DataSheet4_emteqPRO—Fully Integrated Biometric Sensing Array for Non-Invasive Biomedical Research in Virtual Reality.ZIP

Virtual Reality (VR) enables the simulation of ecologically validated scenarios, which are ideal for studying behaviour in controllable conditions. Physiological measures captured in these studies provide a deeper insight into how an individual responds to a given scenario. However, the combination of the various biosensing devices presents several challenges, such as efficient time synchronisation between multiple devices, replication between participants and settings, as well as managing cumbersome setups. Additionally, important salient facial information is typically covered by the VR headset, requiring a different approach to facial muscle measurement. These challenges can restrict the use of these devices in laboratory settings. This paper describes a solution to this problem. More specifically, we introduce the emteqPRO system which provides an all-in-one solution for the collection of physiological data through a multi-sensor array built into the VR headset. EmteqPRO is a ready to use, flexible sensor platform enabling convenient, heterogenous, and multimodal emotional research in VR. It enables the capture of facial muscle activations, heart rate features, skin impedance, and movement data—important factors for the study of emotion and behaviour. The platform provides researchers with the ability to monitor data from users in real-time, in co-located and remote set-ups, and to detect activations in physiology that are linked to arousal and valence changes. The SDK (Software Development Kit), developed specifically for the Unity game engine enables easy integration of the emteqPRO features into VR environments.Code available at: (https://github.com/emteqlabs/emteqvr-unity/releases)虚拟现实（VR）技术能够模拟生态验证的情境，这些情境对于在可控条件下研究行为尤为理想。在这些研究中捕获的生理测量数据，为深入了解个体对特定情境的响应提供了更深层次的洞察。然而，多种生物传感设备的组合带来了诸多挑战，如多个设备之间的高效时间同步、参与者与设置之间的复制性，以及繁琐的设置管理。此外，由于VR头盔通常遮挡了重要的面部信息，因此面部肌肉测量的方法需要有所调整。这些挑战可能会限制这些设备在实验室环境中的应用。本文提出了解决这一问题的方案。具体而言，我们介绍了emteqPRO系统，该系统通过集成于VR头盔中的多传感器阵列，提供了一种收集生理数据的全方位解决方案。emteqPRO是一个即用型、灵活的传感器平台，它使得在VR中进行便捷、异构和多模态的情感研究成为可能。该平台能够捕捉面部肌肉激活、心率特征、皮肤阻抗和运动数据——这些是研究情感和行为的重要因素。该平台为研究人员提供了实时监控用户数据的能力，无论是在本地还是远程设置中，以及检测与唤醒和效价变化相关的生理激活。专为Unity游戏引擎开发的SDK（软件开发工具包）使得将emteqPRO功能轻松集成到VR环境中成为可能。代码可在以下链接获取：（https://github.com/emteqlabs/emteqvr-unity/releases）