Digital Forest Bathing

A rapidly growing body of research shows that spending time in a forest environment, also known as forest bathing or shinrin-yoku (森林浴), benefits health and well-being. Several systematic reviews based on dozens of studies have reported that forest bathing improves psychophysical stress.

Unfortunately, there are groups of people who are unable to visit on their own. Many people suffer from physical or cognitive disabilities limiting their free mobility and the elderly population can often feel unfit to travel far or take a walk on uneven ground. Moreover, accessing the forest can be a challenge even for physically fit people. Modern urbanization created places cut away from nature by the city sprawls from which the travel to an uncorrupted natural space can take a few hours.

Also studying forest bathing using traditional methods is complicated, limited by forest availibility, weather or cultural aspects. We still do not know which forest structures or compositions lead to best results. This project uses virtual reality top study effects of forest bathing in a controlled environment. We are creating a digital twin of a forest and we are testing its effects on the participants. We are also studying the effects of different forest compositions and structures on the participants.