Analysis of Food Preferences and Emotional Responses in a Virtual Environment: A Preliminary Study

In the last years, Virtual Reality (VR) has become a valuable tool to explore foods' preferences in a controlled and measurable environment. In addition, the integration with physiological signals can allow to measure the emotional response to the foods with which the subject interacts. Thus, the purpose of this study is to present a system that integrates a virtual environment, presented with a headset, with wearables sensors for measuring electrocardiogram (ECG) and galvanic skin response (GSR). The virtual environment resembles a kitchen, enabling the subject to interact with a comfortable scenario. Different foods were placed on the virtual table to allow the user freely exploring them. Physiological signals are continuously monitored during the interaction. The analysis of the data allowed to quantify how many times and how long the subject interacts with each food. Preliminarily, an increase of the arousal for certain foods was detected. The data collected with this system could allow to explore food preferences in particular in elderly subjects.