The impact of avatar appearance, perspective and context on gait variability and user experience in virtual reality
Wirth M, Gradl S, Prosinger G, Kluge F, Roth D, Eskofier B (2021)
Publication Type: Conference contribution
Publication year: 2021
Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages Range: 326-335
Conference Proceedings Title: Proceedings - 2021 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, VR 2021
Event location: Virtual, Lisboa, PRT
ISBN: 9780738125565
DOI: 10.1109/VR50410.2021.00055
Abstract
Gait supervision plays an important role in the diagnosis, analysis and rehabilitation of motor impairments and neurodegenerative disorders. For example, in Parkinson's disease, gait assessment is used for progression observation and medication guidance. Previous work has presented the potential of virtual reality (VR) supported gait applications. While virtual environments and user representation strategies are used for gait applications, the influence of appearance and context cues on gait performance is not extensively researched. In this paper, we analyzed the influence of avatar appearance, environment awareness, and camera perspective on gait parameters relevant for clinical application. Four different avatar appearances, varying in abstraction, two environmental settings, as well as an egocentric and exocentric camera perspective were compared in three walking tasks on a treadmill. Our results show that variability, as an indicator for gait stability, is significantly impacted by VR exposure in comparison to a real world (in vivo) baseline. Further, our results revealed that walking tasks influence gait behavior significantly different in VR compared to in vivo. Overall, these findings suggest that particular care has to be taken when assessing gait characteristics acquired from subjects immersed in VR and that equivalence of results with in vivo may not be blindly assumed.
Authors with CRIS profile
Markus Wirth
Lehrstuhl für Informatik 14 (Machine Learning and Data Analytics)
Stefan Gradl-Trautvetter
Lehrstuhl für Informatik 14 (Machine Learning and Data Analytics)
Georg Prosinger
Lehrstuhl für Informatik 14 (Machine Learning and Data Analytics)
Felix Kluge
Lehrstuhl für Informatik 14 (Machine Learning and Data Analytics)
Daniel Roth
Björn Eskofier Lehrstuhl für Informatik 14 (Machine Learning and Data Analytics)
Björn Eskofier Lehrstuhl für Informatik 14 (Machine Learning and Data Analytics)
Involved external institutions
Germany (DE)How to cite
APA:
Wirth, M., Gradl, S., Prosinger, G., Kluge, F., Roth, D., & Eskofier, B. (2021). The impact of avatar appearance, perspective and context on gait variability and user experience in virtual reality. In Proceedings - 2021 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, VR 2021 (pp. 326-335). Virtual, Lisboa, PRT: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc..
MLA:
Wirth, Markus, et al. "The impact of avatar appearance, perspective and context on gait variability and user experience in virtual reality." Proceedings of the 28th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, VR 2021, Virtual, Lisboa, PRT Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2021. 326-335.
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