Journal paper accepted to LEUKOS

This paper presents a novel experimental method, developed through the PhD work of Kynthia Chamilothori (LIPID), that uses a virtual reality (VR) headset and aims to provide an alternative environment for the conduction of subjective assessments of daylit spaces. The adequacy of the proposed method was investigated through subjective experiments which compared users’ perceptions of a real daylit environment and its equivalent representation in VR, and tested the effect of the display method on the participants’ perceptual evaluations, reported physical symptoms, and perceived presence in the virtual space. The results indicate a high level of perceptual accuracy and perceived presence in the virtual environment, and no significant effects of using the VR headset on the user’s physical symptoms. Following these findings, the presented experimental method in VR seems very promising for use as a surrogate to real environments in investigating the perception in daylit spaces.

The accepted version of this article can be found online at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15502724.2017.1404918