A unique way to increase presence of mobility impaired users — Increasing confidence in balance

Previous research on healthy subjects showed that a higher sense of presence can be elicited through full body avatars versus no avatar. However, minimal avatar research has been conducted with persons with mobility impairments. For these users, Virtual Environments (VEs) and avatars are becoming more common as tools for rehabilitation. If we can maximize presence in these VEs, users may be more effectively distracted from the pain and repetitiveness of rehabilitation, thereby increasing users' motivation. To investigate this we replicated the classic virtual pit experiment and included a responsive full body avatar (or lack thereof) as a 3D user interface. We recruited from two different populations: mobility impaired persons and healthy persons as a control. Results give insight into many other differences between healthy and mobility impaired users' experience of presence in VEs.