Research Roundup (#2)
Welcome…
Welcome to the second-ever Research Roundup! A weekly catch-up on the latest developments in the field of XR research.
It’s been a busy week, so let's not hang around.
The Week in 3 (Sentences)
Avatars and embodiment were in the spotlight this week, with researchers looking at how avatar appearance affects perceptions of sexual harassment, general tolerance for self-avatar gait distortions, and the perception of the police at demonstrations by manipulating the look of their avatars.
XR for skills and training was also receiving attention, as researchers asked if learning archery in VR was the same as in real life, whether VR-mediated robot teleoperation could be improved, and if students transferred their learning to the real world if highly immersed (the answer was no).
Whilst… XR continues to be used for social good (again), with researchers looking at the quality of life in end-of-life settings, including the choice of bucket-list 360 videos and a virtual arctic environment to boost connectedness and vigour!
The Week in 300 (Words)
With avatars such a crucial part of the social VR experience, it was fascinating to see researchers in China turn their attention to avatars and sexual harassment in social VR. 166 users of social VR completed surveys, and 18 completed interviews. Questions focused on how users perceived harassment in terms of the avatar appearance and behaviour of the potential harasser and how users tended to respond. Interestingly, they found that avatar appearance could modulate the perception of harassment behaviour, with users tending to adopt non-confrontational strategies.
Whilst over in the world of physiology, it was the turn of researchers to ask whether physiological responses are the same when engaging in archery in the real world or within VR. Using Archery Kings VR, 22 participants with no prior experience learned to fire arrows in the real and virtual worlds. A range of measures were taken, including heart rate, heart rate variability and breathing rates. The researchers found differences in vagal activity, in particular with VR and real archery, leading to different autonomic patterns.
And finally, researchers in Wisconsin used nature scenes in palliative care viewed through a Meta Quest 2. Patients receiving end-of-life care watched a prescribed series of videos and selected from 'bucket-list' options. Watching the videos in VR was associated with improvements in a range of symptoms (such as depression, anxiety, well-being, drowsiness and tiredness), albeit there was no control group. Video quality appeared to be at least partially related to the size of the improvement. However, choosing from bucket-list options made no noticeable difference and the effects had disappeared after 2 days.
Paper of the Week
Our paper of the week this week is a review paper looking at research on empathy and the metaverse. The XR field is, of course, full of review papers, but some review papers are more equal than others. We love a good review that not only summarises the state of the literature but also points a clear new direction for the future. And that is what we love about this paper.
Focusing on attempts to foster empathy using VR, the researchers from Korea draw a key distinction between specific and universal empathy. Specific empathy refers to the ability to empathise with individuals within a specific context or set of circumstances. In comparison, universal empathy is considered the ability to empathise with others in a way that is not context-specific.
Their review of the literature found that studies by-in-large focused upon fostering specific empathy, through the use of story-telling and interactive scenarios. In arguing the need for a deeper and more universal empathy the authors argue that multisensory systems might be better able to achieve this (i.e. those that include more than visual and audio input) as well as the potential of using EEG data to tailor immersive experiences. The extent to which these advances might elicit deeper levels of empathy is for future research to tell. Still, for now, the question is being asked as to how we can move beyond context-specific empathy to foster something broader and more universal.
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