The BRIEL – Behavioral Research in Immersive Environment Laboratory is a space dedicated to multimodal and multi-method behavioural research. It focuses on the interaction between individuals, and between individuals and digital and virtual technologies. The focus is on organisational behaviour, learning processes, content use, and office work environments.

BRIEL conducts studies with a high experimental ecology using advanced tools for the analysis of biometrics and emotional responses, integrating innovative quantitative methodologies with established qualitative approaches. Examples of this include the use of focus group spaces and reconfigurable environments to simulate life and work experiences.

Located within the PoliHub on the Politecnico Bovisa campus, the laboratory has four workstations that can be used simultaneously to involve up to four participants. These participants can be exposed to the same stimulus or interact with each other in experimental activities on team management or leadership, for example.

Each workstation is equipped with:

• A high-resolution wireless EEG headset for non-invasive brain waves detection;
• A biometric wristband to measure heart rate and skin conductance (sweating);
• Eye-tracking glasses in portable and desktop/TV versions for analysing eye movement.

The equipment is completed by:

• Software for emotional facial expressions recognition coupled with micro-expressions detection and emotional voice analyses
• An audio-visual system enabling to record focus-groups and/or interviews realized both in person and in remote contexts
• The most advanced Head-mounted display (HMD) for Virtual Reality (VR) with integrated eye-tracking for immersive virtual, augmented and mixed reality experiences.

These technologies enable the lab to explore in depth peoples’ experience exposed to digital immersive solutions, and their behavioral responses both in real-world contexts (shops, supermarkets, company offices, etc.) and lab contexts within experimental controlled environments.