Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Perceived realism in virtual reality experiments for human behaviour research

Arias, Silvia LU ; Wahlqvist, Jonathan LU ; Eriksson, Joakim LU ; Mattsson, Pimkamol LU and Frantzich, Håkan LU (2025) In TVBB
Abstract (Swedish)
Virtual reality can be a useful research tool to investigate how people behave in different fire situations. For the results from such experiments to have good validity, i.e., to represent behaviours that can occur in a real environment, the VR environment must be perceived as a good substitute for the real environment. The project focuses on how to achieve such high-quality VR environments. Two different environments, a lecture hall and a corridor, were built up in two virtual versions each and compared with a method for measuring environmental perception, the Semantic Environmental Description (SED). The two VR environments in the lecture hall were designed in a detailed version and a slightly less detailed version, a more simplified... (More)
Virtual reality can be a useful research tool to investigate how people behave in different fire situations. For the results from such experiments to have good validity, i.e., to represent behaviours that can occur in a real environment, the VR environment must be perceived as a good substitute for the real environment. The project focuses on how to achieve such high-quality VR environments. Two different environments, a lecture hall and a corridor, were built up in two virtual versions each and compared with a method for measuring environmental perception, the Semantic Environmental Description (SED). The two VR environments in the lecture hall were designed in a detailed version and a slightly less detailed version, a more simplified version. In the VR environments in the corridor, the main question was how distances are perceived in VR compared to in a real corridor. A total of 159 subjects participated, and all completed a SED assessment in each environment and both in VR and in the real environment. The difference between the SED description for the lecture hall was small between the three environments (real and two VR environments). Distances in a corridor are judged to be most similar between the real corridor and a VR environment that is designed with correct proportions between length, width and height. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; and
organization
alternative title
Uppfattad realism i VR-försök för forskning om människors beteende
publishing date
type
Book/Report
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Human behaviour, virtual reality, VR, fire scenario, validity, Cornell box, Semantic Environmental Description, SED
in
TVBB
issue
3275
pages
57 pages
publisher
Lund University, Department of Fire Safety Engineering
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
46682d43-4e2f-4501-9ef3-9f2eb44d9e28
date added to LUP
2025-12-17 15:27:08
date last changed
2025-12-17 17:04:43
@techreport{46682d43-4e2f-4501-9ef3-9f2eb44d9e28,
  abstract     = {{Virtual reality can be a useful research tool to investigate how people behave in different fire situations. For the results from such experiments to have good validity, i.e., to represent behaviours that can occur in a real environment, the VR environment must be perceived as a good substitute for the real environment. The project focuses on how to achieve such high-quality VR environments. Two different environments, a lecture hall and a corridor, were built up in two virtual versions each and compared with a method for measuring environmental perception, the Semantic Environmental Description (SED). The two VR environments in the lecture hall were designed in a detailed version and a slightly less detailed version, a more simplified version. In the VR environments in the corridor, the main question was how distances are perceived in VR compared to in a real corridor. A total of 159 subjects participated, and all completed a SED assessment in each environment and both in VR and in the real environment. The difference between the SED description for the lecture hall was small between the three environments (real and two VR environments). Distances in a corridor are judged to be most similar between the real corridor and a VR environment that is designed with correct proportions between length, width and height.}},
  author       = {{Arias, Silvia and Wahlqvist, Jonathan and Eriksson, Joakim and Mattsson, Pimkamol and Frantzich, Håkan}},
  institution  = {{Lund University, Department of Fire Safety Engineering}},
  keywords     = {{Human behaviour, virtual reality, VR, fire scenario, validity, Cornell box, Semantic Environmental Description, SED}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{12}},
  number       = {{3275}},
  series       = {{TVBB}},
  title        = {{Perceived realism in virtual reality experiments for human behaviour research}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/236142463/RealVR_-_final_report.pdf}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}