Microdosing Odors in Virtual Reality for Psychophysiological Stress Training
Daniel Anheuer, Brid Karacan, Lara Herzog, Nora Weigel, Silja Meyer-Nieberg, Thomas Gebhardt, Jessica Freiherr, Martin Richter, Armin Leopold, Monika Eder, Marko Hofmann, Karl-Heinz Renner, Cornelia Küsel
preprint DOI: 10.20944/preprints202410.0546.v1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Microdosing |
| Key points | Argues that odors are an underexplored channel for enhancing presence and immersion in VR stress training for emergency personnel, and proposes using olfactory stimuli to manipulate perceived psychophysiological stress. Reports that a portable piezoelectric micropump-based fragrance dosing system can deliver reproducible, constant amounts of an air-fragrance mixture close to the nose, and outlines a planned experimental design combining this system with VR stress training. |
Abstract
To better cope with stress in emergencies, emergency personnel undergo virtual reality (VR) stress trainings. Such trainings typically include visual, auditory and sometimes tactile impressions, whereas olfactory stimuli are mostly neglected. This concept paper therefore examines whether odors might be beneficial for further enhancing the experience of presence and immersion into a simulated environment. The aim is to demonstrate the benefits of VR civilian stress trainings for emergency personnel and to investigate the role of odors as stressors by manipulating the degree of perceived psychophysiological stress via olfactory impressions. Moreover, the current paper presents the development and validation of a convenient and portable fragrance dosing system that allows personalized odor presentation in VR. The presented system can transport reproducible small quantities of an air-fragrance mixture close to the human nose using piezoelectric stainless steel micropumps. The results of the fluidic system validation indicate that the micropump is suitable to release odors close to the nose with constant amounts of odor presentation. Furthermore, the theoretical background and the planned experimental design of VR stress training including odor presentation via olfactory VR technology is elucidated.
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