The majority of virtual reality (VR) applications rely on audiovisual stimuli and do not exploit the addition of other sensory cues that could increase the potential of VR. This systematic review surveys the existing literature on multisensory VR and the impact of haptic, olfactory, and taste cues over audiovisual VR. The goal is to identify the extent to which multisensory stimuli affect the VR experience, which stimuli are used in multisensory VR, the type of VR setups used, and the application fields covered. An analysis of the 105 studies that met the eligibility criteria revealed that 84.8 percent of the studies show a positive impact of multisensory VR experiences. Haptics is the most commonly used stimulus in multisensory VR systems (86.6 percent). Non-immersive and immersive VR setups are preferred over semi-immersive setups. Regarding the application fields, a considerable part was adopted by health professionals and science and engineering professionals. We further conclude that smell and taste are still underexplored, and they can bring significant value to VR applications. More research is recommended on how to synthesize and deliver these stimuli, which still require complex and costly apparatus be integrated into the VR experience in a controlled and straightforward manner.

中文翻译：

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多感官刺激是否有益于虚拟现实体验？系统评价

大多数虚拟现实 (VR) 应用程序依赖于视听刺激，并且不利用添加其他可能增加 VR 潜力的感官线索。本系统综述调查了有关多感官 VR 的现有文献，以及触觉、嗅觉和味觉线索对视听 VR 的影响。目标是确定多感官刺激对 VR 体验的影响程度、多感官 VR 中使用的刺激、使用的 VR 设置类型以及所涵盖的应用领域。对符合资格标准的 105 项研究的分析表明，84.8% 的研究显示多感官 VR 体验的积极影响。触觉是多感官 VR 系统中最常用的刺激（86.6%）。非沉浸式和沉浸式 VR 设置优于半沉浸式设置。在应用领域，相当一部分被卫生专业人员和科学和工程专业人员采用。我们进一步得出结论，气味和味道仍未得到充分开发，它们可以为 VR 应用带来重大价值。建议对如何合成和传递这些刺激进行更多研究，这仍然需要以受控和直接的方式将复杂且昂贵的设备集成到 VR 体验中。