TY  - JOUR
A1  - Döllinger, Nina
A1  - Wolf, Erik
A1  - Mal, David
A1  - Wenninger, Stephan
A1  - Botsch, Mario
A1  - Latoschik, Marc Erich
A1  - Wienrich, Carolin
T1  - Resize Me! Exploring the user experience of embodied realistic modulatable avatars for body image intervention in virtual reality
JF  - Frontiers in Virtual Reality
N2  - Obesity is a serious disease that can affect both physical and psychological well-being. Due to weight stigmatization, many affected individuals suffer from body image disturbances whereby they perceive their body in a distorted way, evaluate it negatively, or neglect it. Beyond established interventions such as mirror exposure, recent advancements aim to complement body image treatments by the embodiment of visually altered virtual bodies in virtual reality (VR). We present a high-fidelity prototype of an advanced VR system that allows users to embody a rapidly generated personalized, photorealistic avatar and to realistically modulate its body weight in real-time within a carefully designed virtual environment. In a formative multi-method approach, a total of 12 participants rated the general user experience (UX) of our system during body scan and VR experience using semi-structured qualitative interviews and multiple quantitative UX measures. Using body weight modification tasks, we further compared three different interaction methods for real-time body weight modification and measured our system’s impact on the body image relevant measures body awareness and body weight perception. From the feedback received, demonstrating an already solid UX of our overall system and providing constructive input for further improvement, we derived a set of design guidelines to guide future development and evaluation processes of systems supporting body image interventions.
KW  - virtual reality
KW  - avatar embodiment
KW  - user experience
KW  - body awareness
KW  - body weight perception
KW  - body weight modification
KW  - body image disturbance
KW  - eating and body weight disorders
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-292940
SN  - 2673-4192
VL  - 3
ER  -