The Effect of False but Stable Heart Rate Feedback via Sound and Vibration on VR User Experience

Vital signals tend to become destabilized and generally increase when one’s physical condition is not well. For example, experiencing virtual reality (VR) sickness brings about a deteriorated physical condition, often accompanied by an increased heart rate. Several research have shown that providing feedback of false heart rate can induce various altered perceptions, such as increased effort and anxiety. In this poster, we propose to provide false but “stable” heart rate feedback through sound and vibration while navigating a sickness-inducing VR scene. We hypothesize that the false but stable heart rate feedback will have an induced effect of calming the user down (even stabilizing the heart rate itself) and reducing the unpleasant VR sickness symptoms. A pilot study was conducted to compare three conditions, namely viewing a sickness eliciting VR content, (1) as is, (2) with the false but stable heart rate feedback through sound, and (3) with the false but stable heart rate feedback through vibration. Results showed that the level of sickness was significantly reduced by sound and vibration feedback, respectively.