VR Systems for Body Image and Body Schema

在新兴的具身认知领域的最新研究表明，理解技术在多大程度上影响我们的物理/生理因素，以及我们对身体的假设如何影响我们设计技术的方式，是相互重要的。因此，研究身体图式和身体意象的基本过程就显得越来越重要。一个身体图式包含了一些过程的集合，这些过程通常负责无意识的过程，比如姿势和动作。身体意象指的是我们对自己身体的态度和信念，这些态度和信念会随着时间的推移而改变，或者当我们面对残疾或疾病时。身体图式和身体意象是一个连续的、相互影响的过程，它们提供了关于用户心理生理状态的重要信息。对VR化身的身体所有权的研究导致了关于视觉，运动和触觉现象的重要发现，以及时间在VR用户如何获得其VR化身的“所有权”方面的作用。从本质上讲，这告诉我们关于身体图式的重要信息，但关于身体意象的信息要少得多。此外，虽然这项研究包括采用或拥有非人类的身体部位，如尾巴，但它仍然假设一个健康，规范的身体。然而，某些疾病，如慢性和幻痛，被认为会严重扰乱身体意象和身体图式。此外，虽然VR已被证明是一种缓解疼痛的形式，但解释这种效应的机制仍处于起步阶段，关于这种效应在VR暴露后持续多久的结果也各不相同。这些例子说明了为什么从第一人称视角（包括身体意象）更好地理解用户如何获得VR化身的具体感觉是很重要的。本提案旨在为身体图式和身体意象的基本人类过程的日益重要的研究做出贡献。我们建议：（i）通过对身体图式和身体图像的相关关联进行抽象和建模来研究身体图式和身体图像的计算，（ii）识别身体图式和图像的关系，所述身体图式和图像一起指示可变的心理生理用户状态，（iii）开发与变化的用户状态相关的可视化，最初在VR化身中用于老年人的运动范围研究，（iv）开发使得能够对身体图像数据进行用户注释的界面，（v）开发用于捕获用户状态数据的准确可重复性的方法，（vi）可视化可变时间范围的聚合，用于以后对用户的纵向数据的分析。这项研究的长期目标是双重的：1。确定设计可变体模式和图像数据的计算模型所需的理论基础和形式主义。2.制定评估方法，以提供有效性的经验证据。

Recent research in the emerging field of embodied cognition demonstrates the mutual importance ofunderstanding the extent to which technologies affect our physical/physiological factors, and how ourassumptions about our bodies affect the ways we design technology. Thus, it is increasingly important to studythe fundamental processes of body schemas and body images. A body schema comprises the collection ofprocesses that are responsible for typically non-conscious processes such as posture and movement. A bodyimage refers to attitudes and beliefs we have about our body, which change over time, or when we facedisability or disease. Body schema and body image function as continuous, mutually influential processes thatprovide important information about a user's psychophysiological state.The focus of proposed body image/body schema research will be on immersive VR. Research in body ownership of VR avatars has led to important findings regarding visual, motor and tactile phenomena, as well as the role of time in how VR users gain a sense of “ownership” of their VR avatars. In essence, this tells us important information about body schema, but far less about body image. Moreover, while this research includes the adoption or ownership of non-human body parts, such as tails, it nevertheless assumes a healthy, normative body. However, certain conditions such as chronic and phantom pain are known to profoundly disturb body image and body schema. Moreover, while VR has been shown to be a form of pain alleviation, the mechanism that may explain this effect is still in its infancy, as are varied outcomes about how long this effect may persist after VR exposure. These are some examples of why it is important to gain a better understanding of how users gain an embodied sense of a VR avatar from a first person perspective - a perspective that includes body image.This proposal aims to contribute to increasingly important research on fundamental human processes of body schema and body image. 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, (iii) develop visualizations that correlate to changing user states, initially in VR avatars for range-of-movement studies in seniors, (iv) develop an interface that enables user annotations of body image data, (v) develop methods for accurate repeatability of capturing user state data, (vi) visualize aggregation of variable time frames for later analysis of longitudinal data of users. 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.