QuarantivityVR: Supporting Self-Embodiment for Non-HMD Users in Asymmetric Social VR Games

Abstract The prevalence of immersive head-mounted display (HMD) social virtual reality (VR) applications introduced asymmetric interaction among users within the virtual environment (VE). Therefore, researchers opted for (1) exploring the asymmetric social VR interaction dynamics in only co-located setups, (2) assigning interdependent roles to both HMD and non-HMD users, and (3) representing non-HMD users as abstract avatars in the VE. Therefore, we investigate the feasibility of supporting Self-Embodiment in an asymmetric VR interaction mode in a remote setup. To this end, we designed an asymmetric social VR game, QuarantivityVR, to (1) support sense of self-embodiment for non-HMD users in a remote setting by representing them as realistic full-body avatars within the VE, (2) augment visual-motor synchrony for the non-HMD users to increase their sense of agency and presence by detecting their motion through Kinect sensor and laptop’s webcam. During the game, each player performs three activities in succession, namely movie-guessing, spelling-bee, and answering mathematical questions. We believe that our work will act as a step towards the inclusion of a wide spectrum of users that can not afford full immersion and will aid researchers in creating enjoyable interactions for both users in the physical and virtual spaces.