Background

Virtual reality (VR) enables the administration of realistic and dynamic stimuli within a social context for the assessment and training of emotion recognition. We tested a novel VR emotion recognition task by comparing emotion recognition across a VR, video and photo task, investigating covariates of recognition and exploring visual attention in VR.

Methods

Healthy individuals (n = 100) completed three emotion recognition tasks; a photo, video and VR task. During the VR task, emotions of virtual characters (avatars) in a VR street environment were rated, and eye-tracking was recorded in VR.

Results

Recognition accuracy in VR (overall 75%) was comparable to the photo and video task. However, there were some differences; disgust and happiness had lower accuracy rates in VR, and better accuracy was achieved for surprise and anger in VR compared to the video task. Participants spent more time identifying disgust, fear and sadness than surprise and happiness. In general, attention was directed longer to the eye and nose areas than the mouth.

Discussion

Immersive VR tasks can be used for training and assessment of emotion recognition. VR enables easily controllable avatars within environments relevant for daily life. Validated emotional expressions and tasks will be of relevance for clinical applications.

中文翻译：

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社交环境中的虚拟现实面部情绪识别：眼动追踪研究

背景

虚拟现实 (VR) 能够在社会环境中管理现实和动态的刺激，以评估和训练情绪识别。我们通过比较 VR、视频和照片任务中的情感识别、调查识别的协变量和探索 VR 中的视觉注意力来测试一种新颖的 VR 情感识别任务。

方法

健康个体（n = 100）完成了三项情绪识别任务；照片、视频和 VR 任务。在 VR 任务期间，对 VR 街道环境中的虚拟角色（化身）的情绪进行评分，并在 VR 中记录眼球追踪。

结果

VR 中的识别准确率（总体为 75%）与照片和视频任务相当。但是，存在一些差异；厌恶和快乐在 VR 中的准确率较低，与视频任务相比，VR 中的惊讶和愤怒的准确率更高。参与者花更多时间识别厌恶、恐惧和悲伤，而不是惊讶和快乐。一般来说，眼睛和鼻子区域的注意力比嘴巴要长。

讨论

沉浸式 VR 任务可用于情绪识别的训练和评估。VR 可以在与日常生活相关的环境中轻松控制化身。经过验证的情感表达和任务将与临床应用相关。