Challenges of experimenting with Virtual Reality

Abstract

This manuscript describes challenges that we experienced during experiments employing virtual reality headsets. Its main focus is on technical issues that occurred when participants were transported from the environment they were physically occupying to its virtual replica displayed on a virtual reality headset. A range of hardware, software and experimental procedure issues and recommendations are presented, including issues such as the impact of mounting the virtual reality headset by participants on their Skin Conductance and Heart rate, and unexpected virtual reality headset features accidentally turned on by the participants. The method employed for creation of the virtual replica of the physical environment used in this study is described. We also discuss alternative methods that were considered, and which in some circumstances might produce better results than we achieved. This paper is written to share the lessons that we have learned during the beta-testing process and analysis of the data collected during our experiments using virtual reality headsets. The goal of describing these lessons learned is to aid other researchers in adopting techniques to improve the quality and replicability of experiments involving virtual reality headsets and biometric devices.