Publications

2026

Design and Evaluation of a Continuous Interface for Real-time Self-reporting of VR Sickness

Plaza, M., Real, C., Serrano, A., & Gutierrez, D. .
Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

PDF DOI

@inproceedings{10.1145/3772363.3798515,
  author = {Plaza, Maria and Real, Carmen and Serrano, Ana and Gutierrez, Diego},
  title = {Design and Evaluation of a Continuous Interface for Real-time Self-reporting of VR Sickness},
  year = {2026},
  isbn = {9798400722813},
  publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  address = {New York, NY, USA},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3798515},
  doi = {10.1145/3772363.3798515},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
  articleno = {207},
  numpages = {7},
  keywords = {Virtual Reality sickness, questionnaire, continuous real-time self-report, interface, CSQ-VR, Human Centered Design},
  location = {Barcelona, Spain},
  series = {CHI EA '26},
  file = {2026_XR_MeasuringVRsickness_preprint.pdf},
  image = {research/plaza2026sickness.png}
}

Precise measurements of sickness symptoms induced during a virtual reality (VR) experience are essential for evaluating VR systems and developing designs oriented toward usability, safety and user acceptance. However, VR sickness assessment typically relies either on discrete self-report questionnaires (which lack temporal resolution, interrupt the experience, thus reducing immersion, and provide coarse snapshots of symptom evolution) or on objective signals obtained with biosensors, which typically require extensive post-processing and interpretation. To address these shortcomings, we propose a continuous interface for real-time self-reporting of VR sickness, designed following a human-centered methodology. We design and evaluate three interface prototypes that allow users to report symptom intensity while remaining fully immersed in the virtual scene. Our findings demonstrate that users significantly prefer the continuous nature of our interfaces over the discrete Likert Scales of traditional questionnaires, identifying them as a more intuitive and less cognitively demanding alternative. In addition, the study allows us to identify the most suitable design according to user-centered criteria. Our contribution is an empirically evaluated continuous interface for real-time VR sickness assessment.

2025

A Comprehensive Analysis of the Influence of Cognitive Load on Physiological Signals in Virtual Reality

Pina, J., Bernal-Berdun, E., Martin, D., Malpica, S., Real, C., Barquero, A., Armañac-Julián, P., Lazaro, J., Martín-Yebra, A., Masia, B., & Serrano, A. .
2025 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), 433–443.

PDF DOI Web

@inproceedings{11220375,
  author = {Pina, Jorge and Bernal-Berdun, Edurne and Martin, Daniel and Malpica, Sandra and Real, Carmen and Barquero, Alberto and Armañac-Julián, Pablo and Lazaro, Jesus and Martín-Yebra, Alba and Masia, Belen and Serrano, Ana},
  booktitle = {2025 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR)},
  title = {A Comprehensive Analysis of the Influence of Cognitive Load on Physiological Signals in Virtual Reality},
  year = {2025},
  volume = {},
  number = {},
  pages = {433-443},
  keywords = {Radio frequency;Visualization;Atmospheric measurements;Virtual environments;Psychology;Cognitive load;Particle measurements;Solids;Search problems;Physiology;Cognitive load;physiological signals;perception;visual search},
  doi = {10.1109/ISMAR67309.2025.00054},
  file = {ISMAR25-Biosensors-paper.pdf},
  image = {research/biosensors_thumb.png},
  project_url = {https://graphics.unizar.es/projects/CL_Biosignals/}
}

The study of cognitive load (CL) has been an active field of research across disciplines such as psychology, education, and computer graphics and visualization for decades. In the context of Virtual Reality (VR), understanding mental demand becomes particularly relevant, as immersive experiences increasingly integrate multisensory stimuli that require users to distribute their limited cognitive resources. In this work, we investigate the effects of cognitive load during a search task in VR, combining objective and subjective measurements, including physiological signals and validated questionnaires. We designed an experiment in which participants performed a visual search task under two cognitive load conditions (either alone or while responding to a concurrent auditory task) and across two visual search areas (90° and 360°). We collected a rich dataset comprising task performance, eye tracking, electrocardiogram (ECG), electrodermal activity (EDA), photoplethysmography (PPG), and inertial measurements, along with subjective assessments (NASA-TLX questionnaires). Our analysis shows that increased cognitive load hinders visual search performance and affects multiple physiological markers, offering a solid foundation for future research on cognitive load in multisensory virtual environments.