research-article

"Where's Pinky?": The Effects of a Reduced Number of Fingers in Virtual Reality

Authors:

Valentin Schwind,

Pascal Knierim,

Niels HenzeAuthors Info & Claims

CHI PLAY '17: Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play

Pages 507 - 515

https://doi.org/10.1145/3116595.3116596

Published: 15 October 2017 Publication History

Abstract

The hands of one's avatar are possibly the most visible aspect when interacting in virtual reality (VR). As video games in VR proliferate, it is important to understand how the appearance of avatar hands influence the user experience. Designers of video games often stylize hands and reduce the number of fingers of game characters. Previous work shows that the appearance of avatar hands has significant effects on the user's presence - the feeling of `being' and `acting' in VR. However, little is known about the effects of missing fingers of an avatar in VR. In this paper, we present a study (N=24) that investigated the effect of hand representations by parametrically varying the number of fingers of abstract and realistically rendered hands. We show that decreasing the number of fingers of realistic hands leads to significantly lower levels of presence, which is not the case for abstract hands. Qualitative feedback collected through think-aloud and video revealed potential reasons for the different assessment of realistic and abstract hands with fewer fingers in VR. We contribute design implications and recommend considering the human-likeness when a reduction of the number of fingers of avatar hands is desired.

References

[1]

Ferran Argelaguet, Ludovic Hoyet, Michaël Trico, and Anatole Lécuyer. 2016. The role of interaction in virtual embodiment: Effects of the virtual hand representation. In 2016 IEEE Virtual Reality (VR). 3--10.

[2]

Frank Biocca and Mark R. Levy. 2013. Communication in the Age of Virtual Reality. L. Erlbaum Associates Inc., Hillsdale, NJ, USA. 416 pages.

[3]

Olaf Blanke and Thomas Metzinger. 2009. Full-body illusions and minimal phenomenal selfhood. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 13, 1 (2009), 7--13.

[4]

Matthew Botvinick and Jonathan Cohen. 1998. Rubber hands' feel-touch that eyes see. Nature 391, 6669 (1998), 756.

[5]

Chris Christou and Despina Michael. 2014. Aliens versus Humans: Do Avatars Make a Difference in How We Play the Game?. In 2014 6th International Conference on Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications (VS-GAMES). 1--7.

[6]

Marcello Costantini and Patrick Haggard. 2007. The rubber hand illusion: Sensitivity and reference frame for body ownership. Consciousness and Cognition 16, 2 (2007), 229 -- 240.

[7]

Frédérique de Vignemont. 2011. Embodiment, ownership and disownership. Consciousness and Cognition 20, 1 (2011), 82--93.

[8]

Julian Frommel, Katja Rogers, Julia Brich, Daniel Besserer, Leonard Bradatsch, Isabel Ortinau, Ramona Schabenberger, Valentin Riemer, Claudia Schrader, and Michael Weber. 2015. Integrated Questionnaires: Maintaining Presence in Game Environments for Self-Reported Data Acquisition. In Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY '15). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 359--368.

Digital Library

[9]

Melita J. Giummarra, Nellie Georgiou-Karistianis, Mike E. R. Nicholls, Stephen J. Gibson, and John L. Bradshaw. 2010. The Phantom in the Mirror: A Modified Rubber-Hand Illusion in Amputees and Normals. Perception 39, 1 (2010), 103--118. 20301851.

[10]

Ludovic Hoyet, Ferran Argelaguet, and Anatole Lécuyer. 2016. "Wow! I Have Six Fingers!?: Would You Accept Structural Changes of Your Hand in VR" Frontiers in Robotics and AI 3 (2016), 27.

[11]

Konstantina Kilteni, Raphaela Groten, and Mel Slater. 2012. The sense of embodiment in virtual reality. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 21, 4 (2012), 373--387.

Digital Library

[12]

Lorraine Lin and Sophie Jörg. 2016. Need a Hand?: How Appearance Affects the Virtual Hand Illusion. In Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Applied Perception (SAP '16). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 69--76.

Digital Library

[13]

Matthew R. Longo, Friederike Schüür, Marjolein P.M. Kammers, Manos Tsakiris, and Patrick Haggard. 2008. What is embodiment? A psychometric approach. Cognition 107, 3 (2008), 978--998.

[14]

Jean-Luc Lugrin, Johanna Latt, and Marc Erich Latoschik. 2015. Anthropomorphism and Illusion of Virtual Body Ownership. In Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistence and 20th Eurographics Symposium on Virtual Environments (ICAT - EGVE '15). Eurographics Association, 1--8.

[15]

Masahiro Mori, Karl F. MacDorman, and Norri Kageki. 1970/2012. The Uncanny Valley [From the Field]. Robotics & Automation Magazine, IEEE 19, 2 (1970/2012), 98--100.

[16]

Craig D. Murray, Stephen Pettifer, Toby Howard, Emma L. Patchick, Fabrice Caillette, Jai Kulkarni, and Candy Bamford. 2007. The treatment of phantom limb pain using immersive virtual reality: Three case studies. Disability and Rehabilitation 29, 18 (2007), 1465--1469. 17729094.

[17]

Tabitha C. Peck, Sofia Seinfeld, Salvatore M. Aglioti, and Mel Slater. 2013. Putting yourself in the skin of a black avatar reduces implicit racial bias. Consciousness and Cognition 22, 3 (2013), 779--787.

[18]

Ivelina V. Piryankova, Hong Yu Wong, Sally A. Linkenauger, Catherine Stinson, Matthew R. Longo, Heinrich H. Bülthoff, and Betty J. Mohler. 2014. Owning an Overweight or Underweight Body: Distinguishing the Physical, Experienced and Virtual Body. PLOS ONE 9, 8 (2014), 1--13.

[19]

Jim Reilly. 2009. ESRB Made Valve Change Left 4 Dead 2 Cover. (2009). http://www.ign.com/articles/2009/06/ 17/esrb-made-valve-change-left-4-dead-2-cover

[20]

Thomas Schubert, Frank Friedmann, and Holger Regenbrecht. 2001. The Experience of Presence: Factor Analytic Insights. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 10, 3 (2001), 266--281.

Digital Library

[21]

Valentin Schwind, Pascal Knierim, Cagri Tasci, Patrick Franczak, Nico Haas, and Niels Henze. 2017. "These are not my hands!": Effect of Gender on the Perception of Avatar Hands in Virtual Reality. In Proceedings of the 2017 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction (CHI'17). ACM Press, New York, New York, USA.

Digital Library

[22]

Valentin Schwind, Katrin Wolf, Niels Henze, and Oliver Korn. 2015. Determining the Characteristics of Preferred Virtual Faces Using an Avatar Generator. In Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY '15). ACM Press, 221--230.

Digital Library

[23]

Mel Slater, Bernhard Spanlang, Maria V. Sanchez-Vives, and Olaf Blanke. 2010. First Person Experience of Body Transfer in Virtual Reality. PLOS ONE 5, 5 (2010), 1--9.

[24]

William Steptoe, Anthony Steed, and Mel Slater. 2013. Human Tails: Ownership and Control of Extended Humanoid Avatars. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 19, 4 (2013), 583--590.

Digital Library

[25]

Vinoba Vinayagamoorthy, Andrea Brogni, Marco Gillies, Mel Slater, and Anthony Steed. 2004. An investigation of presence response across variations in visual realism. In The 7th Annual International Presence Workshop. 148--155.

[26]

Bob G. Witmer and Michael J. Singer. 1998. Measuring Presence in Virtual Environments: A Presence Questionnaire. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 7, 3 (1998), 225--240.

Digital Library

[27]

Jacob O. Wobbrock, Leah Findlater, Darren Gergle, and James J. Higgins. 2011. The Aligned Rank Transform for Nonparametric Factorial Analyses Using Only Anova Procedures. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '11). ACM Press, 143--146.

Digital Library

Cited By

You CChen HChen PLai WYuan CBi N(2024)Toward Understanding the Impact of Visualized Focus Levels in Virtual Reality on User Presence and ExperienceProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36765278:MHCI(1-30)Online publication date: 24-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3676527
Espositi FBonarini ACai JKankanhalli MPrabhakaran BBoll SSubramanian RZheng LSingh VCesar PXie LXu D(2024)The Room: Design and Embodiment of Spaces as Social BeingsProceedings of the 32nd ACM International Conference on Multimedia10.1145/3664647.3681689(2690-2699)Online publication date: 28-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3664647.3681689
Young JFerreira JPantidi N(2024)"I Shot the Interviewer!": The Effects of In-VR Interviews on Participant Feedback and RapportProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642707(1-17)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642707
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

"Where's Pinky?": The Effects of a Reduced Number of Fingers in Virtual Reality
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Computer graphics
    1. Graphics systems and interfaces
      1. Virtual reality
2. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

Recommendations

The Impact of Missing Fingers in Virtual Reality
VRST '20: Proceedings of the 26th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology

Avatars in virtual reality (VR) can have body structures that differ from the physical self. Game designers, for example, often stylize virtual characters by reducing the number of fingers. Previous work found that the sensation of presence in VR ...
"These are not my hands!": Effect of Gender on the Perception of Avatar Hands in Virtual Reality
CHI '17: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Rendering the user's body in virtual reality increases immersion and presence the illusion of "being there". Recent technology enables determining the pose and position of the hands to render them accordingly while interacting within the virtual ...
Poker in Virtual Reality

This study examines virtual reality (VR) poker and how the platform affects poker players' experience. Players use a self-customized avatar and other features of a computer platform that differs from in-person poker. Data were collected through ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

CHI PLAY '17: Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play

October 2017

590 pages

ISBN:9781450348980

DOI:10.1145/3116595

General Chairs:
Ben Schouten
Eindhoven University of Technology and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands
,
Panos Markopoulos
Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands
,
Phoebe O. Toups Dugas
New Mexico State University, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Paul Cairns
University of York, UK
,
Tilde Bekker
Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands

Copyright © 2017 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Sponsors

SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 15 October 2017

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Funding Sources

German Research Foundation
German Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Conference

CHI PLAY '17

Sponsor:

SIGCHI

CHI PLAY '17: The annual symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play

October 15 - 18, 2017

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Acceptance Rates

CHI PLAY '17 Paper Acceptance Rate 46 of 178 submissions, 26%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 421 of 1,386 submissions, 30%

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

61
Total Citations
View Citations
736
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)72
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)7

Reflects downloads up to 08 Feb 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

You CChen HChen PLai WYuan CBi N(2024)Toward Understanding the Impact of Visualized Focus Levels in Virtual Reality on User Presence and ExperienceProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36765278:MHCI(1-30)Online publication date: 24-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3676527
Espositi FBonarini ACai JKankanhalli MPrabhakaran BBoll SSubramanian RZheng LSingh VCesar PXie LXu D(2024)The Room: Design and Embodiment of Spaces as Social BeingsProceedings of the 32nd ACM International Conference on Multimedia10.1145/3664647.3681689(2690-2699)Online publication date: 28-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3664647.3681689
Young JFerreira JPantidi N(2024)"I Shot the Interviewer!": The Effects of In-VR Interviews on Participant Feedback and RapportProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642707(1-17)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642707
Bhatia APohl HHirzle TSeifi HHornbæk K(2024)Using the Visual Language of Comics to Alter Sensations in Augmented RealityProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642351(1-17)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642351
Chandio YInterrante VAnwar F(2024)Human Factors at Play: Understanding the Impact of Conditioning on Presence and Reaction Time in Mixed RealityIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2024.337212030:5(2400-2410)Online publication date: May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2024.3372120
Chandio YBashir NInterrante VAnwar F(2024)Investigating the Correlation Between Presence and Reaction Time in Mixed RealityIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2023.331956330:9(5976-5992)Online publication date: Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2023.3319563
Anwar MChoi AAhmad SAurangzeb KLaghari AGadekallu THines A(2024)A Moving Metaverse: QoE challenges and standards requirements for immersive media consumption in autonomous vehiclesApplied Soft Computing10.1016/j.asoc.2024.111577159(111577)Online publication date: Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2024.111577
Balcomb NBirk MBateman S(2023)The Effects of Hand Representation on Experience and Performance for 3D Interactions in Virtual Reality GamesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36110667:CHI PLAY(1206-1233)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3611066
Zhang XWu XCools RSimeone AGruenefeld U(2023)ARcoustic: A Mobile Augmented Reality System for Seeing Out-of-View TrafficProceedings of the 15th International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications10.1145/3580585.3606461(178-190)Online publication date: 18-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3580585.3606461
Kleinbeck CSchieber HKreimeier JMartin-Gomez AUnberath MRoth D(2023)Injured Avatars: The Impact of Embodied Anatomies and Virtual Injuries on Well-Being and PerformanceIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2023.332022429:11(4503-4513)Online publication date: Nov-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2023.3320224
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Figures

Tables

Media

View Table of Conten