Distress detection in VR environment using empatica E4 wristband and bittium faros 360

Medarević, Jelena (author), Miljković, Nadica (author), Stojmenova Pečečnik, Kristina (author), Sodnik, Jaka (author)

Introduction: Distress detection in virtual reality systems offers a wealth of opportunities to improve user experiences and enhance therapeutic practices by catering to individual physiological and emotional states. Methods: This study evaluates the performance of two wearable devices, the Empatica E4 wristband and the Faros 360, in detecting distress in a motion-controlled interactive virtual reality environment. Subjects were exposed to a baseline measurement and two VR scenes, one non-interactive and one interactive, involving problem-solving and distractors. Heart rate measurements from both devices, including mean heart rate, root mean square of successive differences, and subject-specific thresholds, were utilized to explore distress intensity and frequency. Results: Both the Faros and E4 sensors adequately captured physiological signals, with Faros demonstrating a higher signal-to-noise ratio and consistency. While correlation coefficients were moderately positive between Faros and E4 data, indicating a linear relationship, small mean absolute error and root mean square error values suggested good agreement in measuring heart rate. Analysis of distress occurrence during the interactive scene revealed that both devices detect more high- and medium-level distress occurrences compared to the non-interactive scene.

• Language: English
• Keywords: detekcija stresa, virtualno okolje, fiziologija, Empatica E4, Bittium Faros 360
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FE - Faculty of Electrical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 17 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 16, art. 1480018
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-169925
• UDC: 004.946
• ISSN on article: 1664-042X
• DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1480018
• COBISS.SI-ID: 228088835
• Publication date in RUL: 17.06.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Frontiers in physiology
• Shortened title: Front. physiol.
• Publisher: Frontiers Research Foundation
• ISSN: 1664-042X
• COBISS.SI-ID: 1218939

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: stress detection, virtual environment, physiology, Empatica E4, Bittium Faros 360

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P2-0246
• Name: ICT4QoL - Informacijsko komunikacijske tehnologije za kakovostno življenje

• Funder: MESTD - Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Republic of Serbia
• Project number: 451-03-68/2022-14/200103
• Name: -