Dar Sanobar, Ekart Aniko, Bernardet Ulysses
College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jan 9;15(1):1536. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-82886-7.
Breathing exercises are used to address a multitude of issues ranging from mental health to physical well-being. While they are recommended for various health conditions, access to professional support is often limited due to time and cost constraints. Virtual Reality technology offers a promising solution for enhancing mindfulness and relaxation practices, including breathing exercises. In our study, we explored the effectiveness of a computer-generated "virtual breathing coach". Our virtual coach has a human appearance, speaks in a human voice, and displays breathing physiology while guiding the participants through a set of breathing exercises of different cycle lengths. The agent exhibits breathing behaviour with the aim of augmenting the influence the agent exerts through the mechanisms of physiological entrainment known from human-to-human interaction. Our empirical, exploratory study with 20 participants, was conducted using non-immersive VR where the system ran on a web browser. On the one hand, we investigated the perception of the virtual human coach, and on the other hand, we evaluated the usability, acceptability, and adherence of the system. We also evaluated the role of realism in acceptance of and adherence to the virtual coach. Participants' responses were recorded using questionnaires. Participants were influenced by the virtual coach and adhered to it if they perceived the virtual coach as more realistic. The participants reported that the system ran well, and they would be willing to continue using the system in the future. Although the virtual human-to-human interaction experience provided by our system is not on par with the naturalistic human-to-human interaction, the results indicate that people are willing to replace a real human coach with a virtual coach. Systems like this are a step towards improving the affordability and on-demand access to another human, such as a coach in our system, especially where access and affordability are limited such as in healthcare. The qualities such as trust and likeability in an embodied interaction can make this interaction more efficient and effective.
呼吸练习被用于解决从心理健康到身体健康的众多问题。虽然它们被推荐用于各种健康状况，但由于时间和成本限制，获得专业支持往往有限。虚拟现实技术为增强正念和放松练习（包括呼吸练习）提供了一个有前景的解决方案。在我们的研究中，我们探索了计算机生成的“虚拟呼吸教练”的有效性。我们的虚拟教练具有人类外观，用人类声音说话，并在指导参与者进行一组不同周期长度的呼吸练习时展示呼吸生理过程。该智能体表现出呼吸行为，目的是增强其通过人际互动中已知的生理同步机制所施加的影响。我们对20名参与者进行的实证探索性研究是使用非沉浸式虚拟现实进行的，系统在网络浏览器上运行。一方面，我们调查了对虚拟人类教练的感知，另一方面，我们评估了系统的可用性、可接受性和依从性。我们还评估了逼真度在对虚拟教练的接受和依从方面的作用。参与者的回答通过问卷进行记录。如果参与者认为虚拟教练更逼真，他们就会受到其影响并依从它。参与者报告说系统运行良好，他们愿意在未来继续使用该系统。虽然我们的系统提供的虚拟人际互动体验与自然主义的人际互动不相上下，但结果表明人们愿意用虚拟教练取代真正的人类教练。这样的系统是朝着提高可承受性和按需获得另一个人（如我们系统中的教练）的服务迈进的一步，特别是在诸如医疗保健等可及性和可承受性有限的领域。具身互动中的信任和亲和力等特质可以使这种互动更高效、更有效。
