VR Systems for Body Image and Body Schema

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Recent research in the emerging field of embodied cognition demonstrates the mutual importance of understanding the extent to which technologies affect our physical/physiological factors, and how our assumptions about our bodies affect the ways we design technology. Thus, it is increasingly important to study the fundamental processes of body schemas and body images. A body schema comprises the collection of processes that are responsible for typically non-conscious processes such as posture and movement. A body image refers to attitudes and beliefs we have about our body, which change over time, or when we face disability or disease. Body schema and body image function as continuous, mutually influential processes that provide important information about a user's psychophysiological state.This proposal aims to contribute to increasingly important research on fundamental human processes of body schema and body image, particularly as they change over time. We propose to: (i) investigate computation of body schema and body image by abstracting and modeling relevant correlates of each, (ii) identify relationships of body schema and image that together indicate variable psychophysiological user states, (ii) develop visualizations that correlate to changing user states, initially in VR avatars for range of movement studies in seniors, (iii) develop an interface that enables user annotations of body image data, (iv) develop methods for accurate repeatability of capturing user state data, (v) visualize aggregation of variable timeframes for later analysis of longitudinal data of users' psychophysiological states and (vi) develop methods of empirical assessment. The long-term objective of this research is two-fold: 1. To identify the theoretical underpinnings and formalisms necessary to devise computational models of variable body schema and image data. 2. To develop methods of assessment to provide empirical evidence of effectiveness.