Pilot Study: The Effect of Real User Body Cues on The Perception of Virtual Body

We present a pilot user study that investigates the impact of real body cues and virtual body continuity on virtual body ownership and presence. Our work builds on two recent studies focusing on a person’s sense of body ownership: one addressed body continuity, the unbroken visual connection of virtual torso to hand; the other concentrated on real body visual cues. Each addressed factors that had not yet been considered in detail in other virtual body ownership illusion studies. Our results indicate a positive correlation of real body cues and virtual body continuity on body ownership but not necessarily on presence. Based on our results we have designed a summative study that we introduce here. We anticipate that the results of our summative study will provide valuable design guidelines for all virtual reality systems.