Research Roundup (#5)
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Welcome...
Welcome to the fifth-ever Research Roundup! A weekly catch-up on the latest developments in the field of XR research.
It’s a day late because of illness (sorry), so let's not hang around.
The Week in 3 (Sentences)
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This week research on the effects of avatars provided new insights into neural responses across avatar types, cybersickness reduction through avatar presence, and asked whether a virtual nose really does reduce cybersickness.
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New developments in XR-enhanced robotics showed promise for medical applications, with research validating VR-integrated exoskeletons, robotic-assisted surgeries, and using gamified mixed reality for robot-assisted rehabilitation.
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And some fascinating innovations in XR hardware interfaces were reported including flexible holographic AR patches for glasses, and haptic artificial muscle skin.
The Week in 300 (Words)
Avatars are an integral part of feeling present in VR and are necessary for social VR. New research has suggested they may also help mitigate cybersickness. Researchers manipulated the presence or absence of a virtual astronaut avatar whilst the participants floated on a pre-defined path through a virtual space simulation, having to touch asteroids that passed them by. Participants who had been randomly assigned to having a self-avatar were less likely to report feeling cybersick compared to those without, as well as enhanced presence. Whilst it remains to be seen if such effects extend to more active experiences, it continues to build the case for the inclusion of avatars in VR experiences.
And as if avatars were not enough, several papers this week looked at integrating XR with robots and robotic exoskeletons. Robotic exoskeletons may be particularly useful for physical rehabilitation with researchers this week reporting the integration of an exoskeleton with the now-retired Hololens 2 to create a gamified environment to support rehabilitation. They focused on rehabilitating shoulder movement with robot-assisted movements that either included the gamified MR environment or not. Both subjective and objective evaluations were positive, with users not only liking the gamified MR version but the system also leading to more precise movements.
And finally, who was thinking about using artificial skin for haptic feedback? I certainly wasn't but researchers over in California were, and their findings were reported this week in Science Advances. The research team has developed a "haptic artificial muscle skin (HAMS) based on fully soft, millimetre-scale, multilayer dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) capable of significant out-of-plane deformation". Of particular interest was the integration with XR in which they simulated rain falling softly on the palm, and rolling a golf ball around. With over 90% accuracy in the perception tests too, this felt like a true glimpse into the future.
Paper of the Week
Our paper of the week this week is not to be sniffed at (sorry) as researchers failed to replicate the effects of a virtual nose on cybersickness.
Previous research indicated that the addition of a virtual nose might be associated with reduced cybersickness in VR because it provides an appropriate reference frame. The authors of the paper quite reasonably questioned this interpretation, as well as questioning the reliability of the effect given the limited evidence base.
That they failed to replicate the effects is not what makes it the paper of the week. For us, it is worthy of this title simply because it endeavoured to try a replication in the first place.
As a rapidly advancing field, in so many different directions, there is a very real danger that findings from underpowered studies assume a level of 'truth' not warranted by the evidence base. Replication studies are essential tools to avoid these problems, but are often not the most appealing as they carry less esteem in scientific promotion routes (compared to more 'original' research). So when a research team takes the time to replicate a study, particularly in XR research, then it's always going to be a candidate for our paper of the week.
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