Cultural Reflections in Virtual Reality: The Effects of User Ethnicity in Avatar Matching Experiences on Sense of Embodiment.

Matching avatar characteristics to a user can impact sense of embodiment (SoE) in VR. However, few studies have examined how participant demographics may interact with these matching effects. We recruited a diverse and racially balanced sample of 78 participants to investigate the differences among participant groups when embodying both demographically matched and unmatched avatars. We found that participant ethnicity emerged as a significant factor, with Asian and Black participants reporting lower total SoE compared to Hispanic participants. Furthermore, we found that user ethnicity significantly influences ownership (a subscale of SoE), with Asian and Black participants exhibiting stronger effects of matched avatar ethnicity compared to White participants. Additionally, Hispanic participants showed no significant differences, suggesting complex dynamics in ethnic-racial identity. Our results also reveal significant main effects of matched avatar ethnicity and gender on SoE, indicating the importance of considering these factors in VR experiences. These findings contribute valuable insights into understanding the complex dynamics shaping VR experiences across different demographic groups.

Stepping into the Right Shoes: The Effects of User-Matched Avatar Ethnicity and Gender on Sense of Embodiment in Virtual Reality.

In many consumer virtual reality (VR) applications, users embody predefined characters that offer minimal customization options, frequently emphasizing storytelling over user choice. We explore whether matching a user's physical characteristics, specifically ethnicity and gender, with their virtual self-avatar affects their sense of embodiment in VR. We conducted a $2\times 2$ within-subjects experiment ($\mathrm{n}=32$) with a diverse user population to explore the impact of matching or not matching a user's self-avatar to their ethnicity and gender on their sense of embodiment. Our results indicate that matching the ethnicity of the user and their self-avatar significantly enhances sense of embodiment regardless of gender, extending across various aspects, including appearance, response, and ownership. We also found that matching gender significantly enhanced ownership, suggesting that this aspect is influenced by matching both ethnicity and gender. Interestingly, we found that matching ethnicity specifically affects self-location while matching gender specifically affects one's body ownership.

The Cognitive Loads and Usability of Target-based and Steering-based Travel Techniques.

Target and steering-based techniques are two common approaches to travel in consumer VR applications. In this paper, we present two within-subject studies that employ a prior dual-task methodology to evaluate and compare the cognitive loads, travel performances, and simulator sickness of three common target-based travel techniques and three common steering-based travel techniques. We also present visual meta-analyses comparing our results to prior results using the same dual-task methodology. Based on our results and meta-analyses, we present several design suggestions for travel techniques based on various aspects of user experiences.

Effects of Field of View and Visual Complexity on Virtual Reality Training Effectiveness for a Visual Scanning Task.

Virtual reality training systems are commonly used in a variety of domains, and it is important to understand how the realism of a training simulation influences training effectiveness. We conducted a controlled experiment to test the effects of display and scenario properties on training effectiveness for a visual scanning task in a simulated urban environment. The experiment varied the levels of field of view and visual complexity during a training phase and then evaluated scanning performance with the simulator's highest levels of fidelity and scene complexity. To assess scanning performance, we measured target detection and adherence to a prescribed strategy. The results show that both field of view and visual complexity significantly affected target detection during training; higher field of view led to better performance and higher visual complexity worsened performance. Additionally, adherence to the prescribed visual scanning strategy during assessment was best when the level of visual complexity during training matched that of the assessment conditions, providing evidence that similar visual complexity was important for learning the technique. The results also demonstrate that task performance during training was not always a sufficient measure of mastery of an instructed technique. That is, if learning a prescribed strategy or skill is the goal of a training exercise, performance in a simulation may not be an appropriate indicator of effectiveness outside of training-evaluation in a more realistic setting may be necessary.

Evaluating display fidelity and interaction fidelity in a virtual reality game.

In recent years, consumers have witnessed a technological revolution that has delivered more-realistic experiences in their own homes through high-definition, stereoscopic televisions and natural, gesture-based video game consoles. Although these experiences are more realistic, offering higher levels of fidelity, it is not clear how the increased display and interaction aspects of fidelity impact the user experience. Since immersive virtual reality (VR) allows us to achieve very high levels of fidelity, we designed and conducted a study that used a six-sided CAVE to evaluate display fidelity and interaction fidelity independently, at extremely high and low levels, for a VR first-person shooter (FPS) game. Our goal was to gain a better understanding of the effects of fidelity on the user in a complex, performance-intensive context. The results of our study indicate that both display and interaction fidelity significantly affect strategy and performance, as well as subjective judgments of presence, engagement, and usability. In particular, performance results were strongly in favor of two conditions: low-display, low-interaction fidelity (representative of traditional FPS games) and high-display, high-interaction fidelity (similar to the real world).