ViTraS

Virtual-Reality-Therapie durch Stimulation modulierter Körperwahrnehmung

ViTraS nutzt Wirkmechanismen der Virtual und Augmented Reality, um über modulierte photorealistische Avatare und avatargestützte soziale Interaktion einer gestörten Körperwahrnehmung entgegenzuwirken.

Zeitraum:	2019 - 2022
Fördergeber:	BMBF
Kooperation:	HCI
Projektwebseite:	http://hci.uni-wuerzburg.de/projects/vitras/ https://www.technik-zum-menschen-bringen.de/projekte/vitras

News

Teilnehmer:innen gesucht Pilotstudie „Neue Methoden zur Körperwahrnehmung“

wir suchen Teilnehmer:innen für die ViTraS-Pilotstudie an der Universität Würzburg.

Dafür suchen wir Personen …

ab 18 Jahren
mit starkem Übergewicht (Adipositas)/einem Body Mass Index (BMI) über 30 kg/m²
ohne schwere körperliche Einschränkungen
ohne psychische Erkrankungen
ohne schwere Probleme mit Reiseübelkeit/Simulationskrankheit

Was erwartet Sie?

Sie werden zu drei Terminen im Abstand von ca. zwei Wochen an die Universität Würzburg eingeladen. Beim ersten Termin wird ein persönliches virtuelles 3D-Modell („Avatar“) von Ihnen erstellt. Beim zweiten und dritten Termin werden Sie in Begleitung Übungen in einer virtuellen Umgebung mit Ihrem Avatar durchführen. An allen drei Terminen werden Sie gebeten, Fragebögen auszufüllen. Sechs Wochen nach Ihrem letzten Termin erfolgt eine online Nachbefragung.

Was sind Ihre Vorteile?

Sie erhalten für Ihre Teilnahme an der Studie eine Aufwandsentschädigung von insgesamt 100 €.

Wenn wir Ihr Interesse geweckt haben und Sie uns bei der Entwicklung neuer Behandlungsmöglichkeiten für Adipositas unterstützen möchten, melden Sie sich gerne bei uns:

Natascha-Alexandra Weinberger, M. Sc.

Psychische Gesundheit und Psychotherapie

SRH Hochschule für Gesundheit

Email: natascha-alexandra.weinberger@srh.de

Publications

2023[ to top ]

Are Embodied Avatars Harmful to our Self-Experience? The Impact of Virtual Embodiment on Body Awareness Döllinger, Nina; Wolf, Erik; Botsch, Mario; Latoschik, Marc Erich; Wienrich, Carolin in CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (2023).
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Virtual Reality (VR) allows us to replace our visible body with a virtual self-representation (avatar) and to explore its effects on our body perception. While the feeling of owning and controlling a virtual body is widely researched, how VR affects the awareness of internal body signals (body awareness) remains open. Forty participants performed moving meditation tasks in reality and VR, either facing their mirror image or not. Both the virtual environment and avatars photorealistically matched their real counterparts. We found a negative effect of VR on body awareness, mediated by feeling embodied in and changed by the avatar. Further, we revealed a negative effect of a mirror on body awareness. Our results indicate that assessing body awareness should be essential in evaluating VR designs and avatar embodiment aiming at mental health, as even a scenario as close to reality as possible can distract users from their internal body signals.

@inproceedings{dollinger2023embodied, abstract = {Virtual Reality (VR) allows us to replace our visible body with a virtual self-representation (avatar) and to explore its effects on our body perception. While the feeling of owning and controlling a virtual body is widely researched, how VR affects the awareness of internal body signals (body awareness) remains open. Forty participants performed moving meditation tasks in reality and VR, either facing their mirror image or not. Both the virtual environment and avatars photorealistically matched their real counterparts. We found a negative effect of VR on body awareness, mediated by feeling embodied in and changed by the avatar. Further, we revealed a negative effect of a mirror on body awareness. Our results indicate that assessing body awareness should be essential in evaluating VR designs and avatar embodiment aiming at mental health, as even a scenario as close to reality as possible can distract users from their internal body signals.}, author = {Döllinger, Nina and Wolf, Erik and Botsch, Mario and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Wienrich, Carolin}, booktitle = {CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems}, keywords = {vitras}, note = {To be published}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, title = {Are Embodied Avatars Harmful to our Self-Experience? The Impact of Virtual Embodiment on Body Awareness}, year = 2023 }

2022[ to top ]

Self-Touch: An Immersive Interaction-Technique to Enhance Body Awareness Keppler, Sebastian; Döllinger, Nina; Wienrich, Carolin; Latoschik, Marc Erich; Israel, Johann Habakuk in i-com (2022). 21(3) 329–337.
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@article{KepplerDöllingerWienrichLatoschikIsrael+2022+329+337, author = {Keppler, Sebastian and Döllinger, Nina and Wienrich, Carolin and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Israel, Johann Habakuk}, journal = {i-com}, keywords = {vitras}, number = 3, pages = {329–337}, title = {Self-Touch: An Immersive Interaction-Technique to Enhance Body Awareness}, volume = 21, year = 2022 }
Analyzing Eye Tracking Data in Mirror Exposure Döllinger, Nina; Göttfert, Christopher; Wolf, Erik; Mal, David; Latoschik, Marc Erich; Wienrich, Carolin in Proceedings of the Conference on Mensch und Computer (2022).
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Mirror exposure is an important method in the treatment of body image disturbances. Eye tracking can support the unaffected assessment of attention biases during mirror exposure. However, the analysis of eye tracking data in mirror exposure comes with various difficulties and is associated with a high manual workload during data processing. We present an automated data processing framework that enables us to determine any body part as an area of interest without placing markers on the bodies of participants. A short, formative user study proved the quality compared to the gold standard. The automatic processing and openness for different systems allow a broad range of applications.

@inproceedings{dollinger2022eyetracking, abstract = {Mirror exposure is an important method in the treatment of body image disturbances. Eye tracking can support the unaffected assessment of attention biases during mirror exposure. However, the analysis of eye tracking data in mirror exposure comes with various difficulties and is associated with a high manual workload during data processing. We present an automated data processing framework that enables us to determine any body part as an area of interest without placing markers on the bodies of participants. A short, formative user study proved the quality compared to the gold standard. The automatic processing and openness for different systems allow a broad range of applications.}, author = {Döllinger, Nina and Göttfert, Christopher and Wolf, Erik and Mal, David and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Wienrich, Carolin}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Conference on Mensch und Computer}, keywords = {vitras}, title = {Analyzing Eye Tracking Data in Mirror Exposure}, year = 2022 }
Resize Me! Exploring the User Experience of Embodied Realistic Modulatable Avatars for Body Image Intervention in Virtual Reality Döllinger, Nina; Wolf, Erik; Mal, David; Wenninger, Stephan; Botsch, Mario; Latoschik, Marc Erich; Wienrich, Carolin in Frontiers in Virtual Reality (2022).
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Obesity is a serious disease that can affect both physical and psychological well-being. Due to weight stigmatization, many affected individuals suffer from body image disturbances whereby they perceive their body in a distorted way, evaluate it negatively, or neglect it. Beyond established interventions such as mirror exposure, recent advancements aim to complement body image treatments by the embodiment of visually altered virtual bodies in virtual reality (VR). We present a high-fidelity prototype of an advanced VR system that allows users to embody a rapidly generated personalized, photorealistic avatar and to realistically modulate its body weight in real-time within a carefully designed virtual environment. In a formative multi-method approach, a total of 12 participants rated the general user experience (UX) of our system during body scan and VR experience using semi-structured qualitative interviews and multiple quantitative UX measures. Using body weight modification tasks, we further compared three different interaction methods for real-time body weight modification and measured our system's impact on the body image relevant measures body awareness and body weight perception. From the feedback received, demonstrating an already solid UX of our overall system and providing constructive input for further improvement, we derived a set of design guidelines to guide future development and evaluation processes of systems supporting body image interventions.

@article{dollinger2022resizeme, abstract = {Obesity is a serious disease that can affect both physical and psychological well-being. Due to weight stigmatization, many affected individuals suffer from body image disturbances whereby they perceive their body in a distorted way, evaluate it negatively, or neglect it. Beyond established interventions such as mirror exposure, recent advancements aim to complement body image treatments by the embodiment of visually altered virtual bodies in virtual reality (VR). We present a high-fidelity prototype of an advanced VR system that allows users to embody a rapidly generated personalized, photorealistic avatar and to realistically modulate its body weight in real-time within a carefully designed virtual environment. In a formative multi-method approach, a total of 12 participants rated the general user experience (UX) of our system during body scan and VR experience using semi-structured qualitative interviews and multiple quantitative UX measures. Using body weight modification tasks, we further compared three different interaction methods for real-time body weight modification and measured our system's impact on the body image relevant measures body awareness and body weight perception. From the feedback received, demonstrating an already solid UX of our overall system and providing constructive input for further improvement, we derived a set of design guidelines to guide future development and evaluation processes of systems supporting body image interventions.}, author = {Döllinger, Nina and Wolf, Erik and Mal, David and Wenninger, Stephan and Botsch, Mario and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Wienrich, Carolin}, journal = {Frontiers in Virtual Reality}, keywords = {vitras}, title = {Resize Me! Exploring the User Experience of Embodied Realistic Modulatable Avatars for Body Image Intervention in Virtual Reality}, year = 2022 }
Resize Me! Exploring the User Experience of Embodied Realistic Modulatable Avatars for Body Image Intervention in Virtual Reality Döllinger, Nina; Wolf, Erik; Mal, David; Wenninger, Stephan; Botsch, Mario; Latoschik, Marc Erich; Wienrich, Carolin in arXiv (2022).
- [ Abstract ]
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Obesity is a serious disease that can affect both physical and psychological well-being. Due to weight stigmatization, many affected individuals suffer from body image disturbances whereby they perceive their body in a distorted way, evaluate it negatively, or neglect it. Beyond established interventions such as mirror exposure, recent advancements aim to complement body image treatments by the embodiment of visually altered virtual bodies in virtual reality (VR). We present a high-fidelity prototype of an advanced VR system that allows users to embody a rapidly generated personalized, photorealistic avatar and to realistically modulate its body weight in real-time within a carefully designed virtual environment. In a formative multi-method approach, a total of 12 participants rated the general user experience (UX) of our system during body scan and VR experience using semi-structured qualitative interviews and multiple quantitative UX measures. By using body weight modification tasks, we further compared three different interaction methods for real-time body weight modification and measured our system's impact on the body image relevant measures body awareness and body weight perception. From the feedback received, demonstrating an already solid UX of our overall system and providing constructive input for further improvement, we derived a set of design guidelines to guide future development and evaluation processes of systems supporting body image interventions.

@article{dollinger2022resize, abstract = {Obesity is a serious disease that can affect both physical and psychological well-being. Due to weight stigmatization, many affected individuals suffer from body image disturbances whereby they perceive their body in a distorted way, evaluate it negatively, or neglect it. Beyond established interventions such as mirror exposure, recent advancements aim to complement body image treatments by the embodiment of visually altered virtual bodies in virtual reality (VR). We present a high-fidelity prototype of an advanced VR system that allows users to embody a rapidly generated personalized, photorealistic avatar and to realistically modulate its body weight in real-time within a carefully designed virtual environment. In a formative multi-method approach, a total of 12 participants rated the general user experience (UX) of our system during body scan and VR experience using semi-structured qualitative interviews and multiple quantitative UX measures. By using body weight modification tasks, we further compared three different interaction methods for real-time body weight modification and measured our system's impact on the body image relevant measures body awareness and body weight perception. From the feedback received, demonstrating an already solid UX of our overall system and providing constructive input for further improvement, we derived a set of design guidelines to guide future development and evaluation processes of systems supporting body image interventions.}, author = {Döllinger, Nina and Wolf, Erik and Mal, David and Wenninger, Stephan and Botsch, Mario and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Wienrich, Carolin}, journal = {arXiv}, keywords = {vitras}, title = {Resize Me! Exploring the User Experience of Embodied Realistic Modulatable Avatars for Body Image Intervention in Virtual Reality}, year = 2022 }
Virtual Human Coherence and Plausibility – Towards a Validated Scale Mal, David; Wolf, Erik; Döllinger, Nina; Botsch, Mario; Wienrich, Carolin; Latoschik, Marc Erich in Proceedings of the 29th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VR ’22) (2022).
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Virtual humans contribute to users’ state of plausibility in various XR applications. We present the development and preliminary evaluation of a self-assessment questionnaire to quantify virtual human’s plausibility in virtual environments based on eleven concise items. A principal component analysis of 650 appraisals collected in an online survey revealed two highly reliable components within the items. We interpret the components as possible factors, i.e., appearance and behavior plausibility and match to the virtual environment, and propose future work aiming towards a standardized virtual human plausibility scale by validating the structure and sensitivity of both sub-components in XR environments.

@inproceedings{mal2022virtual, abstract = {Virtual humans contribute to users’ state of plausibility in various XR applications. We present the development and preliminary evaluation of a self-assessment questionnaire to quantify virtual human’s plausibility in virtual environments based on eleven concise items. A principal component analysis of 650 appraisals collected in an online survey revealed two highly reliable components within the items. We interpret the components as possible factors, i.e., appearance and behavior plausibility and match to the virtual environment, and propose future work aiming towards a standardized virtual human plausibility scale by validating the structure and sensitivity of both sub-components in XR environments.}, author = {Mal, David and Wolf, Erik and Döllinger, Nina and Botsch, Mario and Wienrich, Carolin and Latoschik, Marc Erich}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 29th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VR '22)}, keywords = {vitras}, title = {Virtual Human Coherence and Plausibility – Towards a Validated Scale}, year = 2022 }

2021[ to top ]

Challenges and Opportunities of Immersive Technologies for Mindfulness Meditation: A Systematic Review Döllinger, Nina; Wienrich, Carolin; Latoschik, Marc Erich in Frontiers in Virtual Reality (2021). 2 644–683.
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@article{-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio:1.5), author = {Döllinger, Nina and Wienrich, Carolin and Latoschik, Marc Erich}, journal = {Frontiers in Virtual Reality}, keywords = {vitras}, pages = {644-683}, title = {Challenges and Opportunities of Immersive Technologies for Mindfulness Meditation: A Systematic Review}, volume = 2, year = 2021 }
Behavioral Framework of Immersive Technologies ({BehaveFIT}): How and Why Virtual Reality can Support Behavioral Change Processes Wienrich, Carolin; Döllinger, Nina; Hein, Rebecca in Frontiers in Virtual Reality. Technology for VR. Special Issue: User Experience in Virtual Reality Application design (2021). 2
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@article{Wienrich_2021, author = {Wienrich, Carolin and Döllinger, Nina and Hein, Rebecca}, journal = {Frontiers in Virtual Reality. Technology for VR. Special Issue: User Experience in Virtual Reality Application design}, keywords = {vitras}, month = {jun}, publisher = {Frontiers Media {SA}}, title = {Behavioral Framework of Immersive Technologies ({BehaveFIT}): How and Why Virtual Reality can Support Behavioral Change Processes}, volume = 2, year = 2021 }
Self-Touch:An Immersive Interaction-Technique to Enhance Body Awareness Keppler, Sebastian; Döllinger, Nina; Wienrich, Carolin; Latoschik, Marc Erich; Israel, Johann Habakuk in Proceedingsof the 19th ACM Conference on Culture and Computer Science (2021).
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@inproceedings{keppler2021selftouchan, author = {Keppler, Sebastian and Döllinger, Nina and Wienrich, Carolin and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Israel, Johann Habakuk}, booktitle = {Proceedingsof the 19th ACM Conference on Culture and Computer Science}, keywords = {vitras}, title = {Self-Touch:An Immersive Interaction-Technique to Enhance Body Awareness}, year = 2021 }
The Embodiment of Photorealistic Avatars Influences Female Body Weight Perception in Virtual Reality Wolf, Erik; Merdan, Nathalie; Döllinger, Nina; Mal, David; Wienrich, Carolin; Botsch, Mario; Latoschik, Marc Erich in Proceedings of the 28th IEEE Virtual Reality Conference (VR ’21) (2021).
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Embodiment and body perception have become important research topics in the field of virtual reality (VR). VR is considered a particularly promising tool to support research and therapy in regard to distorted body weight perception. However, the influence of embodiment on body weight perception has yet to be clarified. To address this gap, we compared body weight perception of 56 female participants of normal weight using a VR application. They either (a) self-embodied a photorealistic, non-personalized virtual human and performed body movements in front of a virtual mirror or (b) only observed the virtual human as other's avatar (or agent) performing the same movements in front of them. Afterward, participants had to estimate the virtual human's body weight. Additionally, we considered the influence of the participants' body mass index (BMI) on the estimations and captured the participants' feelings of presence and embodiment. Participants estimated the body weight of the virtual human as their embodied self-avatars significantly lower compared to participants rating the virtual human as other's avatar. Furthermore, the estimations of body weight were significantly predicted by the participant's BMI with embodiment, but not without. Our results clearly highlight embodiment as an important factor influencing the perception of virtual humans' body weights in VR.

@inproceedings{wolf2021embodiment, abstract = {Embodiment and body perception have become important research topics in the field of virtual reality (VR). VR is considered a particularly promising tool to support research and therapy in regard to distorted body weight perception. However, the influence of embodiment on body weight perception has yet to be clarified. To address this gap, we compared body weight perception of 56 female participants of normal weight using a VR application. They either (a) self-embodied a photorealistic, non-personalized virtual human and performed body movements in front of a virtual mirror or (b) only observed the virtual human as other's avatar (or agent) performing the same movements in front of them. Afterward, participants had to estimate the virtual human's body weight. Additionally, we considered the influence of the participants' body mass index (BMI) on the estimations and captured the participants' feelings of presence and embodiment. Participants estimated the body weight of the virtual human as their embodied self-avatars significantly lower compared to participants rating the virtual human as other's avatar. Furthermore, the estimations of body weight were significantly predicted by the participant's BMI with embodiment, but not without. Our results clearly highlight embodiment as an important factor influencing the perception of virtual humans' body weights in VR.}, author = {Wolf, Erik and Merdan, Nathalie and Döllinger, Nina and Mal, David and Wienrich, Carolin and Botsch, Mario and Latoschik, Marc Erich}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 28th IEEE Virtual Reality Conference (VR '21)}, keywords = {vitras}, title = {The Embodiment of Photorealistic Avatars Influences Female Body Weight Perception in Virtual Reality}, year = 2021 }

2020[ to top ]

DC The Impact of Social Interactions on an Embodied Individual’s Self-perception in Virtual Environments Mal, David in 2020 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW) (2020). 545–546.
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In shared immersive virtual reality, users can interact with other participants and experience them as being present in the environment. Thereby different aspects of the respective interaction partners can have an impact on the perceived quality of the communication and possibly also the self-perception of an embodied user. This paper describes various factors the author aims to investigate during his doctoral studies. As the research area of embodied social interactions is broad, relevant factors and concrete research questions have been identified to investigate how social contact with one or multiple other persons may affect one’s self-perception, behavior and her or his relationship with the others while being embodied in a virtual environment.

@conference{mal2020impact, abstract = {In shared immersive virtual reality, users can interact with other participants and experience them as being present in the environment. Thereby different aspects of the respective interaction partners can have an impact on the perceived quality of the communication and possibly also the self-perception of an embodied user. This paper describes various factors the author aims to investigate during his doctoral studies. As the research area of embodied social interactions is broad, relevant factors and concrete research questions have been identified to investigate how social contact with one or multiple other persons may affect one’s self-perception, behavior and her or his relationship with the others while being embodied in a virtual environment.}, address = {Atlanta, GA, USA, USA}, author = {Mal, David}, booktitle = {2020 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW)}, keywords = {vitras}, pages = {545-546}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {DC The Impact of Social Interactions on an Embodied Individual’s Self-perception in Virtual Environments}, year = 2020 }
Body Weight Perception of Females using Photorealistic Avatars in Virtual and Augmented Reality Wolf, Erik; Döllinger, Nina; Mal, David; Wienrich, Carolin; Botsch, Mario; Latoschik, Marc Erich in 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) (2020). 462–473.
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@inproceedings{wolf2020bodyweight, author = {Wolf, Erik and Döllinger, Nina and Mal, David and Wienrich, Carolin and Botsch, Mario and Latoschik, Marc Erich}, booktitle = {2020 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR)}, keywords = {vitras}, pages = {462-473}, title = {Body Weight Perception of Females using Photorealistic Avatars in Virtual and Augmented Reality}, year = 2020 }
appRaiseVR-An Evaluation Framework for Immersive Experiences Wienrich, Carolin; Gramlich, Johanna in i-com (2020). 19(2) 103–121.
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@article{wienrich2020appraisevr, author = {Wienrich, Carolin and Gramlich, Johanna}, journal = {i-com}, keywords = {vitras}, number = 2, pages = {103-121}, publisher = {De Gruyter}, title = {appRaiseVR-An Evaluation Framework for Immersive Experiences}, volume = 19, year = 2020 }

2019[ to top ]

ViTraS-virtual reality therapy by stimulation of modulated body image-project outline Döllinger, Nina; Wienrich, Carolin; Wolf, Erik; Botsch, Mario; Latoschik, Marc Erich in Mensch und Computer 2019-Workshopband (2019).
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@article{dollinger2019vitras, author = {Döllinger, Nina and Wienrich, Carolin and Wolf, Erik and Botsch, Mario and Latoschik, Marc Erich}, journal = {Mensch und Computer 2019-Workshopband}, keywords = {vitras}, publisher = {Gesellschaft für Informatik eV}, title = {ViTraS-virtual reality therapy by stimulation of modulated body image-project outline}, year = 2019 }