Analysing and Understanding Embodied Interactions in Virtual Reality Systems

Virtual reality (VR) offers opportunities in human-computer interaction research, to embody users in immersive environments and observe how they interact with 3D scenarios under well-controlled environments. VR content has stronger influences on users physical and emotional states as compared to traditional 2D media, however, a fuller understanding of this kind of embodied interaction is currently limited by the extent to which attention and behaviour can be observed in a VR environment, and the accuracy at which these observations can be interpreted as, and mapped to, real-world interactions and intentions. This thesis aims at the creation of a system to help designers in the understanding of the embodied user experience in VR environment: how they feel, what is their intentions when interacting with a certain object, provide them guidance based on their needs and attention. Controlled guided scenarios will help to reduce the gap of perception between the designer building an experience, and the user living it, leading to more efficient behaviour analysis in VR systems.