The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) VR simulation is part of a VR wearables validation pipeline regarding stress measurment. The project is part of a collaboration between the BMS Lab of the University of Twente and the Stress in Action Consortium. This project has been developed as part of my employment at the BMS Lab.
This scenario is based on the established TSST protocol and contains multiple sub-scenarios. First, the user is placed in a neutral room. After an introduction from a lab assistant avatar, the user gets 5 minutes of preperation for job interview. Then they are facing three avatars which make up the judges. The user is instructed to present themselves by talking about their strengths and weaknesses, similar to a job interview. The animated judges intentionally stay neutral. While this is a VR experience, the researcher who is controlling the experience has the option to trigger various voice lines of the judge in the middle.
The next sub-scenario is a math task in which the user is instructed to count backwards from a large number. Again the researcher is able to trigger specific voice lines by the judge and they also see the correct numbers on the screen. At the end the user is transported to a neutral grid environment where they are able to assess their stress level.
For this project I have implemented a Unity SDK by BIOPAC to connect to their streass measurement sensor system. Automatic scenario event markers are sent to the BIOPAC software in realtime to create stress data that can put into context with the events of the application flow.
At this point in time the project is still in development. Provided screenshots are showing in-development stage and visuals are prone to change.
