A sensate communication environment: Development and evaluation of an ICT based nature soaking system

Abstract

We developed an ICT based nature soaking system as one of sensate communication environments and evaluated its effectiveness on relaxation, refreshment, and cognitive recovery in terms of following three aspects: ambient sensation vs. watching a nature video, having past experience or not, and stimuli quasi-liveness vs. archives. Measurements employed in two experiments were questionnaires about subjective comfort, physiological stress indexes (LF/HF), and cognitive achievement (creativity or association test). The results showed that ambient sensation had influences on all the three measurements. The effects appeared in several minutes soaking. Having past experience and quasi-liveness were effective only on subjective comfort. This study implies that sensate communication is promising for psychological and physiological relaxation and recovery.