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The adoption of immersive virtual experiences (IVEs) opened new research lines where the impact of realism is being studied, allowing developers to focus resources on realism factors proven to improve the user experience the most. We analyzed papers that compared different levels of realism and evaluated their impact on user experience. Exploratorily, we also synthesized the realism terms used by authors. From 1,300 initial documents, 79 met the eligibility criteria. Overall, most of the studies reported that higher realism has a positive impact on user experience. These data allow a better understanding of realism in IVEs, guiding future R&D.

During the health crisis caused by COVID-19, virtual reality (VR) proved to be useful for the tourism industry, allowing this industry to continue working despite the restrictions imposed. However, it remains to be seen if the impact of this sanitary crisis in the tourism industry influenced managers’ intention to adopt this technology in the post-pandemic period. To fill this gap, a qualitative methodological approach was adopted, using the MAXQDA20 software and interviews with managers of tourism enterprises. The results show that the willingness to invest in technology, the perception of VR as a business strategy, and the perception of the impact of the pandemic are factors that regulate the intention of companies to adopt VR. In addition, prior experience with VR and the perception of technical support are also important for its adoption. Thus, it was concluded that VR can be a valuable sustainable strategy for tourism companies to address the challenges imposed by the pandemic. However, adopting the technology depends on factors such as financial availability, business strategy, and previous experience with VR. Furthermore, tourism companies must also receive adequate technical support to ensure its correct implementation.

The use of technology in cultural heritage sites for end-users, like virtual audio-visual reconstructions, has become a common solution to improve the communication and perception between these spaces and their visitors. Since humans perceive the world with different senses and in real-time, to evoke more than one or two senses at a time can bring benefits for the user perception. Accordingly, some very different implementations unleashing multisensory experiences have been made. Aiming to understand how different stimuli are being evoked in multisensory experiences to enhance cultural heritage experiences, and how these implementations are being evaluated, this paper presents a systematic review of technological multisensory applications in cultural heritage. Thus, the collected and analyzed data, focused on technologies used, purpose of the experience, stimuli explored, evaluation process, main findings obtained, and limitations found, will provide valuable information for further implementations. The overall results unleash the wide diversity available for multisensory implementations, from technological solutions to available content for users. Covering the pros and cons of such diversity, this study sustains the use of multisensory applications in cultural heritage as a powerful tool to enrich users’ visits.

This paper explores the relationships among variables and determines the influences of dimensions (i.e., municipal satisfaction, organizational performance, perceived quality, contestations and complaints of the municipal executive) on the notoriety, image, and reputation (NIR) of municipal executives. We attempted to understand if citizens’ opinions influenced the evaluations, recommendations, and contestations based on NIR. Parishes in the municipality of Valongo were selected and analysed, namely Alfena, Campo e Sobrado, Valongo, and Ermesinde; a total of 998 questionnaires were collected. It was concluded that all of the studied dimensions were statistically significant in the final structural estimated model. The structural results point to municipal satisfaction and contestations and complaints of municipal executives as having directly positive and statistically significant influences on NIR. Organizational performance and perceived quality have directly positive but not statistically significant influences on NIR. The results of this research suggest that obtaining the personal opinions of citizens (e.g., regarding the work performances of their mayors) allows citizens to feel heard and active in their municipalities. From the point of view of public executives, the results of this type of study could provide valid information that allows stakeholders to make political decisions that are appropriate for the interests of their communities (e.g., by listening to their citizens).

The main goal of this paper is to investigate the effect of different types of self-representations through floating members (hands vs. hands + feet), virtual full body (hands + feet vs. full-body avatar), walking fidelity (static feet, simulated walking, real walking), and number of tracking points used (head + hands, head + hands + feet, head + hands + feet + hip) on the sense of presence and embodiment through questionnaires. The sample consisted of 98 participants divided into a total of six conditions in a between-subjects design. The HTC Vive headset, controllers, and trackers were used to perform the experiment. Users were tasked to find a series of hidden objects in a virtual environment and place them in a travel bag. We concluded that (1) the addition of feet to floating hands can impair the experienced realism ( $$p=0.039$$ ), (2) both floating members and full-body avatars can be used without affecting presence and embodiment ( $$p>0.05$$ ) as long as there is the same level of control over the self-representation, (3) simulated walking scores of presence and embodiment were similar when compared to static feet and real walking tracking data ( $$p>0.05$$ ), and (4) adding hip tracking overhead, hand and feet tracking (when using a full-body avatar) allows for a more realistic response to stimuli ( $$p=0.002$$ ) and a higher overall feeling of embodiment ( $$p=0.023$$ ).

The goal for a virtual reality (VR) training system is to enable trainees to acquire all the knowledge they need to perform effectively in a real environment. Such a system should provide an experience so authentic that no further real-world training is necessary, meaning that it is sufficient to train in VR. We evaluate the impact of a haptic thermal stimulus, which is of paramount importance to decision making, on trainees performance and knowledge acquisition. A thermal device was created to deliver the stimulus. As a proof of concept, a procedure from firefighter training is selected, in which sensing the temperature of a door with one's hand is essential. The sample consisted of 48 subjects divided among three experimental scenarios: one in which a virtual thermometer is used (visual stimulus), another in which the temperature is felt with the hand (thermal stimulus) and a third in which both methods are used (visual + thermal stimuli). For the performance evaluation, we measured the total time taken, the numbers of correctly executed procedures and identified neutral planes, the deviation from the target height, and the responses to a knowledge transfer questionnaire. Presence, cybersickness, and usability are measured to evaluate the impact of the haptic thermal stimulus. Considering the thermal stimulus condition as the baseline, we conclude that the significantly different results in the performance among the conditions indicate that the better performance in the visual-only condition is not representative of the real-life performance. Consequently, VR training applications need to deliver the correct stimuli for decision making.

The main goal of this systematic review is to synthesize existing evidence on the use of immersive virtual reality (IVR) to train professionals as well as to identify the main gaps and challenges that still remain and need to be addressed by future research. Following a comprehensive search, 66 documents were identified, assessed for relevance, and analysed. The main areas of application of IVR-based training were identified. Moreover, we identified the stimuli provided, the hardware used and information regarding training evaluation. The results showed that the areas in which a greater number of works were published were those related to healthcare and elementary occupations. In hardware, the most commonly used equipment was head mounted displays (HMDs), headphones included in the HMDs and handheld controllers. Moreover, the results indicated that IVR training systems are often evaluated manually, the most common metric being questionnaires applied before and after the experiment, and that IVR training systems have a positive effect in training professionals. We conclude that the literature is insufficient for determining the effect of IVR in the training of professionals. Although some works indicated promising results, there are still relevant themes that must be explored and limitations to overcome before virtual training replaces real-world training.

Immersion is a proven method of learning a foreign language and using Virtual Reality to achieve that immersion has high potential educational benefits. However, there are no recent systematic reviews that combine both foreign language education and immersive Virtual Reality. This systematic review aims to identify features, educational methods, technologies, and gaps of immersive virtual reality for foreign and second language education. PRISMA method was followed to carry out the systematic review. From the analysis of the results, two main conclusions were drawn. Firstly, the relation between immersive Virtual Reality and foreign language learning is quite positive, particularly when compared with conventional pedagogical practices. Not only that, the connection between immersive Virtual Reality and the user’s motivation and satisfaction is also quite positive. Lastly, limitations such as the low sample of studies and gaps in the literature are addressed, and directions for future work and the area’s progress are pointed out.

Most Convolution Neural Network (CNN) based object detectors, to date, have been optimized for accuracy and/or detection performance on datasets typically comprised of well exposed 8-bits/pixel/channel Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) images. A major existing challenge in this area is to accurately detect objects under extreme/difficult lighting conditions as SDR image trained detectors fail to accurately detect objects under such challenging lighting conditions. In this paper, we address this issue for the first time by introducing High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging to object detection. HDR imagery can capture and process ≈13 orders of magnitude of scene dynamic range similar to the human eye. HDR trained models are therefore able to extract more salient features from extreme lighting conditions leading to more accurate detections. However, introducing HDR also presents multiple new challenges such as the complete absence of resources and previous literature on such an approach. Here, we introduce a methodology to generate a large scale annotated HDR dataset from any existing SDR dataset and validate the quality of the generated dataset via a robust evaluation technique. We also discuss the challenges of training and validating HDR trained models using existing detectors. Finally, we provide a methodology to create an out of distribution (OOD) HDR dataset to test and compare the performance of HDR and SDR trained detectors under difficult lighting condition. Results suggest that using the proposed methodology, HDR trained models are able to achieve 10 – 12% more accuracy compared to SDR trained models on real-world OOD dataset consisting of high-contrast images under extreme lighting conditions.

This paper aims to explore the impact of sense of presence and cybersickness on the users’ expectancy and perceived similarity between virtual and the corresponding real environments. Two virtual reality setups were tested (non-immersive and immersive) to achieve further conclusions. This research encompassed a quantitative analysis using data collection based on questionnaires, applied to a sample of 45 participants. A virtual experience was conducted (to explore users’ cybersickness and sense of presence), followed by a visit to the actual real sites (to determine the degree of perceived similarity between the virtual and the corresponding real environment and if their expectations were fulfilled). Our results show a positive correlation between the global sense of presence and perceived similarity and users’ expectancy for the non-immersive VR setup. A positive correlation was also found between the global cybersickness on both perceived similarity and users’ expectancy for the immersive VR setup. Implications of such results for virtual tourism are discussed.

This paper aims to explore the impact of sense of presence and cybersickness on the users’ expectancy and perceived similarity between virtual and the corresponding real environments. Two virtual reality setups were tested (non-immersive and immersive) to achieve further conclusions. This research encompassed a quantitative analysis using data collection based on questionnaires, applied to a sample of 45 participants. A virtual experience was conducted (to explore users’ cybersickness and sense of presence), followed by a visit to the actual real sites (to determine the degree of perceived similarity between the virtual and the corresponding real environment and if their expectations were fulfilled). Our results show a positive correlation between the global sense of presence and perceived similarity and users’ expectancy for the non-immersive VR setup. A positive correlation was also found between the global cybersickness on both perceived similarity and users’ expectancy for the immersive VR setup. Implications of such results for virtual tourism are discussed.

Enhancing tourist visits to cultural heritage sites by making use of mobile augmented reality has been a tendency in the last few years, presenting mainly audiovisual experiences. However, these explorations using only visuals and sounds, or narratives, do not allow users to be presented with, for example, a particular smell that can be important to feel engaged or to better understand the history of the site. This article pursues the goal of creating an experience that puts the user in a scene planned to evoke several stimuli with SensiMAR prototype – a Multisensory Augmented Reality system that aims to be used in cultural heritage outdoors. When using SensiMAR, the user will be involved with visual reconstructions, surrounded by the soundscape of ancient times, and is exposed to a particular smell very common that time. Given the novelty of this proposal, ascertaining the usability of such a system was raised as a foremost demand. Thus, in addition to its development and implementation specifications, an experimental study was conducted to evaluate the usability of the system in end-users’ perspective. The results obtained from random visitors of an archaeological site were analysed according to their sex, age, previous experience with augmented reality technology, and provided condition – audiovisual condition, and multisensory condition, with visual, audio, and smell stimuli. Results were collected from a total of 67 participants and show that this multisensory prototype achieved good usability results across all groups. No statistically differences were found, demonstrating good usability of the SensiMAR system regardless of their sex, age, previous experience with the technology or provided condition.

The expansion of augmented reality across society, its availability in mobile platforms and the novelty character it embodies by appearing in a growing number of areas have raised new questions related to people’s predisposition to use this technology in their daily life. Acceptance models, which have been updated in accordance with technological breakthroughs and society changes, are known to be great tools for predicting the intention to use a technological system. This paper proposes a new acceptance model aiming to ascertain the intention to use augmented reality technology in heritage sites-the Augmented Reality Acceptance Model (ARAM). ARAM relies on the use of the UTAUT model’s constructs to which the new and adapted constructs of Trust Expectancy, Technological Innovation, Computer Anxiety and Hedonic Motivation are added. This model was validated with data gathered from 528 participants. Results confirm ARAM as a reliable tool to determine the acceptance of augmented reality technology. The direct impact of Performance Expectancy, Facilitating Conditions and Hedonic Motivation is validated as having a positive influence on Behavioural Intention. Trust Expectancy and 1 Springer Nature 2021 L A T E X template ARAM: a Technology Acceptance Model Technological Innovation are demonstrated to have a positive influence on Performance Expectancy whereas Hedonic Motivation is negatively influenced by Effort Expectancy and by Computer Anxiety. The research, thus, supports ARAM as a suitable model to ascertain the behavioural intention to use augmented reality in new areas of activity.

Promotional 360∘ videos are now widely used to promote touristic sites, giving consumers a more immersive glimpse of what they can expect from those places. However, these 360∘ videos often comprise so much information that it overloads the users, not allowing them to benefit from such a rich multimedia experience. To overcome this issue, we propose and evaluate a novel method that allows the experience of immersive 360∘ promotional videos to be more interactive and informative without overloading users. The evaluation study focuses on how the proposed interaction method performs versus the non-interactive method in terms of user satisfaction, presence, and cybersickness in both a low-immersive (computer monitor) setup and an immersive platform (head-mounted display (HMD)). Our sample (N = 50) was randomly divided into four groups: 360∘ (computer monitor without interaction), 360∘Interaction (computer monitor with interaction), IVR360∘ (HMD without interaction) and IVR360∘Interaction (HMD with interaction). The results show that the novel proposed method is preferred by users over the non-interactive approach regardless of the setup (low-immersive or immersive). For cybersickness, there were no differences across all the experimental scenarios. We conclude that our method has the potential to bring added value to touristic promotion when compared to conventional promotional approaches.

Virtual Reality applications have the goal of transporting their users to a given virtual environment (VE). Thus, Presence is a consensual metric for evaluating the VEs’ effectiveness. The present study adapts the Presence Questionnaire (PQ) for the Portuguese-speaking population, maintaining the validity of the contents and concepts, to ascertain the psychometric properties of the instrument.The adaptation to Portuguese was achieved through the standard adaptation process of translation and back-translation process. The sample consisted of 451 individuals (268 males and 183 females). Factor reliability ranged from 0.63 to 0.86. Confirmatory factor analysis produced a theoretical model of 21 items distributed among seven factors, where the covariance between some residual item errors was established. The fit indices obtained were x2/df = 2.077, GFI = 0.936, CFI = 0.937, RMSEA = 0.049, P [RMSEA ≤ 0.05], MECVI = 1.070. Results obtained allowed us to consider that the adapted Portuguese version of the PQ, with 21 items, forms a robust and valid questionnaire whose use is recommended to evaluate Presence in virtual reality research programmes, provided that they use samples of the Portuguese language (Europe). This work is financed by the ERDF – European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation – COMPETE 2020 Programme and by National Funds through the Portuguese funding agency, FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028618 entitled PERFECT – Perceptual Equivalence in virtual Reality For auth- EntiC Training. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Consuming 360 audiovisual content using a Head-Mounted Display (HMD) has become a standard feature for Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR). However, most applications rely only on visual and auditory feedback whereas other senses are often disregarded. The main goal of this work was to study the effect of tactile and olfactory stimuli on participants’ sense of presence and cybersickness while watching a 360 video using an HMD-based IVR setup. An experiment with 48 participants and three experimental conditions (360 video, 360 video with olfactory stimulus, and 360 video with tactile stimulus) was performed. Presence and cybersickness were reported via post-test questionnaires. Statistical analysis showed a significant difference in presence between the control and the olfactory conditions. From the control to the tactile condition, mean values were higher but failed to show statistical significance. Thus, results suggest that adding an olfactory stimulus increases presence significantly while the addition of a tactile stimulus only shows a positive effect. Regarding cybersickness, no significant differences were found across conditions. We conclude that an olfactory stimulus contributes to higher presence and that a tactile stimulus, delivered in the form of cutaneous perception of wind, has no influence in presence. We further conclude that multisensory cues do not affect cybersickness.

This research paper presents and discusses the main results generated and obtained with the proprietary computer platform CIDIUS®, developed by the authors of this work, which aims to support the decision-making process of Portuguese mayors. Thus, keeping in mind the theoretical models and based on the data collected through the questionnaire given to the population, we tried to understand the influence that the dimensions Notoriety, Image, and Reputation (NIR), Citizen and Voter Expectations (CVE), Contestation and Complaint of the Municipal Executive (CCME), Perceived Value (PV), and Organizational Performance and Perceived Quality (OPPQ) has a positive effect on Municipe Satisfaction (MS). The parishes of the municipality of Valongo were selected and analyzed, namely the parishes of Alfena, Campo e Sobrado, Valongo, and Ermesinde, and a total of 998 valid questionnaires were collected. It was concluded that all studied dimensions except the Organizational Performance and Perceived Quality (OPPQ) dimension had a positive and statistically significant impact on Municipe Satisfaction (MS). The results of this research suggest the need for the use of these opinion-gathering techniques to encourage active citizen involvement in the daily life of their municipality, as well as the need for valid information that gives executives the ability to take political action that is appropriate to the interests and expectations of citizens.

The use of Virtual Reality (VR) technology to train professionals has increased over the years due to its advantages over traditional training. This paper presents a study comparing the effectiveness of a Virtual Environment (VE) and a Real Environment (RE) designed to train firefighters. To measure the effectiveness of the environments, a new method based on participants Heart Rate Variability (HRV) was used. This method was complemented with self-reports, in the form of questionnaires, of fatigue, stress, sense of presence, and cybersickness. An additional questionnaire was used to measure and compare knowledge transfer enabled by the environments. The results from HRV analysis indicated that participants were under physiological stress in both environments, albeit with less intensity on the VE. Regarding reported fatigue and stress, the results showed that none of the environments increased such variables. The results of knowledge transfer showed that the VE obtained a significant increase while the RE obtained a positive but non-significant increase (median values, VE: before 4 after 7, p = .003; RE: before 4 after 5, p =.375). Lastly, the results of presence and cybersickness suggested that participants experienced high overall presence and no cybersickness. Considering all results, the authors conclude that the VE provided effective training but that its effectiveness was lower than that of the RE.

The expansion of augmented reality across society, its availability in mobile platforms and the novelty character it embodies by appearing in a growing number of areas, have raised new questions related to people’s predisposition to use this technology in their daily life. Acceptance models, which have been updated following technological breakthroughs and society changes, are known to be great tools for predicting the intention to use a new technological system. This paper proposes a new acceptance model aiming to ascertain the intention to use augmented reality technology in heritage sites—the Augmented Reality Acceptance Model (ARAM). ARAM relies on the use of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model (UTAUT) model’s constructs, namely performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions, to which the new and adapted constructs of trust expectancy, technological innovation, computer anxiety and hedonic motivation are added. This model was validated with data gathered from 528 participants. Results confirm ARAM as a reliable tool to determine the acceptance of augmented reality technology for usage in cultural heritage sites. The direct impact of performance expectancy, facilitating conditions and hedonic motivation is validated as having a positive influence on behavioural intention. Trust expectancy and technological innovation are demonstrated to have a positive influence on performance expectancy whereas hedonic motivation is negatively influenced by effort expectancy and by computer anxiety. The research, thus, supports ARAM as a suitable model to ascertain the behavioural intention to use augmented reality in new areas of activity.

Virtual Reality (VR) has been showing potential in new and diverse areas, notably in education. However, there is a lack of studies in the Foreign Language Teaching and Learning field, particularly in listening comprehension. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of avatar animations and lip synchronization, and user interaction; features deemed relevant in this broader area. A sociodemographic, a quick CEFR - Common European Framework of Reference for Languages - 15-minute English test, and questionnaire were used to evaluate the participants’ Presence, Quality of Experience, Cybersickness and Knowledge Retention. Results show that, overall, the use of avatars with realistic animations and movements, and featuring lip synchronization have a positive influence on the users’ sense of presence, knowledge retention and a more enjoyable overall quality of experience. The same can be said for the use of object interaction and navigation in the cultural representative environment, which had an overall positive impact. This work is co-financed by the ERDF – European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation - COMPETE 2020 under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, and through the Portuguese National Innovation Agency (ANI) as a part of project “SMARTCUT - Diagnóstico e Manutenção Remota e Simuladores para Formação de operação e manutenção de Máquinas Florestais: POCI-01-0247-FEDER-048183”. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Training with Virtual Reality (VR) can bring several benefits, such as the reduction of costs and risks. We present an experimental study that aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a Virtual Environment (VE) to train firefighters using an innovative approach based on a Real Environment (RE) exercise. To measure the VE’s effectiveness we used a Presence Questionnaire (PQ) and participant’s cybersickness, stress and fatigue. Results from the PQ showed that participants rated the VE with high spatial presence and moderate realness and immersion. Signs of stress, analyzed from participant’s Heart-Rate Variability, were shown in the RE but not in the VE. In the remaining variables, there was only an indicative difference for fatigue in the RE. Therefore, the results suggest that although our training VE was successful in giving participants spatial presence and in not causing cybersickness, its realness and immersion provided were not enough to provoke a similar RE response.

Consumer High Dynamic Range (HDR) displays are appearing on the market. Capable of generating a peak luminance of up to 2,000 nits, the improved dynamic range they provide can only be perceived when viewed in a dark environment. In this paper, we present a display architecture that is capable of generating a peak luminance of 10,000 nits. We demonstrate, with a subjective evaluation, that the increased peak luminance is required to perceive a high dynamic range in bright ambient environments. Furthermore, we show that by fitting a surface through the data, we can predict the dynamic range that can be perceived from the luminance and illuminance with low error. We can also invert the prediction to estimate the required peak luminance for a particular combination of dynamic range and ambient lighting.

© 1991-2012 IEEE. Recently, there has been a significant progress in the research and development of the high dynamic range (HDR) video technology and the state-of-the-art video pipelines are able to offer a higher bit depth support to capture, store, encode, and display HDR video content. In this paper, we introduce a novel HDR video compression algorithm, which uses a perceptually uniform color opponent space, a novel perceptual transfer function to encode the dynamic range of the scene, and a novel error minimization scheme for accurate chroma reproduction. The proposed algorithm was objectively and subjectively evaluated against four state-of-the-art algorithms. The objective evaluation was conducted across a set of 39 HDR video sequences, using the latest x265 10-bit video codec along with several perceptual and structural quality assessment metrics at 11 different quality levels. Furthermore, a rating-based subjective evaluation ( $n=40$ ) was conducted with six sequences at two different output bitrates. Results suggest that the proposed algorithm exhibits the lowest coding error amongst the five algorithms evaluated. Additionally, the rate-distortion characteristics suggest that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing state-of-the-art at bitrates ≥ 0.4 bits/pixel.

This investigation concerns the translation and validation of the ITC - Sense of Presence Inventory (ITC-SOPI) for the Portuguese-speaking population (in Europe), estimating the validity of the content and concepts and the maintenance of an equivalent semantics. It also sought to verify its psychometric properties, namely its factorial validity and internal consistency. The sample consisted of 459 individuals, 274 males and 185 females. The fidelity of the subscales varied between 0.67 and 0.89. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a theoretical model of 35 items, divided by four factors. After fixing some of the residual errors between items, the following adjustment indexes were calculated: χ2/df = 2.301; goodness fit index = 0.860; comparative fitness index=0.889; root mean square error of approximation=0.053; Akaike’s information criterion=1420. Based on the observed results and the robustness of the sample size used, the obtained theoretical model shows that the ITC-SOPI is recommended to measure presence in virtual reality research projects with samples of Portuguese language speakers. This work is financed by the ERDF European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation - COMPETE 2020 Programme and by National Funds through the Portuguese funding agency, FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028618 entitled PERFECT - Perceptual Equivalence in virtual Reality For authEntiC Training. All the works were conducted at INESC TEC’s MASSIVE Virtual Reality Laboratory. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The sense of presence is an important aspect of experiences in Virtual Reality (VR), an emerging technology in education, leading this construct to be increasingly researched in parallel to learning purposes. However, there is not a consensus in the literature on the outcomes of this association. Aiming to outline a panorama in this regard, a systematic literature review was conducted, with a comprehensive analysis of 140 primary studies recovered from five worldwide databases. The analysis shows an overview of 24 years of areas, factors, and methodological approaches that seem to be more inclined to benefit from the sense of presence toward learning purposes. We contribute to the advancement of state of the art by providing an understanding of the relationship among these variables, identifying potential ways to benefit from the sense of presence to further leverage the use of VR for learning purposes.

Although selection menus are widely used for interaction, their use on 3D virtual reality applications needs to be objectively assessed. The focus of this study is to evaluate a traditional panel and a radial menu in two distinct virtual environment placements (i.e. fixed on the wall and following the users' hands). Fifty-one participants used two different menus of the four possible combinations. To evaluate the menus' effectiveness and efficiency, we measured usability (System Usability Scale Questionnaire), user satisfaction (After-Scenario Questionnaire), time to finish the tasks (in seconds) and the number of unnecessary steps (errors) performed by the users. Overall results showed a clear preference for the traditional panel menu type and the fixed wall placement of the menu. We conclude that all menu types perform well, despite different user preferences, and that fixing the menu to the wall gives users a better overview of both the menu and the virtual environment, improving their ability to perceive their actions on the menu.

This paper explores which variables are more significant in municipal executive recommendation by citizens. We estimated the influence of public dimensions, such as municipe loyalty, municipe satisfaction, and municipe perceived value in municipal executive recommendation by citizens. Then, we tried to understand if the citizen’s opinions influenced the evaluation of the municipal executive recommendation. The parishes of the municipality of Valongo were selected and analyzed, namely the parishes of Alfena, Campo e Sobrado, Valongo, and Ermesinde, and a total of 998 questionnaires were collected. Data were collected in November 2020 in the different parishes under study. It was concluded that all studied dimensions were statistically significant in the final structural estimated model. The structural results point to municipe loyalty and municipe satisfaction dimensions having a direct, positive, and statistically significant influence on municipal executive recommendation. On the other side, the municipe perceived value dimension has a direct positive but not statistically significant influence on municipal executive recommendation. This study showed that a loyal and satisfied citizen recommends the continuity of the municipal executive in the city’s political leadership in which he or she lives. Therefore, for the municipal executive administration, it is fundamental to know which dimensions the society considers most important in order to be able to remain in the management of the shared destinies of a city. In this sense, political decisions throughout the mandates can be directed, on the one hand, to the satisfaction and loyalty of the citizens and, on the other hand, to the balanced management of the destinies of this type of public entity.

Virtual reality has shown to have great potential as an educational tool when it comes to new learning methods. With the growth and dissemination of this technology, there is a massive opportunity for teachers to add this technology to their methods of teaching a second/foreign language, since students keep showing a growing interest in new technologies. This systematic review of empirical research aims at understanding whether the use of gaming strategies in virtual reality is beneficial for the learning of a second/foreign language or not. Results show that more than half of the articles proved that virtual reality technologies with gaming strategies can be used to learn a foreign language. It was also found that “learning” was the most evaluated dependent variable among the chosen records, augmented reality was the leading technology used, primary education and lower secondary was the most researched school stages, and the most used language to evaluate the use of gamified technology was by far the English language. Given the lack of directed investigation, it is recommended to use these technologies to support second language learning and not entirely replace traditional approaches. A research agenda is also proposed by the authors.

Hands are the most important tool to interact with virtual environments, and they should be available to perform the most critical tasks. For example, a surgeon in VR should keep his/her hands on the instruments and be able to do secondary tasks without performing a disruptive event to the operative task. In this common scenario, one can observe that hands are not available for interaction. The goal of this systematic review is to survey the literature and identify which hands-free interfaces are used, the performed interaction tasks, what metrics are used for interface evaluation, and the results of such evaluations. From 79 studies that met the eligibility criteria, the voice is the most studied interface, followed by the eye and head gaze. Some novel interfaces were brain interfaces and face expressions. System control and selection represent most of the interaction tasks studied and most studies evaluate interfaces for usability. Despite the best interface depending on the task and study, the voice was found to be versatile and showed good results amongst the studies. More research is recommended to improve the practical use of the interfaces and to evaluate the interfaces more formally.

Virtual Reality could be useful for heritage management and preservation by complementing or, even, by replacing the ‘real’ visitation to more threatened destinations. The objective of this study was to empirically test the level of similarity perceived by a group of students between VR experience and the ‘real’ visit in a UNESCO World Heritage Cultural attraction in order to assess the capacity of VR to act as a substitute of the ‘real’ visit. Ridit analysis was conducted in order to rank the level of agreement perceived by respondents concerning to similarity between the VR experience and the ‘real’ visit. Results revealed that VR experience could act as a complement, rather than a substitute of the ‘real’ visitation. This is, the feelings and emotions derived from the ‘real’ visit could not be replaced by the VR experience. VR could be an effective marketing tool to encourage sustainable tourism behaviors, rather than to substitute the ‘real’ visit.

Training firefighters using Virtual Reality (VR) technology brings several benefits over traditional training methods including the reduction of costs and risks. The ability of causing the same level of stress as a real situation so that firefighters can learn how to deal with stress was investigated. An experiment aiming to study the influence that additional stimuli (heat, weight, smell and using personal protective equipment-PPE) have on user's stress level while performing a Virtual Environment (VE) designed to train firefighters was developed. Participants' stress and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) were obtained from electrocardiograms recorded during the experiment. The results suggest that wearing the PPE has the largest impact on user's stress level. The results also showed that HRV was able to evidence differences between two phases of the experiment, which suggests that it can be used to monitor users' quantified reaction to VEs.

The majority of virtual reality (VR) applications rely on audiovisual stimuli and do not exploit the addition of other sensory cues that could increase the potential of VR. This systematic review surveys the existing literature on multisensory VR and the impact of haptic, olfactory, and taste cues over audiovisual VR. The goal is to identify the extent to which multisensory stimuli affect the VR experience, which stimuli are used in multisensory VR, the type of VR setups used, and the application fields covered. An analysis of the 105 studies that met the eligibility criteria revealed that 84.8 percent of the studies show a positive impact of multisensory VR experiences. Haptics is the most commonly used stimulus in multisensory VR systems (86.6 percent). Non-immersive and immersive VR setups are preferred over semi-immersive setups. Regarding the application fields, a considerable part was adopted by health professionals and science and engineering professionals. We further conclude that smell and taste are still underexplored, and they can bring significant value to VR applications. More research is recommended on how to synthesize and deliver these stimuli, which still require complex and costly apparatus be integrated into the VR experience in a controlled and straightforward manner.

Convolution Neural Network (CNN)-based object detection models have achieved unprecedented accuracy in challenging detection tasks. However, existing detection models (detection heads) trained on 8-bits/pixel/channel low dynamic range (LDR) images are unable to detect relevant objects under lighting conditions where a portion of the image is either under-exposed or over-exposed. Although this issue can be addressed by introducing High Dynamic Range (HDR) content and training existing detection heads on HDR content, there are several major challenges, such as the lack of real-life annotated HDR dataset(s) and extensive computational resources required for training and the hyper-parameter search. In this paper, we introduce an alternative backwards-compatible methodology to detect objects in challenging lighting conditions using existing CNN-based detection heads. This approach facilitates the use of HDR imaging without the immediate need for creating annotated HDR datasets and the associated expensive retraining procedure. The proposed approach uses HDR imaging to capture relevant details in high contrast scenarios. Subsequently, the scene dynamic range and wider colour gamut are compressed using HDR to LDR mapping techniques such that the salient highlight, shadow, and chroma details are preserved. The mapped LDR image can then be used by existing pre-trained models to extract relevant features required to detect objects in both the under-exposed and over-exposed regions of a scene. In addition, we also conduct an evaluation to study the feasibility of using existing HDR to LDR mapping techniques with existing detection heads trained on standard detection datasets such as PASCAL VOC and MSCOCO. Results show that the images obtained from the mapping techniques are suitable for object detection, and some of them can significantly outperform traditional LDR images.\ud

The goal of this study is to examine the effects of the sense of presence and immersive tendencies on learning outcomes while comparing different media formats (Interactive VR, Non-interactive VR and Video). An experiment was conducted with 36 students that watched a Biology lesson about the human cells. Contrary to expected, the results demonstrate that the Non-interactive VR was the most successful format. Sense of presence and immersive tendencies did not have an effect on learning gain, and the latter was not a critical factor to experience the sense of presence. The findings provide empirical evidence to help understand the influence of these variables on learning in VR.