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The immersive capacity of virtual reality is often recognized as its main virtue compared to other media and communication technologies. It is indeed a determining virtue. However, with regard to the virtue that could actually position VR as a powerful positive technology on the market, we must look at another key feature: the realization of the avatar.
Avatars are digital entities that represent users in a virtual world. When we incarnate an avatar, he becomes our body in virtual reality. We control his movements. If we look down, we see the body of our avatar where our real body would normally be. If we look in a virtual mirror, we see ourselves transformed into this avatar.
Our avatar is also the way other people in the same virtual world see us. In turn, we see and interact with other users via their avatars.
However, not all virtual reality experiences involve an incarnation of the avatar. In fact, it is still not common to have a complete incarnation of the avatar in traditional VR products. For example, we are used to using a head-up display (HMD) to visualize a virtual landscape in which we have no avatar, or in which we have only seen the hands.
Likewise, we usually play online games in which we see our avatar on screen and control the movements with a joystick. We do not think that this represents an experience of Avatar realization, because it misses the spatial coincidence between the body of the user and that of the avatar.
Do experience an avatar like it's about our own body
When we embody an avatar, something extraordinary happens. We experience the illusion of body ownership, as if the avatar had temporarily become our own body, a phenomenon that has been widely reported in virtual reality.
The researchers also found that in addition to the property of the body, our sense of ourselves is transported into the body of our avatar. In a way, we to become our avatars while we are in VR.
The illusion of avatar achievement is achieved by using a visuomotor synchronization between our body and the avatar. To do this, users are usually equipped with an HMD, a device worn on the head that allows them to view immersive environments while blocking the real environment.
User gestures are tracked and mapped to the avatar using body tracking technologies so that the user and avatar are synchronized. Therefore, if we raise our right arm, the avatar raises his right arm accordingly. The head movements are used to update the perspective in the virtual environment in real time.
the illusion of rubber hand, which was a fascinating psychological experiment conducted in the late 90's, helps us understand why property illusions about avatars occur.
In the illusion of the rubber hand, the subject's hand is hidden and a rubber hand is put in its place. When the rubber hand and the subject's real and hidden hand are synchronously caressed, they feel a sense of ownership over the rubber hand and lose the sense of their own real hand.
The multisensory correlations between our real body and a dummy member or virtual body – in the form of a visuomotor (as in virtual reality) or visuotactile correlation (as in the illusion of the rubber hand) – seem to be easily able to deceive our brain. The brain interprets the false body or false limb rather quickly as part of its own anatomy.
Note: You can easily replicate the illusion of rubber hands at home by filling a rubber glove and asking someone to simultaneously brush your real hand (out of sight) and the rubber globe filled with two fine paintbrushes. You should start recording the results in less than two minutes.
The realization of the avatar can change our behavior
Researchers are studying the psychological effects of avatar incarnation experiences for over a decade. There is significant evidence that these experiences are capable of modifying our behaviors and even elements of our cognition.
One of the first empirical demonstrations of this transformational capability has been dubbed Proteus effect. This effect, documented in the late 2000s, describes a phenomenon whereby the appearance of an avatar has the ability to change the behavior of the person who embodies it.
The Proteus effect is related to the way people badociate certain traits with the appearance of an avatar. So we can adopt certain behaviors in response to what we think are expected from our avatars, depending on the appearance of the avatar.
Some of these initial experiences showed that participants with more attractive avatars leaked more personal information and approached other avatars more easily than other participants with less attractive avatars.
In addition, they showed that participants with larger avatars showed more confidence in a negotiation task than participants with shorter avatars.
Virtual reality researchers have studied how avatar incarnation transformations could be potentially useful for society. Could they provide us with tools to become the best possible versions of ourselves, not only in virtual reality, but also in our real lives?
It is important to note that we have evidence that behavioral changes resulting from avatar incarnation experiences may persist even after the end of the virtual reality experience.
Among many other discoveries, we now know that avatar realization experiences can be used to encourage pro-environmental attitudes and prosocial behavior or for reduce social phobia. These experiences can also help reduce negative stereotypes of older people or forms of Racial prejudice.
Recent studies have focused not only on changes in behavior and attitude, but also on cognitive changes. They had surprising discoveries, like the fact that the incarnation of the avatar can even increase cognitive performance.
Note: The reader might wonder if avatar incarnation experiences could also negatively impact our behavior or have adverse consequences. In one previous articlewe noted the gap between studies examining the potential negative consequences of avatar incarnation experiences and highlighted some of the ethical, moral and legal issues that needed to be addressed quickly.
VR as a positive technology
Virtual reality is considered more than an entertainment or communication tool, but the applications and benefits of virtual reality in areas such as health or education could be greatly enhanced if avatar realization experiences were implemented.
So far, the transformational capacity of the avatar embodiment has been mainly explored in experimental contexts through studies conducted in pioneering virtual reality laboratories, mainly: Laboratory of virtual human interaction at Stanford University and the EventLab at the University of Barcelona.
It is important to promote these results beyond lab walls as they are essential to unlock the full potential of virtual reality as a positive technology.
This article was originally published on Binary District by Dr. Aymerich-Franch, academic researcher Ramón y Cajal at the Department of Communication of the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona and guest researcher at the group of personal robots of the MIT Media Lab, Mbadachusetts Institute of Technology.
Binary District is an international collaborative technology community that creates unique workshops and events based on new technology skills. Follow them on Twitter.
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