VR unseen gaze: inducing feeling of being stared at in virtual reality

The main aim of this paper is to investigate a method that can induce a VR user’s feeling of being stared at. Contrary to the previous method that directly informs users of unseen gaze with a voice and subtitles, the proposed method provides an indirect subtle stimulus to induce a feeling that they are being watched. Our study began with the observations reported by the previous studies that the feeling of being stared at appears to be highly correlated with hypervigilance, anxiety, and fear of ambient information around people. To clarify this further, we additionally conducted an online survey. Based on the results of the previous studies and our online survey, we defined two types of factors that may effectively induce the user to feel that they are watched: environmental factors (darkness, absence/presence of people, reddish color palette, and suspenseful background music) and stimulative factors (subtle changes in vision, subtle changes in sound, and feeling in the back of the neck). Afterward, two experiments were conducted for in-depth investigation of environmental and stimulative factors, respectively. The purpose was to find out what kinds of factors should be provided at what strength to induce the user’s feeling of being watched among the defined factors. Lastly, an application test was performed to not only clarify the advantages and limitations of the proposed method but also propose design guidelines for future use. We expect that our study will serve as a cornerstone for providing a new type of VR experience that the feeling of being watched.