Investigating the Affective State of VR HMD User When Watching Videos Displayed in Different Formats

Tai-Chen Tsai, Tse-Yu Pan, Min-Chun Hu

Abstract: In recent years, many studies have discussed whether virtual reality (VR) can enhance the sensory experience of the audience via a controllable virtual environment. Most of the researches focus on comparing the difference of perceptual immersion between LCD screen and VR, or the impact on the narrative of the two media. The goal of this study is to investigate the affective state in VR head-mounted display (HMD) when the user watches videos displayed in different formats, i.e., 2D video, panoramic video and 360 video. In order to conduct this study, we designed an experiment procedure as well as an emotion annotation and monitoring system, which can not only obtain affective states of users but also collect physiological signals and behavior movements when the user watches videos in different formats. Furthermore, we used post-questionnaire to investigate the sense of presence, emotional induction and dominance of users. Some findings in the current study are summarized in the experimental results to give an insight for VR application developers so that they can use videos in suitable formats to evoke emotions in accordance with their requirements.