Agency and Virtual Body Ownership of a Virtual Bat´s Avatar in VR

Andreasen, Anastassia

4. term

Medialogy, Master

2016

2016-06-01

206 pages

VR bringer en realistisk oplevelse til brugerne. Virtuel embodiment blev løbende udforsket og øget for realismen i VR. Agency og virtual krop ejerskab har været undersøgt med en brug af en flagermus form for at skabe en troværdig virtuelle kroppens oplevelse. Det første forsøg omfattede en accept af flagermusens virtuelle krop med en brug ad visuel-taktile feedback. Den anden forsøg undersøgte både lemmer bevægelser og bruge af lemme bevægelser til navigation via virtuelle miljøet. Begge undersøgelser viste signifikant forskel mellem betingelserne. Fraværelse af taktile input i det første eksperiment brød virtuelle krop ejerskabets illusion. Derudover observerer man at passive bevægelser og fraværelse af proprioceptive feedback berøvet test personer fra en stabil virtuelle kroppen ejerskabs dannelse. Det andet eksperiment viste, at der er en lineær sammenhæng mellem agency og virtuel krop ejerskab. Den højere agency var den højere virtuelle krop ejerskab blev, som kunne indikere, at agency former krops ejerskab i VR. Asynkron bevægelses mapping, brugt i eksperimentet, skabte en illusion af bevægelser, der var synkrone. Observationer har også demonstrerede, hvor vigtigt det var at vise en virtuel krop til test personer.

VR brings realistic experiences to the users. To enhance realism problems of virtual embodiment has been continuously studied. In order to investigate the potential factors for achieving the illusion of morphologically different from human shape body there has been experimented with agency and body ownership in virtual reality. First experiment included the acceptance of the bat´s virtual body differences using only visuotactile feedback. The second one studied both limbs movement and the movement through the environment. Both studies showed significant difference between the conditions. Absence of tactile input in the first experiment was breaking the illusion of VBO. Furthermore observations showed that passive movement (movement of the virtual bat on the screen, when test subjects were not moved in physical reality) and absence of proprioceptive feedback deprived test subjects from relating to virtual body as their own. The second experiment proved that there is a linear relationship between agency and virtual body ownership. The higher agency was the higher virtual body ownership became, which might indicate that agency structures body ownership in VR. Asynchronous mapping used for controlled movements produced the illusion that actions were synchronous. The last finding was that it is important to see virtual body present in the scene when non-human avatar is used.

VR ; Virtual Body Ownership ; Agency ; Virtual Embodiment ; Controlled Movements ; Uncontrolled Movements

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