Analysis of brain activity and response during monoscopic and stereoscopic visualization

Stereoscopic visualization in cinematography and Virtual Reality (VR) creates an illusion of depth by means of two bidimensional images corresponding to different views of a scene. This perceptual trick is used to enhance the emotional response and the sense of presence and immersivity of the observers. An interesting question is if and how it is possible to measure and analyze the level of emotional involvement and attention of the observers during a stereoscopic visualization of a movie or of a virtual environment. The research aims represent a challenge, due to the large number of sensorial, physiological and cognitive stimuli involved. In this paper we begin this research by analyzing possible differences in the brain activity of subjects during the viewing of monoscopic or stereoscopic contents. To this aim, we have performed some preliminary experiments collecting electroencephalographic (EEG) data of a group of users using a Brain- Computer Interface (BCI) during the viewing of stereoscopic and monoscopic short movies in a VR immersive installation.