The focus is on the development of realistic, virtual scenarios for a wide range of behaviour-related research areas, taking into account current technical developments such as mass-compatible hardware - also in the multi-user area.

Previous developments of the working group include the following areas:

• Fear research - research into psychophysiological fear reactions in a virtual thunderstorm (in cooperation with the Chair of Physiological and Clinical Psychology / Psychotherapy at the Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald)
• Civil protection and safety research - perception and effects of storm-related warnings in a virtual environment
• Prevention research - dealing with dangerous situations in a virtual household

The following technical objectives are also being pursued across all areas:

• Improvement of natural movements and tracking in virtual space
• Photo and hyper-realistic object representation
• Multi-user synchronisation of avatars in the network

Tomczyk, S., Rahn, M., Markwart, H., & Schmidt, S. (2021). A Walk in the Park? Examining the Impact of App-Based Weather Warnings on Affective Reactions and the Search for Information in a Virtual City. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(16), 8353. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168353