Smells Like Fire: Exploring the Impact of Olfactory Cues in VR Wildfire Evacuation Training
This pilot study addresses wildfire evacuation training for at-risk communities, but it is incremental as it explores a specific sensory cue in an existing VR framework.
The study investigated whether adding a smoke scent to a VR wildfire evacuation training game increases immersion and preparedness, finding that participants exposed to the scent reported significantly higher immersion and all participants felt more prepared for real evacuations.
This paper presents a pilot study exploring the effects of an olfactory stimulus (smoke) for a Virtual Reality game designed to support wildfire evacuation preparedness. Participants (N=18) were split evenly into either a smoke or a control condition, and both completed the same evacuation task. Post-task surveys assessed the participants' perceived preparedness and overall experience. Initial findings suggest participants in the smoke condition reported significantly higher immersion compared to those in the control condition. Across both groups, participants expressed an increased sense of preparedness for real-world wildfire evacuations following the experience.