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Exploring Environmental Cues and Coffee Taste Perception in Virtual Reality

In the current era of technological advancement and digital tools, the utilization of virtual reality (VR) is rapidly expanding across diverse industries. This study investigates how immersion in VR environments, simulating stressful and relaxing real-life scenarios, influences people's perception of coffee taste and explores the impact of immersive VR experiences on individuals' overall interpretation of coffee as a beverage. With 36 participants, two VR settings, a serene forest cottage and a stressful police office, were tested and completed with customized sounds to enhance the user experience. This study used Unity 3D software and an HTC Vive Pro headset in the Immersive Technology Laboratory at the University of York.

After experiencing each environment, participants were asked to rate the intensity of five attributes of the coffee taste, including sweetness, bitterness, acidity, body/richness, and aftertaste. Significant differences were observed in sweetness (Cottage perceived as sweeter), bitterness (Police Office perceived as more bitter), acidity (Police Office perceived as higher in acidity), and aftertaste (Police Office with a more intense aftertaste), with no significant difference in body/richness. These findings shed light on how environmental cues influence taste perception and provide insights for sensory research and product design.

The research also examines participants' experiences, including emotional states, level of immersion, and perceived realism in VR environments. The analysis reveals consistent emotional responses and immersion levels in both VR settings, with slight variations in perceived realism. These findings significantly affect human-computer interaction, psychology, engineering, and all new technology fields. It improves our understanding of how VR impacts perceptions and emotions and guides the development of more effective VR experiences.

Environment Design and Technical Setup

The experiment involved creating two distinct virtual reality environments using Unity 3D software.

The first environment was a peaceful interior of a wooden cottage, designed to induce relaxation and peace among participants. It featured details like falling snow, a fireplace, wooden furniture, and calming sounds like descending snowflakes and a crackling fire.

In contrast, the second environment was a high-stress office environment in a police department integrated with a jail space. It aimed to stimulate stress and anxiety with dim lighting, chaotic ambiance, and unsettling audio including cries of children, sounds of altercations, shattering glass, and constant background noises like scanners and typing.

The experiment utilized the HTC Vive Pro headset for precise control, allowing researchers to measure participants' responses to each environment effectively.

Experimental Procedure

The study occurred at the Immersion Tech Laboratory at the University of York. Before each experiment, participants were briefed on the study and provided demographic information via a questionnaire. They drank water. Then, they were immersed in one environment while holding a cup of coffee, allowing them to move around freely.

After each environment, participants completed a questionnaire on the taste of coffee, drank water again, and repeated the process for the second environment. Finally, a third questionnaire gathered data on taste perception and overall experiences. The entire session lasted approximately 15-20 minutes per participant.

Results

In conclusion, this research investigated the interaction of individuals with VR environmental cues and their impact on mood states and coffee taste perception within virtual reality. This study aligns with prior research and explores the effects of different environments (a wooden forest cottage and a police office in a police department).

These analyses are performed using the Python language, which generates combined box plots with scattered points. Analysis revealed statistically significant differences in taste attributes, including sweetness, bitterness, acidity, and aftertaste, between the two VR environments. These findings offer valuable insights into understanding how individuals perceive taste attributes across different environments.

Furthermore, the combined analyses and visual representations highlight participants' consistent emotional responses across both the police office and cottage environments, along with similar levels of immersion and perceptions of realism. These findings support the idea that both VR environments evoke similar emotional and immersive experiences, with slight differences in perceived realism.

Such insights are relevant for fields like psychology, industry, and emerging technologies, providing a deeper understanding of how VR environments shape individuals' perceptions and emotions. These results pave the way for crafting more precise and impactful VR experiences across various applications.