You will be shown a 360-degree video (app. 7 minutes) concerning everyday encounters and life in an urban area. The video has been filmed in Ylä-Malmintori in the Malmi area in Helsinki. You can freely observe things around you, but you cannot move in the environment or interact with people.
In the video, you are seated on a bench, spending the day there or perhaps you could be
waiting for someone. While watching the video, feel free to concentrate on whatever you want. You can watch around and explore what goes on around you. In the end, we will ask you questions about the environment and the situations that you observed in the video. You do not need to memorise anything, but you can freely focus on things that you find important or interesting from your own perspective.
Participation will take approximately two hours.
How is the data collected?
To view the video, you will be wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset. Information on affective responses is collected through facial EMG, ECG and EDA that give the researchers information about the activation of your facial expressions, changes in your heartrate and electrodermal activity of your skin.
To collect the data, you are asked to wear a set of sensors on your face and upper body. For the facial EMG, you will wear 5 electrodes, for the ECG 4 electrodes and for EDA 2 electrodes. You can see the location of the electrodes from the pictures:
Attaching the sensors will require that the researcher touches you. You are reserved the possibility to attach the sensors by yourself according to the instructions that the researcher gives. In addition, the HTC Vive Pro eye VR headset that you wear to view the video will give us information about your eye and head movement.
After viewing the 360-degree video, you will be asked to complete a survey and be interviewed. This part of the research will focus on what you found meaningful, and your own thoughts on the events. The survey form will also contain some background questions.
Possible discomfort
You may experience dizziness when watching the video with the headset. To decrease the risk for this, you will view the video while seated. It is possible that the equipment used for measuring does not feel comfortable on the skin. If you experience discomfort, it will pass soon after the headset and the measuring equipment are taken off. We ask you to notify the researcher if you feel significant discomfort or experience unpleasant feelings during the immersive experience.
Unexpected findings
This research is not a medical test. However, the test results (ECG, electrocardiogram) may contain unexpected findings that regard your health. In such cases, the research team will consult a medical expert. If you wish, you will be notified of such findings.
Confidentiality
All data and information that we get from you, is strictly confidential. Your identity is not known to anyone outside the research team. Your name or personal details are kept separately from the data gathered through measuring. You cannot be identified from this research.
We will only collect data that is necessary for purposes of this research. The data will not be shared with third parties, and it will be stored in a secure server maintained by the Tampere University. After the completion of the research the data will be archived fully anonymized in Zenodo that is an EU- funded, non-commercial data archive. In this way, the data collected will be available for the research community.
A data protection officer has been appointed to the project. You can ask them questions concerning data security by writing them an email: dpo@tuni.fi
Participation is voluntary
You can participate to research but you do not have to. You can also withdraw your consent any time either in spoken or written form and I do not have to explain why. Withdrawing your consent will not have any negative repercussions. If you withdraw, all
unpublished data will be destroyed.
Do you have questions?
If you have any questions at any point, you can call or write an email to Ruhoollah Akhundzadeh (ruhoollah.akhundzadeh@tuni.fi) or Johanna Hokka (johanna.hokka@tuni.fi).
The project leader Eeva Puumala can be contacted on any aspect that concerns this research. You can also ask them what personal data has been collected and stored on you.