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    INFOMSCIP Assignment 1 Submission For Group 10

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    paul sakelaridis
    This document summarizes an experiment that studied how virtual avatars' muscular appearances affect users' physical performance in virtual reality. The experiment found that male participants exerted more force when using idealized muscular avatars. However, the idealized muscular female avatar may not have aligned with research on the female body ideal. Overall the paper was well conducted but lacked diversity in its participants. The paper makes a contribution to understanding how virtual embodiments influence real-world behavior but would benefit from considering gender differences in body ideals.

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    INFOMSCIP Assignment 1 Submission For Group 10

    Uploaded by

    paul sakelaridis
    39 views4 pages
    This document summarizes an experiment that studied how virtual avatars' muscular appearances affect users' physical performance in virtual reality. The experiment found that male participants exerted more force when using idealized muscular avatars. However, the idealized muscular female avatar may not have aligned with research on the female body ideal. Overall the paper was well conducted but lacked diversity in its participants. The paper makes a contribution to understanding how virtual embodiments influence real-world behavior but would benefit from considering gender differences in body ideals.

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    INFOMSCIP Assignment 1 Submission for Group 10

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    This document summarizes an experiment that studied how virtual avatars' muscular appearances affect users' physical performance in virtual reality. The experiment found that male participants exerted more force when using idealized muscular avatars. However, the idealized muscular female avatar may not have aligned with research on the female body ideal. Overall the paper was well conducted but lacked diversity in its participants. The paper makes a contribution to understanding how virtual embodiments influence real-world behavior but would benefit from considering gender differences in body ideals.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    39 views4 pages

    INFOMSCIP Assignment 1 Submission For Group 10

    Uploaded by

    paul sakelaridis
    This document summarizes an experiment that studied how virtual avatars' muscular appearances affect users' physical performance in virtual reality. The experiment found that male participants exerted more force when using idealized muscular avatars. However, the idealized muscular female avatar may not have aligned with research on the female body ideal. Overall the paper was well conducted but lacked diversity in its participants. The paper makes a contribution to understanding how virtual embodiments influence real-world behavior but would benefit from considering gender differences in body ideals.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    [INFOMSCIP] Assignment 1 Submission for

    Group 10
    Oost, Robert Jalving, Thomas Sakellaridis, Pavlos
    6922856 6056075 0881198
    4.5 hours 4.5 hours 4.5 hours
    September 2021

    Martin Kocur, Melanie Kloss, Valentin Schwind, Christian Wolff, and Niels
    Henze. 2020. Flexing Muscles in Virtual Reality: Effects of Avatars’ Muscular
    Appearance on Physical Performance. In Proceedings of the Annual Symposium
    on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY ’20). Association for Com-
    puting Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 193–205. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3410404.3414261

    1 Contribution type
    We think it is an empirical contribution since they did an experiment, created
    data and made observations. It is not a database contribution since they didn’t
    index the data or make it publicly available.

    2 Reviews
    2.1 Review Robert Oost
    Contribution statement: Covering new ground, this paper is a decent contri-
    bution to the field of HCI, offering useful data for the improvement of physical
    fitness exercise games.
    Overall rating: [4] Weak accept
    Rating of reviewer’s own expertise: [2] Passing knowledge (not my area, but
    comfortable making a judgment)
    This paper builds upon previous work investigating user embodiment of
    avatars with specific attributes, looking past the effects on behaviour and per-
    ception, determining whether a user’s physical performance and perception of
    effort in immersive VR can be influenced. The results produce a measurable
    effect in male participants when using idealized 3D avatars.
    The authors described their methods in clear detail, using established bench-
    marks and tools where possible. Each conclusion is based on meticulous study of

    1
    the resulting experimental data. The paper also opens new avenues of research,
    providing several opportunities of improvement upon the presented work.
    A weak point in this paper’s method and discussion of results is the ab-
    sence of a perceived effect in the female participants, and the given possible
    explanation thereof. With participants only being shown a 3D model of their
    respective genders, female participants were shown an “idealized” muscular 3D
    avatar. The authors later admit that this may not have been in line with the
    conclusions of Kristen Harrison (2003), finding the female ideal body to be com-
    pletely different. Had this been considered beforehand, more efforts could have
    been made to mitigate this gender difference.

    2.2 Review Thomas Jalving


    Contribution statement: The paper looked at the connection between virtual
    avatars and physical performance/endurance. This is significant because the
    findings of this study can be used to further improve the use of serious games
    in physical rehabilitation. Furthermore this paper lays a foundation for more
    extensive research in the area of physical performance and virtual avatars.
    Overall rating: [4] Weak accept
    Rating of reviewer’s own expertise: [2] Passing knowledge (not my area, but
    comfortable making a judgment)
    This paper tackles an interesting HCI question about the connection between
    physical performance and virtual avatars. The topic is very relevant for the CHI
    conference and the improvement of exergames in general. This paper opens up
    new possibilities for better serious games for things like physical therapy.
    Their research fills a gap in the current state of the art studies and supple-
    ments the previous research done to the physiological effects.The paper describes
    the current situation of HCi research into the Proteus effect and adequately cites
    relevant previous work.
    The methodology is explained in fine detail and even I, with limited knowl-
    edge about the mentioned tools, could reproduce the experiment based on their
    description. The results of the experiments are also easily understandable. They
    made use of standardised and tried methods, which further strengthens their
    conclusions.
    The only weakness I could find is in the participants for the experiment.
    They only asked people with similar levels of technical knowledge (which could
    influence BOI in VR) and the body types were not very realistic/representative
    of what you would actually find in a gym.

    2.3 Review Pavlos Sakellaridis


    Score [4] Weak accept
    Rating of reviewer’s own expertise: [2] Passing knowledge (not my area, but
    comfortable making a judgment)
    This paper correlates the connection between the in game appearance of a
    player’s character muscular physic and the output of force he can exert when

    2
    measured. This research posses a very interesting question about the associa-
    tion of VR avatars and the effects they have on our psychological and physical
    responses. I find that this paper is representing great questions for the field of
    player-computer interaction but it is limited in its scope.
    The main strength of the paper lies in its well organized and very elaborated
    methodology and systems. This makes the results exceed in testability and
    replicability while the accuracy of the information that it is producing, clearly
    drive anyone to its conclusion without any confusion.
    On the other hand, it is the limited scope of the experiment, focusing mainly
    on muscle strength, that is its main weakness. Because of the similarities of the
    individuals that participated in the research, the results could be less diverse.

    3 Meta Review
    Meta review: Overall the paper was well written, contributes to the field and
    cited the right works. The methodology can be easily tested and replicated.
    However the weakness of the paper lies within the lack of diversity in the par-
    ticipants and the misrepresentation of a stereotypical fit female body.
    Recommended rating: [4] Weak accept

    4 Analysis of ethics aspects


    4.1 Scientific Value
    The only scientific value that we can assess from this paper is the clear increase
    in perceived exertion when users are presented with a more muscular virtual
    avatar.

    4.2 Beneficence
    Participants were offered a study credit in return for their participation. This
    reward was not to be rescinded even if the participant prematurely quit the
    experiment.

    4.3 Informed Consent


    The participants had to sign an informed consent form before entering the vir-
    tual environment. During the experiment they could leave at any point in time
    without repercussions or losing their compensation.

    4.4 Confidentiality
    No mention was found of how the authors handled confidentiality in their ex-
    periments.

    3
    4.5 Our ethical recommendations
    The only thing we would have liked to see is something about how they handled
    the data. We think the collected data should be stored anonymously, to protect
    the identities of the participants.

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