Differentiating presence in virtual reality using physiological signals
Shuvodeep Saha, Chelsea Dobbins, Anubha Gupta, Arindam Dey · Pervasive and Mobile Computing · 2025
Advancements in wearable technologies have made the use of physiological signals, such as Electrodermal Activity (EDA) and Heart Rate Variability (HRV), more prevalent for detecting changes in the autonomic nervous system within virtual reality (VR). However, the challenge lies in utilizing these signals to objectively detect presence in VR, which typically relies on self-reports that can be inherently biased. This paper addresses this issue and presents a study ( N =26) that investigates the effect that different levels of presence has on physiological responses in VR. A neutral VR environment was created that incorporated three levels of presence (high, medium and low) that were invoked by tuning different parameters. Participants wore a wrist-worn wearable device that captured their physiological signals whilst they experienced each of these environments. Results indicated that tonic and phasic components of the EDA signal were significant in differentiating between the levels. Two novel features, constructed using both the phasic and tonic components of EDA, successfully differentiated between presence levels. Analysis of the HRV data illustrated a significant difference between the low and medium levels using the ratio between low frequency to high frequency. • Validation of the design of three different levels of presence in a VR environment. • Development of two novel features (cf1, cf2) significantly differentiated between levels of presence. • Poincare maps illustrate the variability in the data between different presence levels.