The importance of self-body visibility for movements in virtual reality

Abstract

When controlling movements in virtual space, the importance of self-body visibility is still unclear. In this study, we experimentally investigated whether the visibility of the self-body in virtual space (i.e., whether the entire body was visible or invisible) altered the accuracy of ordinary movements, such as grasping an object and moving it to a specified position. In our experiment, we controlled for self-body visibility and the visibility of objects (grasped item and specified goal) that could be cues for accomplishing the designated movements. In this way, we analyzed the accuracy of the movements considering the influence of factors other than self-body visibility. Movement accuracy was evaluated in terms of distance, which was calculated based on the final item coordinates obtained as a result of task execution. The results indicated that the movements were more accurate when the entire body and goal were visible. This finding suggests that visualization of the self-body as visual information is an important cue in understanding the spatial target point and controlling movements.