ABSTRACT
This paper describes a methodology to evaluate the postural and interaction behaviors, which was applied in a study involving Virtual Reality, with the intent to relate the postural responses (real world) with actions inside the virtual environment (VE). Twenty-four subjects, seated and using an immersive VR system, were asked to interact with a virtual indoor environment in order to accomplish predefined tasks. The simulation was composed by two scenarios (Pre-emergency and Emergency egress). In the "Pre-emergency" scenario there were instructions inside the VE that subjects had to follow. In the "Emergency egress", subjects were exposed to an explosion, followed by a fire and should leave the virtual building as soon as possible. The methodology allowed collecting necessary data to obtain results regarding to the analysis of the individuals postural responses during an interaction with immersive VR system. These objective measures can be an useful contribute when associated to subjective measures to study sense of presence. The findings indicate that women have more postural responses changes, in while interacting with the VR, than man. The postural responses for the head did not reflect the participant's behaviors into the virtual environment.
