Investigating Virtual Reality for Alleviating Human-Computer Interaction Fatigue: A Multimodal Assessment and...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality

Background:

• Prolonged human-computer interaction (HCI) fatigue increases mental illness risk and operational errors.
• Virtual Reality (VR) offers immersive, multi-sensory experiences that can enhance cognition.

Purpose of the Study:

• Develop multimodal evaluation methods for HCI fatigue.
• Explore VR's fatigue-relieving effects compared to traditional video.

Main Methods:

• Collected electroencephalogram (EEG), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), eye movement, and subjective data.
• Utilized a modular design and data flow architecture for preprocessing and analysis.
• Compared fatigue relief between VR and flat video interventions using natural grassland scenes with music.

Main Results:

• Multimodal data validated HCI fatigue assessment: increased prefrontal cortex Theta band activation, decreased Alpha/Theta band connectivity, reduced pupil diameter, increased blink frequency, and higher subjective scores.
• Both VR and video reduced fatigue, indicated by decreased Alpha band activity in the LPFC and lower subjective scores.
• VR group showed significantly higher Alpha and Theta band prefrontal cortex activation during recovery compared to the video group.

Conclusions:

• Multimodal data effectively characterizes HCI fatigue.
• VR demonstrates significant potential for fatigue management and productivity enhancement in various applications.
• VR offers superior recovery benefits compared to video in certain neurological aspects.