Generative AI for Personalized Multisensory Immersive Experiences: Challenges and Opportunities for Stress Reduction

Stress management and relaxation are critical areas of interest in mental health and well-being. Forest bathing is a practice that has been shown to have a positive effect on reducing stress by stimulating all the senses in an immersive nature experience. Since access to nature is not universally available to everyone, virtual reality has emerged as a promising tool to simulate this type of experience. Furthermore, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools offer new opportunities to create highly personalized and immersive experiences that can enhance relaxation and reduce stress. This study explores the potential of personalized multisensory VR environments, designed using GenAI tools, to optimize relaxation and stress relief via two experiments that are currently underway. The first evaluates the effectiveness of non-personalized versus personalized VR scenes generated using AI tools to promote increased relaxation. The second explores the potential benefits of providing the user with additional personalization tools, from adding new virtual elements to the AI-generated scene, to adding AI-generated sounds and scent/haptics customization. Ultimately, this research aims to identify which customizable elements may lead to improved therapeutic benefits for multisensory VR experiences.