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 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.