body position and presence in VR.

In this research, we compared three tactile conditions (No vs. Soft vs. Spiky) in both positive and negative scenes to explore whether tactile perception could influence emotional responses and immersive experience in a virtual environment (VE). The results showed that, when viewing positive scenes with soft stimuli, participants experienced an increase in both positive emotions and their level of immersion compared to those in the No and Spiky tactile conditions. We also found that participants in the No and Spiky tactile conditions reported no significant differences in either emotion or immersion when viewing positive scenes. During the viewing of negative scenes, spiky stimuli did not intensify negative feelings, while soft stimuli decreased negative emotions. In terms of immersion, there was no meaningful difference between the three tactile conditions for negative scenes. Overall, this study has demonstrated the important association between tactile perception, emotion, and immersion in a VE.

In this study, we explore how immersion affects people's sense of emotions in a virtual environment. The primary goals of this study are to analyze the possible use of virtual reality (VR) as an affective medium and research the relationship between immersion and emotion. To investigate these objectives, we compared two viewing conditions (HMD vs. No-HMD) and applied two types of emotional content (horror and empathy) to examine whether the level of immersion could influence emotional responses. The results showed that viewers who watched the horror movie using HMD felt more scared than those in the No-HMD condition. However, there were no significant emotional differences between the HMD and No-HMD conditions in the movie groups exposed to empathy. Regarding these results, we may assume that the effect of an immersive viewing experience on emotional responses in VR is deeply related to the degree of arousal and strong perceptual cues. The horror movie used in this study included intense visual and audio stimuli found in the typical horror film format. In contrast, viewers experienced less stimulating perceptual input when they are watching the empathetic movie. In conclusion, VR undoubtedly elicits a more immersive experience and greater emotional responses to the horror film. This study has confirmed the efficacy of VR as an emotional amplifier and successfully demonstrated the important association between immersion and emotion in VR.

This study explores how human users respond to coordinated and uncoordinated gestures of a robot as an information deliverer. A between-subject experiment was conducted using the Wizard of Oz method, with 63 participants randomly assigned to one of four conditions (voice-only vs. no-gesture vs. coordinated gesture vs. uncoordinated gesture) taking an artwork class in a museum-like setting. The robot was explaining the information of the artworks with modalities accordingly designed to each condition. Results showed that the coordinated gesture was not aiding information delivery. However, there were notable relations between the coordinated gesture and intimacy, homogeneity, and involvement. These results have theoretical implications for cognitive load of working memory and practical implications for designing and deploying dynamic humanoid robots for museum tour guide.