Emotion and Virtual Reality


(measurement of heart rate variations by analyzing micro-movements of the head)

Aim of the work:

  • Develop and implement an acquisition protocol that can modify the emotional state of the subject through cognitive stimuli, audio for controlled breathing protocol and video stimuli

  • Measure BCG through the VR headset sensors and calculate heart rate

What is a BCG?

The ballistocardiogram (BCG) is the signal that records the micro-movements associated with the body's response to the heartbeat.

Materials and Methods

Acquisitions were conducted on 15 subjects all with the same protocol, in a sitting position and with Oculus Quest viewer, simultaneously with the measurement of the ECG taken as gold standard.

the protocol consists of 4 videos approved by a psychologist capable of changing the emotional state of the subject and a respiratory test

Results

The linear correlation graphs about the comparisons between ECG heart rate and BCG in the different phases show extremely low correlation values when using the total BCG signal. However, these values increase when the BCG signal considered is composed of the acceptable windows only.

Conclusions

This work proposed a method for estimating heart rate through the BCG signal of the head obtained through the use of the VR viewer only. A qualitative analysis was implemented to define the acceptability of particular BCG signal windows in order to be able to consider those only in subsequent studies.

The results found differ if we consider the signals in their entirety or the signals cleared of noises, suggesting the usefulness of defining automatic recognition algorithms in the future. Furthermore, the study proposed an audio-video protocol to induce possible heart rate variations, which can be recorded using a VR viewer.

The results obtained by studying only the analysable windows of ECG and BCG revealed significant differences between the Baseline and the phases of Mental Stress and Fear, laying the groundwork for subsequent studies.




here you can download the full thesis

Emotion and Virtual Reality


(measurement of heart rate variations by analyzing micro-movements of the head)

Aim of the work:

  • Develop and implement an acquisition protocol that can modify the emotional state of the subject through cognitive stimuli, audio for controlled breathing protocol and video stimuli

  • Measure BCG through the VR headset sensors and calculate heart rate

What is a BCG?

The ballistocardiogram (BCG) is the signal that records the micro-movements associated with the body's response to the heartbeat.

Materials and Methods

Acquisitions were conducted on 15 subjects all with the same protocol, in a sitting position and with Oculus Quest viewer, simultaneously with the measurement of the ECG taken as gold standard.

the protocol consists of 4 videos approved by a psychologist capable of changing the emotional state of the subject and a respiratory test

Results

The linear correlation graphs about the comparisons between ECG heart rate and BCG in the different phases show extremely low correlation values when using the total BCG signal. However, these values increase when the BCG signal considered is composed of the acceptable windows only.

Conclusions

This work proposed a method for estimating heart rate through the BCG signal of the head obtained through the use of the VR viewer only. A qualitative analysis was implemented to define the acceptability of particular BCG signal windows in order to be able to consider those only in subsequent studies.

The results found differ if we consider the signals in their entirety or the signals cleared of noises, suggesting the usefulness of defining automatic recognition algorithms in the future. Furthermore, the study proposed an audio-video protocol to induce possible heart rate variations, which can be recorded using a VR viewer.

The results obtained by studying only the analysable windows of ECG and BCG revealed significant differences between the Baseline and the phases of Mental Stress and Fear, laying the groundwork for subsequent studies.




here you can download the full thesis