[DC] Psychophysical Effects of Augmented Reality Experiences

My Ph.D. research aims to explore to which extent Augmented Reality (AR) experiences can evoke measurable physiological, psychological, and neurological responses in the user's body. During the first year of my Ph.D. studies, we have developed an AR experience that enables users to see and hear their own hands burning while looking through a Video See-Through Head-Mounted Display (VST-HMD).In a pilot study, half of the participants reported a heat-sensation on the affected left hand. All participants experienced a significant increase in skin conductance during the experiment. Moreover, participants who experienced a heat sensation had a higher skin conductance response. In a follow up study, we could show that this experience also influences the micro-circulatory blood flow of the hand on some participants.Our research continues on this with several planned follow-up experiments, to explore more deeply how AR experience can have measurable effects on the user's body and mental state. This allows deeper insights into the perceptual and cognitive effects unique to AR experiences. Insights from our experiment may be of significance in a neuroscientific or medical context.