IAVRS – INTERNATIONAL AFFECTIVE VIRTUAL REALITY SYSTEM: Validating 360-Degree Images for Emotions Elicitation

All human experiences revolve around emotions. However, because emotions are characterized by quick changes and individual heterogeneity, eliciting, and measuring them has proven to be one of the most challenging tasks. Virtual reality has been suggested for this study thanks to its capability to evoke a sense of presence, sharing virtual content can result not only in a more reliable replication and representative sampling but also in a strongest emotional reaction. Among virtual reality technologies, 360-degree images allow interaction with the content and experience various emotions through head movements. Since 360-degree images offer a more realistic and immersive visual experience, the primary objective of this study was to examine how they might be used as an effective medium. The goal is to evaluate the efficiency of 360-degree images in eliciting basic emotions and to build an open-access database that can be used as a research tool. For 15 seconds, 51 participants will view a series of 360-degree images and move their mouse or finger to explore the surroundings. They will be required to rate the intensity of some emotions and self-report their level of valence, arousal, dominance, and sense of presence after each image. These data for every image are shown. The findings showed that the stimuli's valence and arousal dimensions varied reasonably. A standardized 360-degree database of videos that can elicit emotions would be very helpful for research on basic emotions, emotion recognition and regulation, and human-computer interaction and for studying emotional and cognitive processes under realistic conditions.