Restorative Effects of Haptic and Visual Sensory Supplementation of Nature Sounds in VR of Nature for Deaf people

Project Information

ReSens-Nature

Grant agreement ID: 101152308

DOI

10.3030/101152308

Project terminated on 25 July 2025

EC signature date 2 April 2024

Start date 2 September 2024

End date 1 September 2026

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 148 488,00

Coordinated by

TECHNOLOGIKO PANEPISTIMIO KYPROU
Cyprus

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ReSens-Nature (Restorative Effects of Haptic and Visual Sensory Supplementation of Nature Sounds in VR of Nature for Deaf people)

Reporting period: 2024-09-02 to 2026-09-01

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Context of the project
Exposure to nature and Virtual Reality (VR) nature can relieve from stress and promote relaxation. It is argued that it is the combination of visual and auditory exposure to these VR environments and their sounds that promotes restorative effects for hearing people. This means that Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (HoH) people may be excluded from receiving similar restorative benefits as their hearing peers. At the same time, there is evidence of cross-modal transfer in HoH people, where speech and sounds can be perceived and understood through vibrations on the skin or localised via visual cues in VR technologies.
Through the ‘ReSens-Nature’ project, the Fellow aimed to develop a VR experience to examine the restorative effects of vibrotactile and visual sensory supplementation of nature sounds in VR nature environments for Deaf/ HoH people.

Overall objectives of the project
The project objectives were to (1) Develop and establish the usability of a novel VR nature environment that uses vibrotactile and visual supplementation of nature sounds, and (2) Examine whether this novel VR nature environment is providing restorative benefits to Deaf/ Hard-of-Hearing people. Understanding the effects of sensory supplementation for Deaf/ HoH in VR nature environments could help make VR and other technologies more inclusive for Deaf/ HoH people and people with other disabilities.

Project conclusions
The project had to be terminated early (after two active months) as the Fellow received another grant in a more senior role. The Fellow has performed all tasks and objectives that were planned for the two active months of the project, but the short project duration means no effective conclusions were drawn as the research studies did not have time to be implemented.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

All planned activities for the two-month duration of the project were achieved. The Fellow has performed preparatory work that would have contributed towards achieving the objectives should the project have continued. In brief, the activities the Fellow performed included: developing the analysis and study designs, was in the process of developing the ethics application, receiving offers for the required equipment, (i.e. the vibrotactile wristband, and bio-pack devices), defining the VR specs with fellow lab members and the Supervisor, meetings with the Supervisor to agree on budget plan and project timetable, meetings with external stakeholders to facilitate recruitment, and familiarizing himself with the internal processes of the host. No relevant achievements were reached, for the same reasons explained previously.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Not applicable: No relevant results or impacts were produced (based on the definitions of impacts and results for Horizon Europe MSCA-PF Programme), as the project duration was two months and the research studies did not have time to commence.