Human tails: ownership and control of extended humanoid avatars.

This paper explores body ownership and control of an 'extended' humanoid avatar that features a distinct and flexible tail-like appendage protruding from its coccyx. Thirty-two participants took part in a between-groups study to puppeteer the avatar in an immersive CAVE™ -like system. Participants' body movement was tracked, and the avatar's humanoid body synchronously reflected this motion. However, sixteen participants experienced the avatar's tail moving around randomly and asynchronous to their own movement, while the other participants experienced a tail that they could, potentially, control accurately and synchronously through hip movement. Participants in the synchronous condition experienced a higher degree of body ownership and agency, suggesting that visuomotor synchrony enhanced the probability of ownership over the avatar body despite of its extra-human form. Participants experiencing body ownership were also more likely to be more anxious and attempt to avoid virtual threats to the tail and body. The higher task performance of participants in the synchronous condition indicates that people are able to quickly learn how to remap normal degrees of bodily freedom in order to control virtual bodies that differ from the humanoid form. We discuss the implications and applications of extended humanoid avatars as a method for exploring the plasticity of the brain's representation of the body and for gestural human-computer interfaces.

A fully immersive set-up for remote interaction and neurorehabilitation based on virtual body ownership.

Although telerehabilitation systems represent one of the most technologically appealing clinical solutions for the immediate future, they still present limitations that prevent their standardization. Here we propose an integrated approach that includes three key and novel factors: (a) fully immersive virtual environments, including virtual body representation and ownership; (b) multimodal interaction with remote people and virtual objects including haptic interaction; and (c) a physical representation of the patient at the hospital through embodiment agents (e.g., as a physical robot). The importance of secure and rapid communication between the nodes is also stressed and an example implemented solution is described. Finally, we discuss the proposed approach with reference to the existing literature and systems.

Beaming: an asymmetric telepresence system.

The Beaming project recreates, virtually, a real environment; using immersive VR, remote participants can visit the virtual model and interact with the people in the real environment. The real environment doesn't need extensive equipment and can be a space such as an office or meeting room, domestic environment, or social space.