Study on the Influence of Embodied Avatars on Gait Parameters in Virtual Environments and Real World
Tianyi Zhou, Ding Ding, Shengyu Wang, Chuhan Shi, Xiangyu Xu
TL;DR
This study investigates how embodied avatars and VR experience influence gait in virtual and real environments. It introduces a VR gait-detection system with two complete avatars differing in age and uses a CNN-LSTM with self-attention to classify gait across conditions, supplemented by paired t-tests. Findings show systematic gait differences between VE and the real world, with avatar appearance and age modulating VE gait and old-age avatar exposure transferring effects to real-world gait. The work provides insights for VR-based gait assessment and rehabilitation, highlighting the Proteus effect and the need to account for avatar appearance in VR studies.
Abstract
In this study, we compare the virtual and real gait parameters to investigate the effect of appearances of embodied avatars and virtual reality experience on gait in physical and virtual environments. We developed a virtual environment simulation and gait detection system for analyzing gait. The system transfers real-life scenarios into a realistic presentation in the virtual environment and provides look-alike same-age and old-age avatars for participants. We conducted an empirical study and used subjective questionnaires to evaluate participants' feelings about the virtual reality experience. Also, the paired sample t-test and neural network were implemented to analyze gait differences. The results suggest that there are disparities in gait between virtual and real environments. Also, the appearance of embodied avatars could influence the gait parameters in the virtual environment. Moreover, the experience of embodying old-age avatars affects the gait in the real world.