Validation of the Framework and IVR

The use of Virtual Reality to enhance Building Occupant Research is emerging, but validation studies comparing Real and Virtual Environments (RE, IVE) are still limited. This chapter presents an important contribution providing guidelines to answer the validity issue and describing a step-by-step procedure to organize experimental validity studies from the setup of the Real Environment and test room, going through the workflow for the generation of the virtual model at the base empirical studies and the organization of data collection methods suitable to investigate the dependent variables in both the VE and the real counterpart. The overall process necessary to compare the environments and validate Virtual Reality is presented. Results of an illustrative office room example demonstrated the successful validation of the experimental framework and Virtual Reality as a suitable research design tool. The Ecological Validity of Virtual Reality confirms the possibility of achieving an excellent sense of presence and immersivity and low cybersickness disorders in the presence of an effective and realistic Virtual Environment. The absence of significant differences in dependent variables supports the Criterion Validity highlighting the potential of applying Virtual Reality to detect consistent individuals’ responses and supporting a user-centred design and multi-domain investigations.