VIRTUAL REALITY FOR ASSESSING BODY IMAGE: THE BODY IMAGE VIRTUAL REALITY SCALE (BIVRS)

International audienceBIVRS, Body Image Virtual Reality Scale, is a prototype of a diagnostic freewaretool designed to assess cognitive and affective components of body image. Itconsists of a non- immersive 3D graphical interface through which the patient isable to choose between 7 figures which vary in size from underweight tooverweight. The software was developed in two architectures, the first (A)running on a single user desktop computer equipped with a standard virtualreality development software, and the second (B) split into a server (B1)accessible via Internet and actually running the same virtual ambient as in (A),and a VRML client (B2) so that anyone can access the application.The importance of a virtual reality based body image scale relies on thepossibility to rapidly test one's perceived body image in better and differentways. It also provides an opportunity to easily develop a trans-cultural databaseon body image data. Furthermore, the possibility of using 3D can improve theeffectiveness of the test because it is easier for the subject to perceive thedifferences between the various proposed silhouettes