Posted on 07/26/2019 7:26:37 AM PDT by BenLurkin
[R]esearchers discovered how to trigger the body ownership illusion using visual cues alone. They did this by tracking the subject’s body movements in microfine detail, the level of hand and finger movements. They then reproduced these movements exactly in the virtual body.
...work focuses on three types of virtual bodies—a four-legged animal in the form of a tiger, a flying animal in the form of a bat, and a creature with an entirely different exoskeleton in the form of a spider.
Their goal is to explore the limits of body ownership with challenging examples that differ from human bodies in posture, shape, and even entire skeleton... to understand how well the human brain copes with the body ownership illusion in these cases, and whether it is possible at all in the most extreme cases.
Krekhov and co say that humans are surprisingly good at adopting alien forms. “Our experiment shows that even spiders, despite having a skeleton that significantly differs from ours, offer a similar degree of the illusion of virtual body ownership compared to humanoid avatars,” they say.
What’s more, some body types are better than humanoid ones in certain circumstances. For example, bat bodies are better at reproducing the sensation of flying than humanoid bodies.
The technique is clearly popular with the participants. The researchers asked them what other body types they’d like to try, with suggestions ranging from cats and dogs to sea animals such as whales and dolphins. But there was a clear winner in this respect.
That’s interesting work that has the potential for significant applications. The most obvious is in the gaming world, where the illusion of owning another character’s body has obvious charms.
Virtual-reality kits are becoming increasingly common, but this technology has to be coupled with accurate body tracking equipment.
(Excerpt) Read more at technologyreview.com ...
Was the guy who tested this named Samsa, by chance?
DOD going to be a yuuuuge customer for this:
Then remotely-controlled spider tanks, or something.
VR illusions make me motion sick.
Let me know when it can make your lover look like an elf princess.
A fantastic development in role-player gaming, I’d say.
ping
Explains phantom pain..or phantom limbs...also transgenderism...homosexuality, and “furries”
this has my spydie sense tingling.
But there was a clear winner in this respect. “We suppose that flying creatures have the largest potential to fascinate users as embodiment targets in VR,” say Krekhov and co.
“She’ll do. Looks a little mean though. was directed towards the first elf princess posted, not the blond elf picture next to the statement.
Remember the movie Shallow Hal, where Jack Black saw the really obese girl as a slim model.
Of course you’d have to wear the VR all the time.
The fake pointy costume ears are probably cheaper...
Maybe this would fix on transgenders.
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