Effects of Electrical Pain Stimuli on Immersion in Virtual Reality

Abstract

The ultimate goal of virtual realty is to create a simulated world around us which is indistinguishable from the physical world as we know it. In such an environment our actions could lead to severe effects on our body. What would happen if one gets hit by a bullet, car or lightning? How would the felt pain change our perception of the virtual environment? It turns out that the influence of nociception (pain) on the human perception in virtual environments is not well covered in the scientific literature besides pain control/management. The goal of this publication is to investigate the influence of pain stimuli on immersion as well as decision making and to foster research and discussion in this direction.