Adapting to the User: A Systematic Review of Personalized Interaction in VR

Abstract: As virtual reality (VR) systems become increasingly more advanced, they are likewise expected to respond intelligently and adapt to individual user states, abilities, and preferences. Recent work has explored how VR can be adapted and tailored to individual users. However, existing reviews tend to address either user-state sensing or adaptive interaction design in isolation, limiting our understanding of their combined implementation in VR. Therefore, in this paper, we examine the growing research on personalized interaction in VR, with a particular focus on utilizing participants' immersion information and adaptation mechanisms to modify virtual environments and enhance engagement, performance, or a specific goal. We synthesize findings from studies that employ adaptive techniques across diverse application domains and summarize a five-stage conceptual framework that unifies adaptive mechanisms across domains. Our analysis reveals emerging trends, including the integration of multimodal sensors, an increasing reliance on user state inference, and the challenge of balancing responsiveness with transparency. We conclude by proposing future directions for developing more user-centered VR systems.