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Conference Paper
A Novel HMD-Mounted Contactless Proxi-rPPG Sensor for Emotion Recognition in Free-Moving VR Environments
- Authors
- Heesook Shin, Yongho Lee, Seoyeon Lim, Seung Hyun Song, Suh-Yeon Dong, Youn-Hee Gil
- Issue Date
- 2025-10
- Citation
- International Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp) 2025, pp.1-5
- Language
- English
- Type
- Conference Paper
- Abstract
- In this paper, we propose Proxi-rPPG - a contactless remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) sensor mounted on a head-mounted display (HMD) - to reliably obtain heart rate data in a virtual reality (VR) environment where users can move freely. We also develop and evaluate an emotion-recognition model using the Proxi-rPPG approach. Specifically, we attach a small camera module to the outside of an HMD to capture the user's cheek-ear region at close range, then extract heart rate and heart rate variability via an rPPG algorithm. While traditional reflective PPG requires precise skin contact - and wrist-worn sensors can be highly susceptible to noise from arm movements - conventional rPPG methods also face limitations imposed by user motion. Proxi-rPPG addresses these drawbacks and demonstrates its potential to quantify emotional changes arising from VR content experiences. In a user study with 20 participants, we compared waveform data from the Proxi-rPPG sensor to that of a reflective wrist-PPG device. We found that the Proxi-rPPG approach yielded a lower noise ratio than the wrist sensor in dynamic VR conditions. It also achieved 65 % accuracy in a four-quadrant emotion classification task (High/Low Arousal × Positive/Negative Valence) using a machine-learning model. These findings suggest that Proxi-rPPG can be effectively applied to various domains, including emotion monitoring in VR.
- KSP Keywords
- Arm movement, Classification task, Close range, Emotion Recognition, Four-quadrant, Free-moving, Head mounted displays(HMD), Heart rate data, Recognition model, Remote photoplethysmography, Small Camera
This work is distributed under the term of Creative Commons License (CCL)
(CC BY)
(CC BY)
