Samenvatting

This thesis presents the design, development, and evaluation of a Mixed Reality (MR) training application aimed at identifying methods of artificially inducing stress to enhance realism in Emergency Response simulations. Emergency Responders are often in stressful scenarios and require a high stress tolerance to deal with the tense situations they encounter. A higher resilience for stress can be acquired through frequent exposure, which can be achieved through simulations.

In collaboration with SeriousXR, a training application was created that integrates various stressors, tested using Heart Rate Variability (HRV) readings and a survey. Results demonstrated that while the implemented stressors were effective, the severity of stress could not be reliably measured with HRV alone, necessitating the use of surveys. The social stressor of talking virtual humans was found to be the most effective based on survey data. It concludes that while stressors can be artificially induced into MR trainings, their effectiveness can vary significantly between trainees. For the current studies, the sample size was limited to eight participants. Therefore, it is recommended that future experiments be conducted with a larger group and fewer variable changes to better assess specific stressor efficiency on a larger scale.