Description

Virtual Reality (VR) allows unique experiences where users can embody avatars that go beyond the limit of their real bodies. Such avatars may also be called “dissimilar avatars” as they differ from users’ real bodies by either subtle modifications (e.g., another body proportion, skin tone, etc.) or more extreme body changes (e.g., robot, animal, creature body, etc.). However, the study of dissimilar avatars is a complex multidisciplinary topic, and despite the increasing interest in them, a lot of challenges remain to be overcome to fully take advantage of their benefits. Given the sparsity and multi-disciplinary dimension of research related to dissimilar avatars, it tends to lack a common understanding and methodology to explore them.

This topic is the following up on similar topics already done in the past. Using an already-designed non-human networked avatar, we want to investigate how two users can control and share this avatar during a locomotion task (e.g., how to manage when both users want to go in different directions). The objective is to develop some new locomotion metaphors for the non-human avatar to enable virtual motion in virtual environments.

Tasks

  • Design a physical and a virtual locomotion technique for navigating with the non human avatar
  • Integrate the techniques to make them work with the non human avatar (including networking)
  • Run an experiment to evaluate the locomotion techniques

Requirements

  • Knowledge of English language (source code, comments, and final report should be in English)
  • Programming skills (C/C++/C#)
  • Knowledge of Unity 3D and VR is advantageous

Environment

The project will be developed in Unity3D, with HTC Vive or Oculus Quest for VR immersion.

Responsible

For more information please contact Hugo Brument (https://www.vr.tuwien.ac.at/people/hugo-brument/) hugo.brument@tuwien.ac.at

References

Cheymol, Antonin, et al. “Beyond my real body: Characterization, impacts, applications and perspectives of “dissimilar” avatars in virtual reality.” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (2023).

Podkosova, Iana, and Hugo Brument. “Towards Full Body Co-Embodiment of Human and Non-Human Avatars in Virtual Reality.” 2024 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW). IEEE, 2024.