Anais do Simpósio de Realidade Virtual e Aumentada (SVR)
Sociedade Brasileira de Computação - SBC
Visuo-Haptic Immersion Made Easy: A Fast-Track Course on Spatial Anchors
Mixed Reality (MR) occupies the midpoint of the Reality–Virtuality continuum, blending real and virtual elements into a unified environment, which can reach high levels of immersion by integrating spatial, visual, and haptic cues, preserving real-world awareness while convincingly embedding virtual content. A key driver of this experience is multisensory integration, where vision often dominates and shapes perceptions in other modalities, influencing tactile judgments and increasing the illusion of touch. To explore this visuo-haptic integration, we propose a tutorial that guides participants to design and implement a Meta Quest 3 application in Unity that harnesses Spatial Anchors to precisely align 3D models with physical objects. Through a combination of concise theoretical overviews and hands-on exercises—from environment scanning and anchor management to deployment—attendees will acquire practical skills to create, save, and interact with stable visuo-haptic experiences, leaving with a functional prototype and a clear development pipeline for Visuo-Haptic immersive applications.
Rapid VR Prototyping for Academia and Industry: A Tutorial on Building Interactive Experiences with Godot and the XR Tools Framework
This paper outlines a 3-hour tutorial focused on rapid prototyping of Virtual Reality (VR) experiences using the Godot Engine in conjunction with the Godot XR Tools framework. The tutorial aims to equip participants from academic and industrial backgrounds with a modern, efficient workflow, shifting the focus from low-level boilerplate coding to high-level VR design concepts and rapid iteration. By leveraging the pre-built functionalities of Godot XR Tools for common VR mechanics such as locomotion and interaction, participants can achieve significant results within a short timeframe. This approach not only accelerates development but also aligns with real-world practices where leveraging libraries and specialized tools is standard. The manuscript details the rationale for this tool-centric methodology, presents the structured content of the tutorial, and discusses its pedagogical benefits and contributions to the VR development community, particularly in fostering accessible and scalable prototyping solutions.
User Experience Evaluation in Virtual Museum Tours: A Scoping Review (2014-2024)
Virtual museum tours are crucial tools for expanding accessibility to cultural heritage, offering immersive experiences that overcome geographic and socioeconomic barriers. Despite several studies on user experience (UX) in this context, a comprehensive compilation of these works is lacking, which is vital for identifying research opportunities and guiding advancements. This review consolidates findings from 20 studies published between 2014 and 2024, following four phases: identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion. Studies were selected from seven databases, including ACM Digital Library and ScienceDirect. The main objective was to identify the most commonly used methodological approaches and the existing gaps in the literature. The review highlights the predominance of standardized questionnaires, qualitative interviews, behavioral observations, and structural equation modeling emerged as primary UX evaluation methods. The findings highlight usability, engagement, accessibility, and the mitigation of physical discomfort as critical for user satisfaction, emphasizing the need for standardized evaluation methods and broader user inclusion. Future research should focus on unified frameworks and expanding studies to underrepresented regions. Advancing technology is expected to foster more inclusive, accessible, and engaging virtual experiences, promoting democratized access to cultural heritage.
Augmented Reality for Cognitive Screening in Neurodegenerative Diseases: A Ten-Year Systematic Review
Augmented Reality (AR) is increasingly explored as a low-burden alternative to pencil-and-paper cognitive tests for dementia and Parkinson’s Disease. Our objective with this review is to synthesize ten years (2014–2024) of empirical evidence on AR-based cognitive screening, estimate pooled diagnostic accuracy, and distil user-experience (UX) guidelines for people with neurodegenerative disorders. We searched Scopus with the string “augmented reality” AND cognitive AND (dementia OR Parkinson), screened 399 records, and retained 38 primary studies. Two reviewers independently extracted sample, task, hardware, and accuracy metrics. Optical see-through AR improved test sensitivity over matched non-immersive tests, while projection-based AR offered the largest UX gains. Hardware cost and eye-tracker drift were the main precision bottlenecks. AR can raise both diagnostic sensitivity and patient engagement, but only four studies used clinical-stage participants. Future work should couple low-cost hand-held AR with cloud inference to widen accessibility.
ENDLESS: An End-to-End Framework for Urban Synthetic Dataset Generation
Computer vision models are fundamental for smart city applications. These models enable the city to interpret visual data, obtained from sensors such as surveillance cameras, to optimize its tasks and positively impact the citizens’ lives. However, these models require ever-growing amounts of labeled data for training, which is expensive and raises ethical concerns when collected in the real world. Conversely, 3D engines and simulators allow the cost-effective and large-scale generation of automatically annotated synthetic data. This work proposes a synthetic dataset generator for the smart cities field using the CARLA simulator. The proposed generator allows the end-to-end generation of massive datasets with a single command, which includes the simulation of city assets, such as vehicles and pedestrians, and the recording and annotation of visual data. To demonstrate the generator’s effectiveness, a dataset with over 300K annotated frames was generated and compared with other state-of-the-art datasets. The comparison results show that the proposed generator is capable of producing datasets comparable to the state of the art in terms of data volume and number of annotations. It’s expected that the proposed generator could be used to create useful datasets for training and evaluating computer vision models in the smart cities area. It’s also expected that this work brings attention to the synthetic data usage for smart city models.
Harnessing Foveated Rendering and AI to Tackle VR Cybersickness: A Feature-Centric Perspective
As virtual reality becomes increasingly immersive, issues related to cybersickness pose a major challenge. This review investigates how foveated rendering techniques, powered by artificial intelligence, are transforming our response to this topic. We analyze the primary factors that lead to cybersickness, including latency, field of view, vergence-accommodation mismatch, and unnatural locomotion, while demonstrating how adaptive visual strategies can significantly alleviate user discomfort. By considering individual traits like age, previous virtual reality experience, and real-time physiological indicators, including heart rate and skin conductance, modern rendering systems are evolving to be more intelligent and user-specific. We emphasize the role of advanced machine learning models, from interpretable symbolic frameworks to deep neural networks, along with gaze prediction systems that enable real-time adjustments through predictive rendering and user-context-specific optimization. Our findings highlight the promise of closed-loop rendering systems, which aim to preserve visual fidelity while enhancing comfort and engagement, steering to toward safer, more personalized virtual reality experiences.
VIDA XR: Mixed Reality Tool for teaching anatomy to dental students
Teaching dental anatomy faces challenges related to ethical concerns, cost of materials and quality of artificial representations. Virtual and augmented reality technologies have been explored for education and training in healthcare for the same motivations. In this paper we present a novel mixed reality tool that allows dental students to visualize and manipulate 3D models of tooth surface and tooth root, generated from microtomography scans. The development process by a multidisciplinary team is described, followed by results from performance evaluation and assessment by an expert panel. Performance was within the guidelines for applications in the adopted head-mounted device, and expert assessment was positive regarding its usefulness and ease of use. Future work includes assessing the tool’s pedagogical effectiveness in anatomy classes.
Analysis of Virtual Environments for the Evaluation of LiDAR-Based Object Detection Models: A Study Using the CARLA Simulator
Virtual environments are increasingly used for testing LiDAR-based object detection models, offering advantages in cost, safety, and reproducibility. This paper presents an evaluation of the CARLA simulator as a virtual testbed to assess cross-domain performance of a detection model trained on the real-world nuScenes dataset. Using matching sensor parameters and urban layouts, we generated synthetic LiDAR point clouds in CARLA and tested the model under various simulated scenarios, including changes in lighting and object density. Results show that the mean Average Precision (mAP) in synthetic data was 5.2 percentage points lower than in the real domain, with performance degradation concentrated in classes affected by occlusion and sparse geometry. Despite this, certain object categories (e.g., vehicles and static infrastructure) maintained comparable detection rates across domains. The originality of this work lies in the controlled analysis of transferability using real-to-sim evaluation under matched configurations. Our findings support the use of simulation for early-stage validation, particularly in tasks requiring high spatial accuracy and reproducibility. This study highlights the practical trade-offs and domain limitations of using virtual environments as a reliable complement to physical testing in LiDAR-based 3D perception pipelines.
YOLOv8 Object Detection on HoloLens 2: Navigating the Accuracy–Efficiency Trade-Off
Object detection is a relevant capability in augmented reality (AR) systems, enabling applications to understand physical environments. However, implementing deep learning-based object detectors like the YOLO (You Only Look Once) family on devices like the Microsoft HoloLens 2 (HL2) is challenging due to limited processing power. This paper investigates this trade-off regarding deploying YOLOv8 variants on the HL2 for real-time object detection in AR scenarios. A two-phase methodology is proposed: theoretical benchmarking using the COCO dataset and empirical validation on the device. Using a multi-criteria decision-making framework based on Euclidean distance optimization, the study identifies optimal configurations balancing inference speed and detection quality. Results show that while larger YOLOv8 models achieve higher accuracy, only lightweight configurations maintain processing rates above 15 FPS with latencies below 100 ms — thresholds necessary for perceptual synchronization in AR. The findings provide practical guidelines and performance metrics for selecting YOLO-based models in resource-constrained AR platforms, contributing to the development of efficient and interactive AR systems.
Lightweight AR System for Precise Object Geolocation in Real-Time Drone Video
This work presents a lightweight outdoor augmented reality system that enables precise georegistration of virtual objects using video and telemetry from a DJI Mavic 3T drone. The system integrates Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) positioning, multiple strategies for estimating camera orientation, and terrain modeling through a Digital Elevation Model (DEM). An interactive mechanism allows users to instantiate virtual objects by clicking on the video frame, with the ground position computed via 3D ray–DEM intersection. Field tests conducted with the drone flying at altitudes above 100 meters showed a mean positioning error below 5 meters using only the drone-exported orientation. These results highlight the system’s geometric precision under strong projection compression, supporting its use in scenarios such as long-range object annotation, search and rescue coordination, or infrastructure monitoring.
Automated Attention Guidance in Virtual Reality Videos
Despite their immersive nature, 360° virtual reality (VR) videos often lack effective attention guidance, leading to user disorientation and missed information. This work proposes a novel method integrating computational vision with natural language processing to automatically guide user attention in 360° VR. It leverages natural language roadmaps to identify and track key elements, applying dynamic visual effects. The comparative evaluation identified Grounding DINO as a particularly suitable detector, while DAM4SAM and Segment Anything 2 (SAM 2) demonstrated strong performance for tracking. Demonstrated on a 360° VR tour, this approach can significantly enhance user experience and comprehension, advancing automated attention guidance for immersive content.
An Immersive Olfactory VR Framework: Integrating Virtual Field Environments with Real-Time Scent Delivery via MQTT
This paper introduces an immersive olfactory virtual reality (OVR) framework that integrates AI-driven olfactory segmentation, a high-fidelity scent delivery device, and a photorealistic virtual environment. It leverages semantic segmentation and depth estimation to generate olfactory masks from 360-degree panoramas, enabling real-time context-aware scent delivery synchronized with user perspective and proximity. Implemented within Unreal Engine and validated through controlled VR scenes, the framework provides a comprehensive solution for enhancing multisensory realism and adaptability in virtual reality.
Evaluating Simulated Augmented Reality Interfaces in a VR Role-Playing Simulator for Police De-Escalation Training
This study evaluates future Augmented Reality (AR) interfaces for police de-escalation training by simulating them within a Virtual Reality (VR) role-playing platform, RESPOND. The platform uses live actors to embody avatars, creating realistic and unscripted traffic stop scenarios. We conducted a between-subjects study with 18 police officers to compare simulated AR interfaces against current procedures, measuring performance, workload, and user acceptance. Our results show that the simulated AR-enhanced procedures performed on par with traditional methods, with no significant differences in task time, interaction outcomes, or cognitive load. Despite maintaining operational performance, officers strongly preferred traditional methods (NPS = -77.78), though individual AR safety features received high ratings, revealing a critical performance-acceptance paradox. This finding of non-inferiority with resistance is critical, as it demonstrates how VR-based evaluation can uncover adoption barriers before hardware investment. These results validate the feasibility of using VR simulation to preview AR concepts for complex police work and provide a foundation for designing future systems that can enhance officer safety and effectiveness.
Towards an Effective VR System for Training Soccer Athletes
Virtual Reality (VR) is a powerful tool for perceptual-cognitive skills training in sports. In this paper, we present a VR system that reconstructs a real soccer game from 3D motion capture (mocap) data, allowing users to navigate the virtual environment freely – either physically or via controllers – offering a dynamic and untethered training perspective of decision-making and perceptual cognitive skills. We conducted a set of three preliminary user studies with a total of 30 volunteers to identify usability flaws, gather users’ feedback on interaction design and comfort, and refine the application into a stable and intuitive prototype. The iterative validation process conducted by us revealed some usability findings that are described here and shaped the final prototype. Future research will involve testing the refined prototype with professional athletes and coaches to gather expert feedback and formally assess its potential as a training aid.
A Web-Based XR Platform for Offshore Safety Training: Design and Evaluation
This paper introduces a collaborative immersive training platform designed to enhance offshore safety training by integrating 360-degree panoramic imagery and Extended Reality (XR) technologies. The platform offers a web-based environment that is accessible in both immersive (virtual reality) and non-immersive (desktop) modes, allowing users to experience and respond to realistic hazardous offshore scenarios. The development process followed a user-centered design methodology, incorporating feedback from 159 health, safety, and environment (HSE) professionals and offshore workers to address everyday stressors and training limitations. To evaluate cognitive workload, a study was conducted with 156 participants using the NASA-TLX questionnaire. Findings indicate a moderate overall workload, with elevated scores for mental demand and effort, and lower scores for physical demand and frustration. Participants reported high satisfaction with the platform’s clarity and engagement, as well as positive performance outcomes. Furthermore, a qualitative analysis of emotional responses highlighted the importance of confidence, social support, and realistic challenges in creating compelling and engaging training experiences.
Shielded Metal Arc Welding Training Using Virtual Reality
The role of welding in various industrial sectors is fundamental and requires both technical skills and well-trained professionals to ensure the structural integrity and safety of welds and welded items. Traditional welding training methods, although effective, tend to be expensive, time-consuming, and expose operators and apprentices to a variety of hazards, such as smoke, heat, and UV radiation. In this sense, Virtual Reality (VR) appears to be a fundamental tool for teaching welding, providing immersive, repeatable, and modular practice environments with efficient use of resources and time. This work presents the development of SMAW welding training software, designed to replicate realistic scenarios in a simulated environment through the use of VR. To quantify the effectiveness and usability of the software, two well-established tools were used: the NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) to measure cognitive workload and the System Usability Scale (SUS) to assess perceived usability. Positive results were obtained, with 47.667 for NASA-TLX and 83.1 for SUS. In addition, the questionnaire about the participants’ experience with virtual reality welding proved to be fundamental to the research, and, like the others, it was administered to 31 students. The tests were carried out with students from technical courses, and the results indicated that the VR software is a viable alternative to conventional training methods. In this sense, the software shows high levels of usability and practicality, which reinforces its potential for application in student training programs.
Augmented Reality-Assisted Manual Packing Optimization
The process of packing—organizing products within a container to optimize available space—is often performed manually without technological assistance, which can lead to inconsistent efficiency and occasional errors. While augmented reality (AR) has been explored to support packing tasks, prior research has largely relied on static final-pose overlays and has rarely integrated advanced packing optimization algorithms. This paper presents OPTAR, a novel packing assistance system that combines a 3D packing optimization algorithm with trajectory-based AR pose guidance, deployed on the Microsoft HoloLens 2. We describe the system’s design, implementation, and evaluation through experiments comparing two methods: a packing operation with and without OPTAR. Results indicate that OPTAR assistance significantly improves space utilization, eliminates misplaced items, though with longer task completion times during initial use. To strengthen the generalizability of our findings to industrial applications, future work will extend testing to real industrial environments, involve professional packing operators, and larger sample sizes.
Directional Light Vector Estimation From a Virtual AR Object and its 2D Shadow Mask
This work presents a novel method for inferring the main directional light source in a 3D scene, given only 2D inputs, namely a camera image and a rough shadow mask. A two stage algorithm is proposed, in which the first stage handles the inputs and makes an initial estimation for the light source. The second stage refines this first estimate to find a new vector assumed to be closer to the real directional light vector. Both stages are performed by using one virtual object rendered into the real scene. In the first stage, an external shadow estimator produces a coarse shadow for the virtual object, enabling the computation of an initial directional light vector. Also, it is possible to compare the coarse shadow with a virtual shadow computed from the object. In the second stage, we seek to maximize the intersection over union (IoU) between both shadows. We assume that the best directional light vector provides the best shadow matching. The experiments are made both in virtual and real environments, in scenes with different levels of control and known data. Results show that our method is capable of finding the 3D light vector from the 2D scene, enhancing the initial rough shadow input.
Visual Effects for 3D Gaussian Splatting in Extended Reality
Real-time immersive applications increasingly require 3D content that balances photorealistic rendering with creative visual control, demands that often exceed the capabilities of traditional techniques. This paper introduces a framework for applying selective visual effects to 3D Gaussian Splatting models, designed for augmented and virtual reality environments. The system integrates with both game engines and web-based platforms, leveraging Signed Distance Function based spatial selection to enable real-time manipulation of displacement, relighting, and stylistic effects within localized regions of a scene. The proposed method was validated through an interactive augmented reality application deployed on a consumer-grade headset, demonstrating sub-frame latency and user-driven region control. Additional visual effects, such as geometric transformations, dynamic lighting, and non-photorealistic rendering, showcase the system’s flexibility for expressive content creation. Integration with implicit neural SDFs was also explored to support more complex and artist-defined spatial regions. Together, these capabilities establish the framework as a scalable and performant solution for high-fidelity visual augmentation for 3D Gaussian Splatting in immersive applications.
Multi-Resolution Denoising for Foveated Rendering Path Tracing
Path tracing rendering algorithms present a significant challenge for interactive applications due to the high sample counts required per pixel to achieve low-variance images. To mitigate this issue, denoising techniques have been developed to reduce computational costs by predicting the fully converged render from noisy images generated with fewer samples per pixel. This challenge is exacerbated when rendering for head-mounted displays, where the proximity of the user’s eyes to the screen increases computational demands. However, this proximity can be leveraged to reduce the time required to generate the final image. In this study, we propose a method for accelerating path tracing rendering specifically designed for extended reality (XR) devices. Our approach incorporates multi-resolution foveated rendering techniques combined with multi-pass nonhomogenous denoising strategies for different image regions. Experimental results in testing scenarios with high triangle counts demonstrate significant improvements in both image quality and acceleration rates, rendering frames three times faster than standard path tracing strategies.
A Three-Tiered Model for Requirements in Digital Twin Architectures: Data, Intelligence and Interaction
Digital Twins (DTs) have emerged as a transformative paradigm for real-time monitoring, simulation, and optimization of physical systems across domains such as manufacturing, energy, and education. However, the effectiveness and scalability of DTs applications are closely tied to the rigorous definition of their functional and non-functional requirements. This paper investigates the foundational role of requirements engineering in the design and deployment of DTS systems, emphasizing key aspects such as data acquisition, interoperability, real-time synchronization, security, and user interaction. Drawing from existing frameworks and case studies, we propose a three-tiered architectural model that organizes requirements across data, processing, and interaction layers. The study also highlights persistent gaps in current approaches—particularly the lack of linkage to measurable quality attributes and the absence of systematic methods for eliciting and evolving requirements. By analyzing domain-specific examples from education and energy, we demonstrate the importance of contextualizing requirements to ensure fidelity, usability, and operational effectiveness. This work contributes to the ongoing formalization of Digital Twin Engineering and proposes directions for future research toward scalable, adaptive, and ethically aligned DTs ecosystems.
Virtual Environment Generation with Artificial Intelligence
The creation of immersive 360° Virtual Reality (VR) environments remains a significant bottleneck. This pilot study explores leveraging generative artificial intelligence to create panoramic VR environments, represented as cubemaps, directly from textual descriptions. Inspired by recent text-to-3D methodologies but adapted for panoramic output, we propose a framework utilizing pre-trained text-to-image diffusion models, specifically Stable Diffusion for creative inpainting/generation, potentially combined with monocular depth estimation for consistency. The goal is to generate the six faces of a cubemap representing a coherent, 360° view suitable for VR applications, emphasizing the creative potential of generating unique environments from simple text prompts. This paper outlines the adapted methodology, discusses the advantages of cubemaps, compares them to other projection techniques (spherical, equirectangular), and highlights the potential for democratizing VR panorama creation for artists and other creative professionals looking for a tool that can leverage the creativity for computing.
Regionality Marks for Facial Conformation Modeling
Accurate representation and manipulation of human facial geometry present critical challenges in computer graphics, biometrics, medical imaging and virtual reality applications. This study introduces a novel facial conformation modeling technique that leverages linear anthropometric measurements and geodesic distance-based regionality marks to achieve anatomically precise and scalable deformations. By defining individualized influence zones for craniofacial landmarks, the method minimizes interference between facial regions and enhances morphological variability. The expanded parameter set, comprising 34 measurements around 30 landmarks, enables detailed and intuitive facial modeling. Applications in virtual reality include personalized avatar generation, clinical facial analysis, and identity verification systems. Visual results demonstrate the method’s ability to adapt to diverse facial anatomies, ensuring realistic and customizable facial models for immersive environments.
Influence of User Profiles on Usability Perception in Virtual Reality-Based Robotic Teleoperation
This study investigates how diverse user profiles, particularly variations in field of work, education level, and prior experience with virtual reality (VR), influence the subjective evaluation of a robotic teleoperation system in immersive environments. A total of 39 participants with diverse professional and educational backgrounds interacted with a robotic system in VR using a Meta Quest 3 headset. Their perceptions were collected through a structured questionnaire addressing usability, comfort, immersion, and symptoms of cybersickness. The analysis revealed that participants without prior VR experience tended to provide uniformly positive evaluations, while those with technical backgrounds, especially in engineering, expressed more critical and varied feedback. Educational attainment also played a role, with higher levels associated with a more analytical perspective. These findings suggest that user profile significantly impacts the depth and nature of usability assessments in immersive systems. Consequently, aligning participant selection with the system’s target audience is essential for obtaining meaningful insights, especially in early-stage evaluations or when aiming for technical refinement.
Tactile Perception in Matched Virtual Reality: Evaluating Virtual Textures on a Real Surface
Realistic haptic feedback is still one of the costliest barriers to convincing virtual-reality (VR) experiences. An alternative is to exploit visual dominance to “re-map” multiple virtual materials onto a single, uniform physical surface. This study quantifies how far such visuo-haptic illusions can go in convincing users that they are touching different textures. Thirty-five participants interacted with a motion-tracked MDF board inside an immersive VR scene in which four virtual materials (synthetic wood, leather, grass and unprocessed tree wood) were rendered with matched lighting and spatial alignment. In six counter-balanced comparison cycles, participants rated the roughness of each virtual texture on a seven-point scale and completed a two-alternative forced-choice task to identify the physically distinct surface. We introduce a Deception Index (DI) metric to classify users as non-differentiators, mixed, or differentiators. Mid-spatial-frequency textures (wood, leather) induced the strongest illusion, with 71% of participants misclassifying the board in ≥ 5 of 6 cycles. The results confirm that carefully crafted visual cues (textures used) can override uniform tactile input, enabling low-cost material prototyping and early ergonomic testing without specialised haptic hardware. We conclude by outlining design guidelines for texture selection and proposing future work combining these illusions with lightweight vibrotactile augmentation to broaden perceptual coverage. The contribution of our work on cross-modal perception in VR resides in the fact that no previous experiment has systematically compared user judgments across virtual textures applied to real surfaces.
Enhancing Social Presence in VR with Emotionally Expressive, Knowledge-Grounded Avatars
Large language models (LLMs) and generative AI are revolutionizing avatars, transforming them from static systems to intelligent, adaptive virtual agents capable of real-time interaction. This paper presents an advanced avatar system that brings Romeo, the iconic character from Shakespeare’s works, to life. The avatar leverages LLMs, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and sentiment analysis to create a dynamic and emotionally expressive virtual representation. It generates contextually accurate responses based on a tailored database of Shakespeare’s works, adapting its tone and expressions to enhance user engagement. The system employs GPT-4o mini for dialogue generation, RAG for precise knowledge retrieval, and sentiment analysis to control Romeo’s facial expressions in response to emotional cues. Designed with Blender and animated using Mixamo, the avatar embodies a cartoon-inspired aesthetic that ensures approachability and supports lifelike speech-driven lip-sync and animations. This integration delivers fluid, context-aware interactions, making Romeo an innovative tool for education, entertainment, and cultural preservation. By combining advanced AI capabilities with immersive technologies, this Romeo avatar exemplifies the future of human-machine interaction. It redefines virtual agents by enabling intelligent, emotionally expressive, and highly interactive experiences, offering a transformative approach to engaging with Shakespeare’s timeless stories.
AI-Driven Emotion Prediction in Olfactory VR: A Multimodal Biofeedback Approach Using Russell’s Circumplex Model
Despite its importance for immersion in virtual reality (VR), multisensory integration, particularly olfaction, remains underexplored. This study addresses this by developing AI computational models that analyze tri-channel physiological biofeedback (eye tracking, ECG, and GSR) to quantify the sense of presence in VR. Our methodology focuses on interpreting emotional and attentional states from these multimodal signals using supervised learning and explainable AI. Validated using the VREED dataset, which includes synchronized physiological and behavioral data from 360° immersive experiences, this work lays the groundwork for future integration into the SOFIA System. SOFIA is an olfactory-enhanced VR platform that synchronizes scent delivery with user gaze and depth. By enabling real-time emotion classification and presence estimation from physiological parameters, this research empowers the development of adaptive, personalized VR systems. This, in turn, opens new frontiers for more immersive, therapeutically effective, and tailored multisensory environments for digital well-being.
A Strategy for Content Personalization in Virtual Reality Systems
With technological advancement and the increasing integration of new technologies, Virtual Reality (VR) has been gaining ground across various industrial and operational processes, being applied in training, simulations, and operations monitoring. However, challenges such as high costs, lack of specialized teams, and difficulties in adapting and creating new features after implementation can compromise its effectiveness. Since much of the functionality in these environments is defined at the time of creation, there are limitations in meeting new demands from end users. In this context, this project proposes an accessible integrative architecture that enables dynamic customization of VR environments across different applications. As a case study, the electric substation sector was chosen to demonstrate its applicability in planning, training, and maintenance, illustrating the potential to expand VR use in diverse scenarios. The developed solution allows content to be adapted according to the specific needs of the application, enabling component data within the scene to be modified intuitively and efficiently. Thus, the project aims to make VR environment customization practical and accessible, eliminating the need for manual adjustments by specialized teams and making the process more scalable and effective.
AI-Driven Responsive GUI for XR: Context-Aware Visual Adaptation
Augmented Reality enhances a user’s perception of the real world by overlaying digital information onto the physical environment in real time. One common means of interaction within AR is through Graphical User Interfaces, however, these interfaces can inadvertently occlude important elements of the physical scene. Although window repositioning is straightforward in traditional 2D interfaces, spatial placement in 3D AR environments is more complex, as it must consider factors such as user position, viewing direction, and contextual relevance. This work proposes an approach for the automatic positioning and coloring of GUI elements in AR, enabling interactive panels to dynamically adapt to environmental and contextual conditions. The system adjusts interface placement and appearance in real time based on contextual cues, such as object detection, human presence, and lighting changes. To accomplish this, computer vision techniques are employed to identify and classify objects, while generative AI models interpret high-level contextual information. This enables the interface to reposition itself to avoid occlusions and adjust visual properties, such as color and contrast, for optimal legibility and user comfort. The design and refinement of the system were guided by iterative user testing to ensure usability and effectiveness.
Teacher Representations in Immersive Environments Through Holograms: A Narrative Review on the Perspectives and Challenges
This paper discusses the perspectives and challenges related to the use of holograms in education, focusing on three-dimensional teacher representation and the creation of immersive environments. The investigation was conducted through a narrative literature review, based on scientific and technical publications released between 2013 and 2025 in Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, ERIC, Google Scholar, and the CAPES Digital Library. The results indicate that the adoption of holographic technologies in educational contexts faces structural, pedagogical, operational, and institutional limitations. Among the main obstacles identified are the need for specific infrastructure, the lack of ongoing technical training, difficulties in integrating with learning platforms, and challenges related to accessibility and ethics. On the other hand, the analyzed experiences suggest possibilities for enhancing teacher presence, visual mediation, and the personalization of educational interactions through three-dimensional representations. The analysis contributes to mapping the conditions that influence the implementation of these resources and proposes pathways for pedagogical experimentation with advanced visual technologies across different educational levels.
NeoEduc: A Synchronous AI-Driven 3D Avatar Tutor for Middle-School Robotics
Traditional education, particularly in hands-on subjects like robotics, often struggles to provide personalized, real-time student support due to teacher time constraints and students’ reluctance to seek help in a public setting. This paper introduces NeoEduc, an AI-driven tutoring platform that presents a 3D avatar for conversational guidance in a virtual robotics lab, allowing middle-school students to interact via voice or text and receive adaptive feedback tailored to their performance history. The solution integrates an adaptive large language model (LLM) back-end to offer scalable, engaging, and private pedagogical support. We evaluated the platform with middle school students (N 20) in a robotics learning environment, using standard usability and user experience questionnaires (SUS, UEQ-S, NPS), as well as qualitative analysis of interviews and observations. The results demonstrate high usability (mean SUS score of 78.0) and user satisfaction (NPS of +75). Qualitative findings revealed increases in student engagement and autonomy, a potential reduction in teacher workload, and a notable acceleration of task completion, particularly in a comparative experiment where the NeoEduc groups significantly outperformed the control groups. NeoEduc presents a framework for creating educational experiences that leverage AI and virtual environments. The system’s ability to be configured by teachers towards ethical and pedagogically aligned posture highlights its potential to scale adaptive and immersive learning while mitigating social pressures in the classroom.
Immersive Simulations with Virtual Humans in Higher Education
This paper presents an analysis of two immersive educational simulators developed at the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná: SimCom and Mediation VR. SimCom simulates medical consultations using screen-based avatars controlled in real time by students or instructors, while Mediation VR is a virtual reality experience in which law students mediate conflicts between AI-driven avatars. Both tools adopt a role-play approach to foster communication and interpersonal skills. The study examines their pedagogical and technical characteristics and includes qualitative feedback from professors who apply them in the classroom. The findings indicate shared benefits, such as increased student participation and fluency in communication-based tasks, as well as implementation-specific challenges. Based on feedback, SimCom was restructured to improve usability and scalability. For Mediation VR, proposals are outlined to expand expressiveness, enable real-time feedback, and improve customization flexibility. The study reinforces the educational potential of immersive simulators and their adaptability to diverse academic contexts.
Evaluating healthcare learning in virtual reality: a systematic review
Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly employed in healthcare training because it can create interactive three-dimensional learning environments that minimize risk to patients. As VR-based educational interventions become more widespread, evaluating their learning outcomes is becoming a critical focus for researchers and practitioners alike. Although there are a few other studies which verified VR learning in healthcare, they had as their subject the effectiveness of VR itself, not the methods which are used to evaluate learning. This systematic review examined 72 studies (selected from an initial pool of 22773 retrieved from IEEE Xplore, Scopus, Springer, ACM, and PubMed) that span a range of healthcare domains, with a primary focus on surgery and rehabilitation. The studies demonstrated a broad diversity of evaluation methods, including objective measures, subjective questionnaires, and AI-assisted assessments. While the overall methodological quality was generally high, the significant variability in evaluation approaches creates challenges for cross-study comparison and synthesis. The findings underline the necessity for validated, VR-specific assessment frameworks to facilitate the development and expansion of VR applications in lesser-explored areas of healthcare education.
Development of an innovative mixed reality methodology for teaching medical students complex pathologies
The inclusion of mixed reality (MR) and other types of immersion technology into medical education has emerged as a transformative and innovative approach for teaching complex pathological concepts. This paper presents the methodological framework for developing an MR-based educational tool designed to enhance disease understanding through interactive three-dimensional models. The development process included bibliographic research, 3D modeling using Blender® and Substance 3D Painter®, animation techniques, and integration via Unity® onto mixed reality glasses. Preliminary classroom studies demonstrated comparable knowledge retention with improved spatial reasoning and engagement when using the proposed technology. Both groups showed significant learning gains after the intervention (p < 0.001); the control group improved from 52% to 69%, and the test group from 61% to 71%, with the latter achieving higher final scores and reduced score dispersion. The methodology also addresses key barriers to scalable MR implementation in education, providing a replicable approach for academic institutions. Furthermore, this study introduces a structured development pipeline that addresses technological challenges in MR content creation, such as anatomical fidelity, intuitive interaction, performance optimization, and collaborative use. The contribution extends beyond medical education, offering a replicable MR deployment framework relevant to the MR research communities.
Reviewing the Role of Physiological Data in Immersive Environments: A Rapid Systematic Review
This systematic literature review investigates the use of physiological signals for evaluating user experience (UX) in immersive environments such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality, and extended reality (XR). Drawing from 118 peer-reviewed articles published between 2019 and 2024, the study identifies the most commonly used biosignals, collection devices, evaluation criteria, and supporting instruments. Key physiological measures include electrodermal activity (EDA), heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and electroencephalography (EEG), which are frequently associated with emotional responses, cognitive load, and presence. The analysis, conducted through rapid review, highlights a strong reliance on hybrid approaches that combine physiological data with subjective questionnaires and behavioral metrics. While emotion and cybersickness emerge as dominant UX evaluation dimensions, the study also reveals ethical gaps in research reporting. By mapping the interconnections between technologies, signals, and evaluation frameworks, this review offers a comprehensive overview of current trends and provides practical insights for researchers aiming to develop more adaptive and user-centered immersive systems.
Assessing the Usability and Presence of an Immersive Virtual Environment: Opportunities and Challenges of Combining SUS, IPQ and Nielsen’s Heuristics
Ensuring the usability and effectiveness of immersive virtual environments requires robust and reliable measurement tools. This study examines the opportunities and challenges of combining the System Usability Scale (SUS), the Igroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ), and Nielsen’s Usability Heuristics to assess usability and sense of presence in immersive virtual environments. Conducted under the Design Science Research paradigm, the study engaged undergraduate engineering students in evaluating the Spatial.io platform as an illustrative case. Results indicated marginally acceptable usability (SUS score 67.5) and low-to-moderate presence (IPQ subscales: spatial presence 1.46, involvement 2.92, realism 1.19). Heuristic evaluation revealed strengths such as visible system status and real-world alignment, but also limitations including restricted user control and limited error prevention. The study concludes that combining heuristic and standardized instruments provides a more comprehensive framework for assessing immersive systems, integrating quantitative usability and presence data with qualitative interaction insights to guide design improvement.
Beyond the Monitor: How Immersion can Transform (and Complicate) User Satisfaction
Immersive virtual reality holds the potential to provide a safe and efficient environment for the education and training of invasive healthcare procedures. Nevertheless, some tasks or users may present additional challenges. This work examines whether an HMD adds measurable value to a simulator in health area to train dental anesthesia, when compared with its conventional desktop counterpart. Twenty-four participants completed two full training runs in each platform (desktop, HMD). We logged phase-specific and total task times, collected SUS, UEQ and SSQ scores for both conditions, and recorded participants’ ranked preference. Motion-sickness history, visual limitations and prior VR experience were surveyed as well. Statistical treatment combined parametric/non-parametric tests and correlations; qualitative remarks were thematically coded. Task duration in HMD version was longer in 71 % of sessions. Neither UEQ nor SUS differentials explained VR environment preference; SSQ scores were low overall and unrelated to the type of VR environment used. Most users without visual impairment preferred the HMD version, yet the association missed significance. Open comments about HMD version praised greater immersion, realism and pedagogical value, while pinpointing friction in fine motor tasks, lack of visual guides, sporadic lag and eyestrain.
Would you mind? Evaluating User Acceptance and Usability of a Brain-Interface System in an Industrial Scenario
Industry new ages demand its operator knowledge and mastery of interaction with emergent technologies. Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), the Internet of Things (IoT), and Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) are some examples of technologies that are shaping how humans interact with industrial systems. VR technologies and BCI have become more prevalent due to price reduction and ergonomics. This work evaluates a VR scenario controlled by users using a brain-interface system. We explore a real-world mining industry case reproduced in an immersive environment. This study aims to evaluate users’ usability and acceptance of technology. Data from 26 participants were analyzed to investigate how prior VR experience influenced perceptions of usability (via SUS scores) and technology acceptance factors (via TAM questionnaire), including perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), attitude toward use (ATU) and behavioral intention to use (BIU). The SUS average results (77.04 ± 14.79) and the ATU and BIU averages (4.52 and 4.60) indicate that the technology had an above-average global acceptance when compared with the literature, including an attitude and will to use the technology in the future. Statistical analyses include ANOVA and post-hoc tests to compare groups stratified by VR experience (novices to frequent users). ANOVA results demonstrated significant differences across VR experience groups: frequent users (>3 VR sessions) reported higher SUS scores (M = 90) and TAM ratings (e.g., BIU: M = 4.75) compared to novices (SUS: M = 65; BIU: M = 3.5). Qualitative feedback collected after the experiments highlighted usability barriers for novices, such as calibration delays and discomfort, while frequent users emphasized the system’s innovation.
Exploring a Safe Zone-Based Locomotion Method with Natural Movement and Adaptive Teleportation for Immersive Environments
Virtual Reality (VR) offers immersive experiences, but navigating VR environments often faces a significant hurdle: physical space limitations. Virtual worlds commonly exceed the user’s real-world space, restricting natural movement. Traditional locomotion techniques like teleportation and continuous directional movement are widely used as an alternative. This work presents a locomotion approach that aims to improve navigation in virtual environments considerably larger than the available physical space. It leverages the available physical space for increased real movement and uses teleportation for longer distances. To achieve this, we introduce the concept of S-zones, which are pre-defined safe zones that encompass disjoint sets of interactive elements. This approach encourages and allows users to physically move naturally within these S-zones, reserving teleportation for reaching more distant areas. The goal is to minimize the need for teleportation for nearby interactions, making them more natural and reducing the potential for cybersickness or spatial disorientation caused by unnatural body movement, such as joystick locomotion. Herein, we also report an experiment that we conducted with 20 participants, which gave us the first insights regarding our approach and allowed us to foresee the next steps of our research.
Ethical Considerations in Research on Virtual Reality Games — A Systematic Literature Review
This systematic literature review aimed to investigate how ethics has been addressed in studies on virtual reality (VR) games. The goal was to contribute to a deeper understanding of the ethical implications of these games and provide insights for establishing guidelines that promote more responsible practices in the field. The research was conducted between February and March 2025 in the Scopus, IEEE Xplore, SpringerLink, and ACM Digital Library databases, using terms related to ethics and VR game development. After screening, six studies were included. The qualitative analysis followed Saldaña’s Coding Cycles method, using network creation in Atlas.TI to identify and categorize the main ethical challenges, developers’ responsibilities, and necessary guidelines for ethical practices in VR game development. The results indicate that the literature still lacks a systematic incorporation of ethics, highlighting the need for clearer regulations, robust guidelines, and greater awareness of the psychological and social impacts of these experiences.
Virtual Reality and Serious Games for Simulating Muscle Force and Joint Torque in Upper Limb Prosthesis Training: A Systematic Literature Review
This paper presents a systematic literature review on the use of biomechanical models in virtual reality environments, in association with serious games for the training and control of upper-limb prostheses. The review covers studies that integrate musculoskeletal simulations, motion capture, and interaction with virtual systems. The main computational models employed are discussed, along with the motor control strategies adopted. Serious games are considered not only for their motivational role but also as methods for functional assessment in clinical settings. The results indicate a growing interest in the combined use of virtual reality and serious games with biomechanical models, while also revealing a lack of integrated and clinically validated solutions. Notably, no study simultaneously addressed the five criteria defined in this review, namely biomechanical modeling, immersive virtual reality, serious games, force estimation, and joint torque estimation, which highlights a fragmented scenario. This review contributes by presenting an existing gap, as well as proposing a direction for future upper limb prosthesis training systems that are more effective and clinically viable.
Enhancing an immersive horror game by measuring presence: a sentiment analysis
This study investigates the integration of horror game design elements within immersive virtual reality environments to enhance presence effects through Design Science Research methodology. The developed artifact, “Ecos do Pelourinho,” is a culturally authentic VR horror experience combining atmospheric environmental design, spatial audio implementation, and strategic horror mechanics using Unity 6 and Blender. The system applies environmental storytelling with integrated world canvas UI systems for narrative delivery. Evaluation employed semi-structured interviews grounded in presence theory constructs, analyzing responses from four participants through systematic thematic analysis. Results demonstrate that cultural authenticity amplifies presence, as participants exhibited immediate environmental recognition and sustained emotional engagement. Findings establish horror-enhanced presence effects as empirically valid, contributing to spatial presence theory and offering replicable methodologies for immersive VR research and applications in training, therapeutic intervention, and entertainment contexts.
From Cards to Creatures: Interactive 3D Generation Using GenAI
We present “From Cards to Creatures”, a mobile augmented reality system that enables interactive 3D visualization of physical trading cards through generative AI. The proposed pipeline combines object detection, retrieval, and image-to-3D generation to support real-time rendering anchored to physical inputs. Specifically, a YOLOv11-based detector identifies and extracts the card’s unique ID from the mobile camera feed, which allows for instant retrieval of the corresponding 3D asset from a pre-compiled dataset. Each card’s artwork is processed with the Hunyuan3D-2.1 generative model to produce high-quality meshes and textures. The retrieved model is rendered and spatially aligned with the detected card in the AR scene. By decoupling the generation process from real-time image capture, the system ensures consistent reconstruction and low-latency inference. A qualitative evaluation using collectible Pokémon cards demonstrates accurate alignment, coherent shape generation, and responsiveness during interaction. This case study illustrates a modular architecture that can be extended to other domains involving physical artifacts and generative 3D content.
Impact of a Non-Playable Character on Player Experience and Performance in VR Games
Serious games in virtual reality are valuable tools for therapy but can feel intrusive when users lack experience with the technology or must contend with excessive hardware—particularly head-mounted displays (HMDs). Introducing social elements, such as non-player characters (NPCs), into therapeutic games may help make the experience more comfortable and less invasive for the user. In this work, we implement and evaluate the effects of an NPC within a virtual reality serious game. The developed game encourages arm movements and features a fox avatar, which offers contextual tips and accompanies the player throughout the therapy session. Data analysis revealed that, although players’ performance was modestly impaired by distraction from the NPC, nearly all participants reported that the gameplay felt more enjoyable with the character’s presence. Additionally, specialist testing highlighted positive aspects of the experience and emphasized the NPC’s potential to enhance player motivation in therapeutic contexts. These findings can inform future research aimed at designing interactions that foster a more natural rapport between player and NPC—free from time pressure—and thus enable a more immersive and comfortable therapeutic experience.
Assessing the Naturalness of Text-to-Speech Models for Brazilian Portuguese NPC Dialogue
Believable Non-Player Character (NPC) voices are critical for creating immersive experiences in Virtual Reality (VR). However, traditional voice acting is costly and lacks scalability for extensive dialogues and localization, particularly for languages like Brazilian Portuguese. While Text-to-Speech (TTS) offers a viable alternative, there is a lack of systematic evaluation of modern models’ perceptual naturalness when generating domain-specific NPC dialogues in Portuguese. This paper addresses this gap by conducting a subjective evaluation of five State-of-the-Art TTS models: XTTS, Parler TTS, F5-TTS, Fish Speech, and Orpheus. Two test sets were created by translating dialogues from the LIGHT and CHiME-6 datasets. The naturalness of the synthesized audio was assessed through a Mean Opinion Score (MOS) user study with 13 native speakers. Results indicate moderate overall naturalness (average MOS 3.29), with Parler TTS and XTTS emerging as top performers (MOS 3.53). These findings provide a benchmark for developers creating localized VR content and highlight that achieving truly expressive NPC voices remains a significant research challenge.
A Systematic Review of Virtual Reality Applications in Engineering Education: Methodologies, Assessments, and Outcomes
This systematic review investigates how Virtual Reality (VR) has been applied in engineering education, which assessment strategies are employed to measure its effectiveness, and what main outcomes have been reported. Fourteen recent studies were selected and analyzed, with findings categorized into three dimensions: learning performance, student engagement and motivation, and usability and user experience. Results indicate significant gains in academic performance, with average test-score increases ranging from 15% to 17% in VR activities. Immersive VR environments also enhanced students’ attention and involvement, as evidenced by both objective indicators (EEG data) and subjective feedback. Despite these benefits, recurrent challenges include physical discomfort, technical limitations, cognitive navigation difficulties, and a short-lived novelty effect. High infrastructure costs and the need for continuous content updates further hinder large-scale adoption. The discussion emphasizes the need to balance pedagogical advantages, operational feasibility, and sustained engagement. Future work should explore VR implementations in resource-constrained, regular classroom settings and conduct economic analyses comparing VR laboratories to traditional teaching approaches. When supported by careful instructional design, appropriate infrastructure, and engagement strategies, VR shows solid potential to enhance engineering education.
Immersive virtual environment as a learning tool for data structures and algorithms
The abstract nature of data structures and algorithms remains a challenge in computer science education. This study aims to design and develop an educational tool based on metaverse and virtual reality technologies to support the teaching and learning of data structures and algorithms. A Design Science Research methodology was adopted, involving the development of an immersive learning tool available in two formats: a virtual reality version and a metaverse version. To evaluate the tool, questionnaires were administered at two distinct moments. Initially, a group of forty students assessed the tool, focusing on the didactic effectiveness of the experience alongside a usability survey. Subsequently, a second group of eight students was surveyed to examine both usability and immersion aspects of the tool. As a result, the tool demonstrated significant gains in conceptual understanding for undergraduate students (p < 0.05), particularly with respect to stacks and queues. Usability assessments, using the System Usability Scale, yielded positive scores (80 and 75.3), suggesting ease of use. However, the Igroup Presence Questionnaire score of 2.92 indicated a lower sense of immersion, which could impact user engagement. These findings suggest that, while the tool effectively enhances conceptual understanding, interactive elements need refinement to optimize immersion and practical problem-solving transfer. The study provides an evaluated immersive tool and empirical evidence with potential implications for virtual learning environments. Future work should focus on addressing immersion gaps and improving practical application transfer to further consolidate the proposed contribution.
Learning About Geometry and Spatial Orientation in Virtual Worlds: a VR Prototype Using Voice Commands for Preschool Education
This paper presents the development and initial validation of an interactive Virtual Reality learning platform designed for preschool-aged children. The platform enables users to explore basic concepts such as geometric shapes (circle, square, rectangle, triangle), sizes (big and small), spatial positions (left, right, center, top, bottom), and rotation through simple voice commands. Spoken instructions are recognized by the system and translated into immediate visual feedback within a playful and immersive 3D environment. A qualitative evaluation was conducted with two specialists in preschool education, focusing on the clarity of voice commands, interface navigability, and the pedagogical relevance of the activities. Findings suggest that the platform aligns with typical cognitive and motor development stages of preschoolers, supporting learning in an engaging, intuitive, and developmentally appropriate manner. Beyond its educational effectiveness, the proposal contributes to digital inclusion by offering a low-barrier, voice-based interface that can be deployed in schools situated in towns away from major urban centers, where access to advanced technologies is often limited. By integrating oral language, spatial reasoning, and immersive interaction, the platform stands out as a promising tool to enhance contemporary educational practices in early childhood settings.
Heuristic Evaluation of an Affordable Mobile VR Application for K–12 Programming Education
Virtual reality (VR) has been widely studied in educational and training contexts, where it fosters immersive and interactive experiences that enhance student engagement, enable experiential learning, and allow the execution of complex, hazardous, or otherwise impractical tasks in real–world settings. This paper presents a heuristic usability evaluation of a low–cost mobile VR application, currently in use and under continuous development, designed to support K–12 students in learning computer programming concepts. The evaluation was conducted by five experts with research backgrounds in Computing Education, Educational Technology, and Virtual Reality, using a set of 12 specific heuristics tailored for VR. The goal was to identify usability issues related to interface design, interaction methods, and users’ sense of immersion and presence. A total of ten usability issues were identified, most of which were categorized as inconvenient, distracting, or annoying, with no severe problems reported. The evaluation guided targeted design improvements, including visual refinements, enhanced feedback mechanisms, and interaction adjustments. These findings demonstrate how structured heuristic evaluations can effectively support the iterative design of educational VR applications, providing practical insights for developers and researchers aiming to improve user experience, particularly in low–cost learning environments.
Development and Validation of a Web-Based Augmented Reality Platform for Educational Applications
Augmented Reality (AR) reveals itself as a promising technology for education. However, its adoption in public schools faces challenges, such as costs, technical complexity, and the lack of easy-to-use tools for teachers. This article presents EducaAR, a platform with AR Web technologies for the application of augmented books, which means it uses textbook figures as markers to display 3D models. The environment supports four different user profiles, and adapts its visualization according to the profile authenticated in the environment: while the profiles of the teacher, administrator, and developer are viewed in browsers, the student is viewed on mobile devices. The student can answer a multiple-choice questionnaire on the subject addressed in the model viewed. The teacher is able to monitor the performance of students and their access frequency. Developers are responsible for adding the models on the platform and associating them with its respective book’s figure. And the administrator has management roles in the environment. The platform was used by 31 High School students in Biology classes. The models were developed by 15 teams of three students from the Bachelor’s Degree in Software Engineering (BSE) course, who used the platform as a developer profile. In addition, an Acceptance Test was conducted with the two teachers involved in the experiment. The research follows the methodological principles of Design-Based Research (DBR), and the second cycle will be presented in this article. Data collection was conducted using three distinct instruments tailored to each participant group: students completed the MAREEA assessment, teachers responded to the System Usability Scale (SUS), and developers provided feedback through a custom five-question survey. The teachers evaluated the usability of the platform as "Excellent" in all the features tested, but suggested the inclusion of tutorials or training for teachers less familiar with technologies. The results of the analysis with the developers indicate that, in order to implement EducaAR in schools with students creating 3D models, training in simplified tools and the structuring of tasks with progressive complexity are necessary. The students positively evaluated the usability of the platform, reporting high involvement in the activities and increased curiosity for the content. Nevertheless, they showed less confidence in learning more complex concepts, which suggests the adoption of complementary didactic strategies.
Draught, Fish, and Presence: Teaching Semi-Arid Ecology with a CAVE
Brazil’s north-eastern Sertão is shaped by erratic rainfall, ephemeral streams and prolonged drought, which reveal fragile hydrological pulses that static exhibits cannot convey: the rise and fall of water levels, the transient flow of waterways or the behavioural responses of fish to flood and drought. To address this, we created "Peixes do semiárido: Nadando no Seco" ("Semiarid Fish: Swimming in the Dry"), a four-wall-plus-floor CAVE installation that immersively portrays the entire aquatic cycle of the Açude Gargalheiras reservoir and the life-history strategies of five representative species (Prochilodus brevis, Leporinus piau, Hoplias malabaricus, Oreochromis niloticus and Cichla sp.). A 250-second pre-rendered film cycles through four ecological phases (Dry Night → Rain Inundation → Flood Life → Return to Drought) while a finite-state controller synchronises spawning, burrowing and mortality behaviours. An offline rendering-to-projection pipeline bypasses the 15 fps limit of live streaming, delivering seamless 3270 × 4500 px edge-blended imagery across five surfaces. By privileging passive observation—a deliberate design choice to enhance focus on complex ecological narratives—the exhibit reduces cognitive load, fits curator-staffing constraints and fosters situated learning. Grounded in regional ichthyological research, this reproducible, low-maintenance VR framework offers small and mid-sized museums a scalable model for high-fidelity environmental education. An online visitor survey (N=38) provided strong validation for the approach’s effectiveness in engagement and conveying hydrological dynamics, though participants suggested that more explicit cues could further enhance both the experience and its pedagogical impact.
A Virtual Reality Application for the Rehabilitation of Children with Cerebral Palsy
The development of virtual environments to support rehabilitation for various diseases and special needs has gained significant attention in recent years. These environments offer numerous advantages for patients and healthcare professionals, including increased motivation and engagement among patients and the possibility of objective and personalized monitoring of the rehabilitation process for professionals. These benefits become even more relevant when the target audience is children, considering the difficulties related to concentration and understanding of the situation by such young patients, as well as the psychological and emotional burden that clinical environments often impose on minors. This paper presents the development and evaluation of an immersive VR application designed to support physical therapy in pediatric patients. Built in collaboration with physiotherapists, the system employs a “slideshow” metaphor to guide children through interactive narratives within a tropical forest environment. The solution prioritizes simplicity of use for professionals and engagement for young users while enabling therapists to observe and stimulate cervical and cognitive functions. Initial testing with children aged 3 to 17 revealed positive responses, particularly in cervical movement stimulation and interaction quality, although cognitive abilities significantly influenced engagement. The results demonstrate the potential of VR as an effective and adaptable therapeutic aid, paving the way for future expansions, allowing flexible creation of different narratives, and also targeting other diverse neuropsychomotor conditions.
Automatic Spoken-to-Sign Language Translation: A Review of Key Technologies, Limitations, and Interdisciplinary Opportunities
The communication barrier between deaf and hearing individuals remains a global challenge in academic, professional, and social contexts. Although numerous countries officially recognize their respective national sign languages, the availability of automatic, real-time, and linguistically accurate translation systems from spoken into sign languages remains limited in both coverage and quality. This paper reviews the key technologies, limitations, and interdisciplinary opportunities on computational approaches for real-time spoken-to-sign language translation. Following a systematic search of IEEE Xplore, Scopus, ACM Digital Library, and SciELO databases conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines, covering research published between 2020 and 2024, and applying predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, fifteen peer-reviewed studies were identified. The analysis of key enabling technologies, including automatic speech recognition (ASR), natural language processing (NLP), 3D avatar animation, and emerging applications in virtual reality (VR), identified major linguistic and technical challenges, such as the representation of non-manual signals, multimodal grammar processing, and the scarcity of high-quality datasets. Results revealed four dominant technological approaches: ASR–NLP pipelines, avatar-based rendering systems, VR/AR learning tools, and sensor-based gesture recognition platforms. Despite substantial advances, major limitations include low representation of non-manual signals, restricted vocabulary coverage, and high hardware dependency. The review concludes that interdisciplinary research integrating linguistics, AI, and human-computer interaction is essential for developing culturally adaptive and accessible solutions for the deaf community.
Designing VR for Wheelchair Players: Evaluation of an Inclusive VR Experience Using Wheelchair Redirect Movement
This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of an inclusive virtual reality (VR) experience tailored for wheelchair users, incorporating a Wheelchair Redirected Movement technique. The study investigates whether wheelchair users can tolerate higher movement extrapolation gains compared to walking, potentially enabling more expansive virtual environments within constrained physical spaces. A total of 42 participants tested AstroRoll, a custom VR game featuring an extrapolation gain of 2, exceeding conventional thresholds. The evaluation employed multiple assessment metrics, including the Virtual Reality Sickness Questionnaire (VRSQ), Collision Anxiety Questionnaire (CAQ), and Igroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ). Results indicated favorable spatial presence scores but also high disorientation, suggesting challenges in maintaining spatial awareness. While VRSQ scores demonstrated high tolerance of the experience, engagement metrics highlighted the need for improvements in immersion and realism. This research provides empirical validation for enhanced Redirected Walking techniques and demonstrates the feasibility of accessible VR locomotion strategies that preserve user comfort and spatial perception. These findings contribute to the development of more inclusive and engaging virtual environments for wheelchair users, expanding the possibilities for VR experiences within physically constrained settings.
Tele-Presence-as-a-Service: Smart-Glasses Streaming for Older Adults with Reduced Mobility
Telepresence technologies can help reduce social isolation among older adults. However, state-of-the-art systems still rely on expensive robots or head-worn displays, which many seniors find impractical. As a result, there is a lack of understanding regarding how lightweight consumer smart glasses could address this need. The goal of this work is to explore whether consumer smart glasses can act as a lightweight "eyes-and-ears proxy," virtually transporting older adults with mobility restrictions to meaningful outdoor environments without requiring them to wear any head-mounted device. We therefore ran a two-phase mixed-methods study. Phase 1 interviewed 11 residents of a Florida elder-care facility (64–83 y) to identify the destinations they miss, perceived benefits, and ethical concerns. Phase 2 captured first-person footage of the four most-requested sites with Ray-Ban Meta glasses and conducted a pilot livestream in which an operator walked through a public park and, across three five-minute sessions, streamed the walk to four viewers (three older adults, one middle-aged co-author) who watched on an Android phone and completed the 23-item Telepresence Walk Experience Questionnaire (TWEQ-Short). Presence, media fidelity, and adoption intent all reached the ceiling (Median = 5/5), while privacy and technical anxiety remained minimal (Median = 1/5); mean mood increased by one point on a 10-point VAS. The findings indicate that asymmetric, smart-glasses telepresence is a viable "presence-as-a-service" model that delivers meaningful, hands-free outdoor experiences with virtually no setup burden for the viewer, warranting larger-scale trials to refine session length, scene richness, and adaptive streaming.
INCLUDERE: An Immersive Experience that Transforms Perceptions of Inclusion
Building virtual environments that truly foster empathy is challenging, because designers must deliver persuasive first-person perspective-taking without reinforcing stereotypes, inducing cybersickness, or exceeding the tight thermal envelope of standalone headsets. Although many studies have proposed VR simulations that embody one specific disability—e.g. blindness, wheelchair use, or autism—no prior work, to our knowledge, chains multiple heterogeneous impairments into a single, culturally grounded narrative optimized for untethered mobile VR. INCLUDERE addresses this gap by offering a six-minute journey whose overarching goal is to let visitors inhabit, rather than merely observe, the spatial, sensory and social frictions that shape disabled life in Brazil. The experience unfolds through six metaphor-driven vignettes (autism, dwarfism, visual, motor and hearing impairments, plus an intersectional finale), each pairing a tailored interaction mechanic with stylised volumetric live-action footage that sustains real-time FPS (frames per second) on Meta Quest headsets. This paper makes three contributions. We introduce a design grammar for chaining heterogeneous disability simulations into a coherent empathic arc while mitigating cybersickness and “empathy fatigue”. We detail a content-first technical stack that blends hand-tracking and adaptive vignette masks inside the strict performance envelope of mobile VR. We report a contractor-focused qualitative evaluation—encompassing museum curators, NGO advocates and corporate sponsors—that surfaces operational constraints and ethical sensitivities rarely captured in laboratory studies. Early feedback highlights strong emotional resonance, praises the Libras–caption pairing as a concrete act of inclusivity, and calls for an optional comfort mode to reduce physical fatigue. By weaving multiple embodiments into a single, culturally resonant narrative, INCLUDERE positions VR not as spectacle but as a tool for civic reflection.
A Case Study of XR-Based Virtual Museum for Paleontology Outreach in the Brazilian Amazon
This paper presents a case study on the design and use of an XR-based virtual museum to support paleontology education and public engagement in the Brazilian Amazon. Developed with photogrammetry and immersive interaction techniques, the museum enables users to explore fossil collections typically inaccessible due to geographic and preservation constraints. Integrated into an XR extension course, the system provided students with both theoretical foundations and practical experience. The deployment culminated in a large-scale public exhibition, where students facilitated over 300 immersive sessions. Results from observations and student reflections indicate strong educational impact, skill development, and increased visibility of local scientific heritage through XR technologies.
Text-Guided 3D Object Extraction from 360° Tours: A Single-Image Pipeline for Museum Asset Generation
Currently, many museums are integrating virtual reality into their tours, offering both virtual and mixed reality experiences. This process is still in its early stages, often requiring skilled professionals and time-intensive computational techniques such as photogrammetry to generate good results. In this context, this work presents a streamlined approach that starts from a single 360° panorama and a plain-language prompt, producing a textured 3D model suitable for a VR/AR application. The workflow couples promptable segmentation with recent single-image reconstruction models, eliminating photogrammetry and manual mesh clean-up. Qualitative results on a variety of scenes show that the proposed method delivers visually convincing geometry in well under a minute on a commodity GPU, making large-scale, low-cost digitization practical for institutions of any size. By reducing both human effort and computational overhead, the proposed pipeline produces assets suitable for XR pipelines, which can enable more interactive, immersive, and rapidly updatable museum experiences.
Conversational Historical Avatars in Virtual Reality Powered by Local Large Language Models
This paper presents Avataredu, an open-source framework for creating intelligent, historically themed avatars inside virtual-reality (VR) environments. It comprehends an end-to-end architecture that combines on-device AI inference with a multiplayer VR stack (Ubiq). Our prototype instantiates an Avatar powered by a local large language model (LLM), Whisper speech-to-text, and a lightweight text-to-speech (TTS) engine, running entirely on commodity hardware. We provide a fully documented codebase, a dataset of interaction logs, and replication instructions. We conducted a quantitative cross-persona analysis (accuracy + latency) using avatars such as Marie Curie, Malala Yousafzai, and Martin Luther King Jr to validate its applicability. Our analysis revealed low error rates, with a mean of ∼ 9.3%, and that persona swap requires minimal additional computational power while maintaining answer quality. The full source code, including how to handle the Unity project files, Python backend scripts, and integration assets, is openly available at: https://github.com/Gvascons/intelligent-avatars-vr.
Accessible AR Framework for Interactive Narratives with Guided Phases
Augmented Reality (AR) technologies have been increasingly applied in educational and therapeutic contexts, yet they still face important accessibility challenges for users with cognitive impairments. This paper introduces a proposal for an accessible AR framework based on interactive narratives structured in guided phases and supported by multimodal feedback (visual, auditory, and tactile). The goal is to promote digital inclusion and autonomy for users with cognitive disabilities by delivering step-by-step instructions enhanced with narration and other sensory cues. We developed a modular architecture in Unity, integrating plane detection through ARFoundation and distinct modules for phases, audio, and feedback. The system allows therapists to customize activity sequences (narratives) tailored to individual user profiles. We discuss potential use cases in education and rehabilitation, aligning the framework with accessibility guidelines (WCAG) applied to AR. Furthermore, we compare our proposal to related works, highlighting differentiators such as integrated narration, touch-based interaction, modular phase design, and cognitive accessibility focus. Finally, expected results and an initial technical validation with specialists are described, along with future directions for broader applicability.
Recommendations for the use of virtual reality-oriented telemedicine: a systematic review
The inclusion of immersive technologies in the field of telehealth is helping to reach more patients in remote areas and to develop training, treatments and surgical techniques. This article discusses the impact reflected in the use of emerging technologies, virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR) and Metaverse, with application in telemedicine. It shows how the experiences of users, professionals and patients were relevant in validating the studies evaluated. Through a Systematic Review using the PRISMA framework, the aim was to evaluate the main contributions, challenges and limitations surrounding this modality in the health area. In the bibliographic evaluation, the study was based on the collection of data derived from PubMed, Scopus and Web Of Science, between the years 2021-2025. In this review, 22 articles were compiled to generate recommendations for the use of telemedicine in conjunction with virtual reality.
Integrating virtual reality and electroencephalography: applications, opportunities and challenges from a patents review
With the increasing availability of physiological sensors and immersive technologies, the integration of electroencephalography (EEG) and virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a promising approach for developing interactive systems that respond to users’ cognitive and emotional states. To better understand the technological directions and industrial strategies shaping this field, this work presents an exploratory search that examines patent records related to the integration of EEG and VR, to identify current applications, opportunities and challenges in this emerging field. A structured search on the Derwent Innovation platform identified 376 patents with application dates between January 2018 and December 2023, analyzed according to classification codes, geographic coverage, assignee profiles, hardware and software references, and application domains. Results indicate a strong focus on medical and cognitive monitoring applications, led by filings from the United States and China, with contributions from both academic and corporate actors. However, limited technical disclosure, reproducibility issues, and persistent challenges in signal quality and validation remain. This study complements academic literature by offering a comprehensive patent-based perspective on the state of the art, highlighting gaps and opportunities for future development.
Debriefing Tool for Immersive Analytics in Medical Training Simulations
Immersive technologies enhance training and performance evaluation in fields like medical education. By enabling detailed skill assessment through immersive analytics, Virtual reality (VR) systems also allow instructors to capture and study user interactions in simulated environments, linking theoretical metrics to real-world skill evaluations via behavioral visualization. This paper proposes a system for collecting, storing, and reconstructing user interaction data in medical VR simulations, recording hand movements, 6-DoF positioning, and object manipulation. Data is synchronized to a cloud platform, where a reconstruction process generates a real-time 'ghost avatar' replay with spatial fidelity. Instructors and trainees review sessions immersively using interactive controls to analyze procedural steps, clinical decisions, and deviations from protocol, such as incorrect instrument handling, missteps in sequence, or safety violations within the original spatial context. To validate the tool, a user experiment evaluates the impact of 3D reconstructed scenes on perceived learning and self-assessment. Participants perform predefined tasks, e.g., instrument interaction, and qualitatively compare traditional debriefing with immersive replay, reporting on comprehension and perceived improvements. Results demonstrate that spatially grounded replay enhances perceived feedback precision and can improve training effectiveness compared to conventional methods. Cloud storage ensures scalability for asynchronous review, broadening adoption in resource-constrained settings.
LLM vs. Human Driven Conversation: A User Study in Virtual Reality Medical Simulation
Virtual humans are an important area of study in human-computer interaction, where artificial intelligence-driven agents have gained prominence with the emergence of large language models (LLMs). This work explores users’ preferences in conversations produced either by a large language model or by a human in a synthesized voice conversation. To address this question, we developed a scenario within a medical learning simulator. There, the LLM and a human participant alternately simulate the role of a patient in the medical scenario while the subject user takes the role of the doctor. We conducted a user experiment with a relevant population to assess the use of AI agents in realistic training environments, focusing on user perceptions of realism, empathy, and utility. The findings suggest that LLM-based virtual patients hold strong potential for scalable clinical training, but improvements in expressiveness and interaction flow are essential for broader adoption.
Immersive Positive Psychological Interventions: a qualitative measuring in a controlled VR trial
Immersive virtual reality (VR) platforms have matured to the point where they can host evidence-based psychological interventions with high ecological validity and low logistical cost, yet few studies have examined their feasibility within routine clinical practice in Brazil. We introduce [OMMITTED DUE TO BLIND REVIEW], a suite of eight purpose-built environments grounded in the DAHLIA protocol, and report the first controlled pilot trial of the system in an outpatient setting. Thirty adults completed up to three therapist-guided VR sessions on a Meta Quest 3; eighteen of them experienced the flagship Japanese-Garden scene analyzed here. Pre-/post mood ratings, session-by-session qualitative feedback and adverse-event logs were collected. Across all exposures no moderate or severe cybersickness was recorded. Immediate affective change was uniformly neutral-to-positive, with 72% of sessions producing a shift of at least one valence category (e.g. "anxious" → "calm"). Qualitative comments became progressively more elaborate and immersive across sessions, suggesting a familiarity-driven gain in presence and engagement. The findings demonstrate that strengths-oriented VR can be delivered safely, acceptably and with preliminary mood benefits in Brazilian clinical practice. They lay the groundwork for larger randomized trials to establish long-term efficacy and optimal dosing schedules.
VR sickness analysis of long-term exposure to immersive Virtual Reality environments
Virtual Reality (VR) has advanced significantly in recent years, enabling highly immersive experiences across many domains. However, prolonged exposure to immersive VR environments can lead to VR sickness, which remains a barrier to widespread adoption. This exploratory study investigates how VR sickness symptoms evolve during long-duration immersive sessions using two different measures: the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) and the Fast Motion Sickness Scale (FMS). Seven participants were exposed to VR for up to three hours while their symptoms were periodically assessed. Visual patterns suggest three participant profiles (relentless, resilient, and withdrawers), while a Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) clustering reveals two distinct symptom progression patterns (susceptible and resistant). Furthermore, strong correlations were found between FMS and SSQ scores, and the SSQ disorientation subscale is a reasonable estimate of overall sickness for long-term sessions. These findings contribute to understanding the variability in VR sickness, highlighting the potential use of shorter assessment tools and clustering techniques to support research and design of immersive VR systems.