Feasibility Study of Avatar Customization and Relatedness on Physical Activity

描述（由申请人提供）：青少年没有达到PA（体育活动）指南，这增加了他们肥胖和相关疾病（如2型糖尿病）的风险。因此，确定鼓励青少年进行更多身体活动的方法至关重要。虚拟现实已经被成功地证明在促进期望行为方面是有效的。年轻人喜欢电子游戏，玩家似乎认同化身，尤其是那些具有自我代表性的化身。因此，设计以青少年为导向的沉浸式游戏，让玩家的真实身体动作可以控制虚拟世界中角色的命运，可能为这一低水平PA风险群体增加PA提供了一种有希望的方法。本申请中提出的研究代表了这一研究领域的早期步骤。它将创造一个沉浸式的交互式虚拟现实游戏，玩家的动作会影响化身的命运。具体来说，这项研究将与青少年一起开发一款身临其境的虚拟现实游戏

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Youth are not meeting PA (physical activity) guidelines, which increases their risk of obesity and related diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Therefore, it is crucial to identify methods to encourage youth to be more physically active. Virtual reality has been successfully proven to be effective at promoting desired behaviors. Youth enjoy video games, and players appear to identify with avatars, particularly those that are self-representative. Thus, design of youth-oriented immersive games where the player's live body actions can control the fate of the avatar in a virtual world may provide a promising method for increasing PA among this group at risk for low levels of PA. The research proposed in this application represents an early step in this line of research. It will create an immersive, interactive virtual reality game where the player's movements influence the fate of the avatar. Specifically, this research will work with youth to develop an immersive virtual reality game to be played via natural human computer interfaces, develop a system for creating highly self- representational avatars, develop an algorithm to unobtrusively measure PA during game-play, and conduct a pilot study to assess the feasibility of these components. If proven to be feasible, this research will provide the basis for an R01 application to assess the efficacy of this approach at increasing PA among a large number of youth in various real-world settings.