Distance Validation and Role of High Fidelity VR Environments on Embodiment and Enjoyment

Abstract

Gamification, especially in Virtual Reality (VR) have been gaining importance lately for which there arises a need in understanding the interaction mechanism as to which would lead to engagement and motivation. To assess this, our work uses a virtual hand representation to embody the user in three different VR environment of varying interaction fidelity. Through both qualitative and quantitative data gathered, we assess the users’ perceived sense of embodiment, engagement, and motivation. Results show that hand tracking interactions increase the sense of body ownership but lacks tracking reliability and haptic feedback. The virtual controller representation showcased better sense of agency and faster learning towards interactions. The sense of embodiment, engagement and motivation was found to be the highest in the high-fidelity VR environment.As a sub part of this work, we also showcase how distances can be measured in virtual environments especially in the stereoscopic Head Mounted Displays (HMD), VR. The virtual environment measured distances is then compared with the premeasured real-world distance for which the high correlation is observed.