Impact of Information Placement and User Representations in VR on Performance and Embodiment

Abstract

Human sensory processing is sensitive to the proximity of stimuli to the body. It is therefore plausible that these perceptual mechanisms also modulate the detectability of content in VR, depending on its location. We evaluate this in a user study and further explore the impact of the user's representation during interaction. We also analyze how embodiment and motor performance are influenced by these factors. In a dual-task paradigm, participants executed a motor task, either through virtual hands, virtual controllers, or a keyboard. Simultaneously, they detected visual stimuli appearing in different locations. We found that, while actively performing a motor task in the virtual environment, performance in detecting additional visual stimuli is higher when presented near the user's body. This effect is independent of how the user is represented and only occurs when the user is also engaged in a secondary task. We further found improved motor performance and increased embodiment when interacting through virtual tools and hands in VR, compared to interacting with a keyboard. This study contributes to better understanding the detectability of visual content in VR, depending on its location in the virtual environment, as well as the impact of different user representations on information processing, embodiment, and motor performance.

Millimeter-Wave Radar Localization Using Indoor Multipath Effect

“…The location information of small electronic devices and sensors is essential for human–computer interaction. The accurate location information of devices can give users a strong sense of experience—for example, in Virtual Reality (VR) [ 3 , 4 ] and indoor monitoring. With the development of sensing technologies, the indoor positioning tasks of electronic devices can be achieved using popular wireless infrastructures, such as commercial Wi-Fi devices, Bluetooth devices, Ultra Wide Band (UWB) devices, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) devices, cameras, and millimeter-wave radar.…”

Effects of virtual body-representation on motor skill learning

“…Some studies have dealt with the relationship between bodily self-consciousness and motor performance and functioning in VR environment. A study by Seinfeld and colleagues 24 found that participants who performed the motor task through a Leap motion sensor, seeing one’s virtual hand, felt a stronger sense of body-ownership and the sense of agency and showed better task performance than those who performed the task with a keyboard and could not see one’s avatar. In relation to clinical population, Tambone and colleagues 25 demonstrated that observing the virtual body’s movements from a first-person perspective helps increase body-ownership, which subsequently promotes stroke patients' motor recovery by accessing their motor functioning.…”

Multimodality in VR: A Survey

“…As Kilteni et al [89] reported, this depends on various subcomponents, namely the sense of self-location (a determined volume in space where one feels to be located), the sense of agency (having the subjective experience of action, control, intention, motor selection and the conscious experience of will), and the sense of body ownership (having one's self-attribution of a body, implying that the body is the source of the experienced sensations). Other factors like the proximity of virtual objects to the body also have an effect on the sense of embodiment [188]. All these concepts (such as presence or embodiment) are intrinsic characteristics that VR can achieve, and they yield the self-consciousness feeling that makes VR so different from other media.…”