Embodiment of Personalized Avatars in Virtual Reality

: (Alternative Format Thesis)

Abstract

Embodied personalized avatars have become a technologically achievable feature in virtual reality. Embodiment refers to the experience of inhabiting a body that one feels ownership over, that moves under one’s control (sense of agency) and that one feels located inside of (self-location). Intriguingly, the sense of embodiment is not restricted to one’s physical body and, following multisensory integration of congruent streams of sensorimotor information such as synchronous visuo-motor feedback, it can be experienced in relation to external entities that could also be not self-located like virtual avatars. These avatars can range in terms of a variety of factors related to their appearance such as their photorealism and personalization. Photorealism is the quality of the graphics of avatars to resemble actual humans as opposed to cartoonish/abstract versions of humans. Personalization refers to the property of avatars to closely resemble their users by maintaining their identity and specific appearance features.

The current PhD project aims to investigate the multi-faceted effects of avatar personalization, namely, its interaction with photorealism to influence embodiment, self-identification and avatar perception in Study 1, as well as its impact on deceptive behaviour (i.e., spontaneous lies and physiological reactions) in Study 2, and moral decision-making in semi-autonomous car moral dilemmas in Study 3. To investigate these aspects, a range of questionnaires, physiological measures (skin conductance responses and heart rate) and behavioural measures (e.g., reaction times, facial self-identification) were employed.

We found that avatar personalization increased embodiment and it was a perceptually positive feature. Enabling personalization and motor control over the avatars also led to stronger physiological reactions and faster reaction times. Overall, these findings outline the tangible benefits of personalized avatars in one-off experiments but catalyse key questions around the usability and the ethics of personalized avatars in the long run.

Date of Award	26 Jun 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Danae Stanton Fraser (Supervisor) & Darren Cosker (Supervisor)