PhD graduate Yuxuan Huang leverages VR in nature restoration work

Department of Computer Science & Engineering recent PhD graduate Yuxuan Huang is studying how virtual reality (VR) can help facilitate wellbeing and stress reduction by immersing people in nature. Under the guidance of PhD advisors Professor Victoria Interrante and Associate Professor Evan Suma Rosenberg, Huang created multiple studies that compare different VR techniques and their ability to support relaxation. 

“There is a lot of evidence showing that nature is good for a person’s wellbeing and stress reduction,” Huang said. “More recently with the widespread adoption of VR, people are utilizing virtual reality as a complement to real-world nature exposure for people who cannot easily access nature, such as people living in urban areas, with disabilities, or who are hospitalized. Virtual reality can offer opportunities for these folks to get the benefits of nature. As computer scientists working in VR, we are working on the technical side of this problem by optimizing the design of VR experience to support this type of relaxation.” 

Huang designed two user studies to investigate how to optimally support VR users to get the restorative benefits of virtual nature. In the first study, he compared active versus passive locomotion in VR nature experiences. The active locomotion enabled users to control the pace and exactly where to go, while the passive locomotion followed the viewpoint of someone else and created a more “sit back and relax” experience.. On a whole, users preferred active locomotion. 

In the second study, Huang took this active participation a step further by comparing a gamified VR experience with a more generalized experience. In the gamified version, users participated in a treasure hunt game in a 3D city park, searching for target objects and taking pictures of them. In the generalized version, users were in the same park and took pictures of whatever they liked. Users who did not play the game experienced more restorative benefits, however, those who did play were better prepared for cognitive tasks and were more willing to revisit the VR environment in the future. 

“This general research has a lot of crossover with psychology,” Huang said. “A lot of researchers are studying the impacts of real nature vs virtual nature environments on wellbeing, and our technology can help them in that work. Psychologists study what VR nature can do, and we study how to support that better with the affordance of VR from a technical perspective.” 

This type of work is the first step in providing more rewarding VR experiences for everyone, and especially for people who could benefit from the restorative power of nature. Professor Interrante is bringing some of Huang’s findings to industry partners in an effort to bring VR experience into elderly care homes.

“Our department has an abundance of VR headsets that makes this work a lot easier as a PhD student,” Huang said. “That is not common at other universities. The new space in Shephard Labs has also changed the environment in significant ways. Evan’s lab used to be in Keller Hall and Vicki’s lab was in Walter Library, so now it is a lot easier to communicate with everyone in a shared space.” 

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