Bakker, PGA

Sierra Rativa, AG

Sierra Rativa, Alexandra

English

Breda University of Applied Sciences Portal

CONVRGENCEPROCEEDINGSEditor: Simon RichirPublisher: Laval Virtual2022, April 12-14www.laval-virtual.comVIRTUAL REALITY INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCEVRIC conVRgence 2022 PROCEEDINGSFOREWORDThis document presents the proceedings of the VRIC - ConVRgence conference held on April 12-14, 2022. We would like to thank the authors who submitted their research works, as well as the reviewers for their contributions.Simon Richir, Arts et Métiers Institute of Technology, Scientific Director of Laval Virtual Animal Embodiment: Embodying a beaver in immersive virtual environments to create empathy and teach about the impact of global warming in a playful way Sierra Rativa A.1, Bakker G. A.,2, Sierra Rativa, A. G.,3 1Breda University of Applied Sciences, Breda, the Netherlands 2The Future Partners, Rotterdam, the Netherlands 3Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil Corresponding author: Sierra Rativa Alexandra, profealexandrasierra@gmail.com Keywords: animal embodiment ± virtual reality movie ± immersion ± empathy ±climate change ±Justin Beaver Survivor± Justin Beaver VR Abstract: The beaver is an internationally renowned symbol of engineering. Through virtual reality, users can reflect on how difficult it is for these animals to survive in the face of climate change and with an inability to control the natural conditions around them. An experiment in virtual reality gave rise to the possibility of embodying a virtual animal. The results of this experiment showed a significant effect of the visual body appearance on immersion, but no effects on animal embodiment and empathy. The upcoming investigation will allow an investigation of the effects of virtual hands and a more natural (i.e. not anthropomorphized) animal appearance on animal embodiment, immersion, and empathic learning through a virtual reality movie focusing on climate change and global warming. 1. IntroductionOne of the main obstacles to modern education is that it largely remains uninspiring for students and teachers alike, despite major technological innovations. The teaching of climate change awareness through virtual reality presents an unflattering scenario. Markowitz et al. (2018) developed two exciting experiments: In the first of these, they created a combination of a scuba diving trip in a physical world with virtual reality simulation to present the acidification of the ocean, an issue caused by global warming. The results showed that knowledge gain (Ocean Acidification Knowledge) remains stable after weeks of the immersive VR experience. However, there is no significant effect on Environmental Attitude and Presence after using the VR simulation. The second experiment compared two self-avatar representation conditions: a coral avatar and a human scuba diver avatar. The data obtained show that these different avatar appearances or conditions do not improve knowledge gain, evoke no positive attitude toward the environment, and do not create a presence effect on students. A recent study developed by Barnidge et al. (2021) explored whether students learn more about climate change in three conditions: virtual reality (VR), text-with-images (TWI), and 360° video (360°). The results showed that there is no significant effect on learning outcomes in the VR Condition. This study leads us to wonder whether immersive learning with virtual reality simulation could be developed to teach climate change and global warming topics on the basis of virtual worlds.  Animal embodiment is one of the greatest challenges of virtual reality and Human-Computer Interaction Studies. One particular issue is the control of an avatar of certain animals, which have different postures, skeletal arrangements, and shapes compared to human bodies (Krekhov, Cmentowski and Krüger, 2019). Pimentel and Kalyanaraman (2021) described a lack of visuomotor synchrony in virtual reality, for example, when attempting to control a turtle¶s virtual tail. Likewise, a tiger has a significantly different posture from a Laval Virtual VRIC ConVRgence 2022 Proceedings - Page 33human, largely due to the fact that it walks on four legs (Krekhov, Cmentowski and Krüger, 2019; âNROD and Liarokapis, 2021). As illustrated in Figure 1, this study of animal embodiment employed the design of a virtual beaver with anthropomorphic characteristics and mixed biological representations, in order to preserve the natural human posture of participants. Figure 1. Animal embodiment with three conditions: (A) Virtual beaver, (B) virtual robot beaver, and (C) amorphous figure.  2. MethodologyIn our research, we explored the virtual reality value of fostering an immersive and empathic experiencewhere people can µwalk in the shoes¶ of the natural world. An interesting aspect is that the virtual scenariosand self-representation in virtual reality are entirely artificial, although they simulate the natural world.The experiment is FDOOHG³-XVWLQ%HDYHU95´, in which users could be a beaver with a natural (virtualbeaver) or artificial (robot virtual beaver) body, or could instead be an amorphous figure (Sierra Rativa,Postma and Van Zaanen, 2020b). This experiment was designed in virtual reality, and haptic sensoryfeedback was included, whereby users could feel vibrations when swimming, eating branches, andreceiving the impact of a bullet when being hunted. Previously, the same experiment was created in adesktop version (Sierra Rativa, Postma, and Van Zaanen, 2020a). In total, 90 participants were recruitedfrom the university student population of the Netherlands. The participants were between 18 and 35 yearsold, and 57.8% male and 42.2% female. Each condition had the same number of participants. Before theexperiment, the participants filled out a dispositional empathy questionnaire called the InterpersonalReactivity Index (IRI) (Davis, 1980). After the virtual simulation experience, participants completed apost-questionnaire on their experience, containing questions on situational empathy Sierra Rativa, Postmaand Van Zaanen, 2022)a perceived pain questionnaire (Das et al. 2005), an immersion questionnaire(Jennett et al. 2008), and an avatar embodiment questionnaire (Gonzalez-Franco and Peck, 2018). Wereferred to this avatar embodiment questionnaire as µAnimal Embodiment¶, and it was analyzed accordingto the method proposed by Peck and Gonzalez-Franco (2021).3. ResultsIn Figure 2A, we can see that the subscales of Animal Embodiment had a higher mean in the virtual animalcompared to the virtual robot beaver and amorphous figure. Moreover, as shown in Figure 2B, we observed astatistically significant effect of character appearance on immersion, F(2, 89 S Ș However, no significant effect of character appearance was discovered for self-reported Situational EmpathyF (2, 89 S Ș RUAnimal Embodiment F(2, 89) = 1.578, p = 0.604 Ș 012.Laval Virtual VRIC ConVRgence 2022 Proceedings - Page 34Figure 2. Animal Embodiment: (A) Subscales of Animal Embodiment questionnaire, and (B) Comparison between Situational Empathy, Animal Embodiment, and Immersion, depending on character appearance. 4. Future work on animal embodiment in an Interactive Virtual MovieThe results showed that bodily appearance is not the main factor affecting animal embodiment. A possibleaspect relating to this can be explored when users view their embodied avatar in front of a mirror in the virtualreality movie environment with their new virtual animal body, moving their animal appendages, as illustratedin Figure 3. Future research will use two conditions to investigate whether real-life hands ± as opposed to theappendages of the virtual animal ± can affect animal embodiment. We will use an interactive movie called³Justin Beaver Survivor´ IRU WKLVSXUSRVH Moreover, we will explore whether the storyline of this virtualreality movie can affect the learning outcome and empathy of the users. This new understanding can helpimprove expectations of the impact of virtual reality on natural and environmental education.Figure 3. (a) Virtual animal representation where participants can move their animal hands (https://youtu.be/KRa-DQVB0RE), and (b) Virtual animal representation where participants only visualize their virtual animal body in the mirror during the interactive movie (https://youtu.be/u2yNRIHR9gc).  5. Data repositoryOur contribution to Open Science and a transparent Community, our data about "Justin Beaver VR", and ourH[SHULPHQWDOYLGHRDERXWWKH³-XVWLQ%HDYHU6XUYLYRU´PRYLHLVSXEOLFO\DYDLODEOHRQWKH=HQRGRSODWIRUPrestricted only for academic purposes. (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6390959)6. AcknowledgmentsWe would like to especially thank Marie Postma and Menno van Zanne for their contribution to the VRexperiment ³Justin Beaver VR´.Laval Virtual VRIC ConVRgence 2022 Proceedings - Page 357. ReferencesBarnidge, M., Sherrill, L. A., Kim, B., Cooks, E., Deavours, D., Viehouser, M., ... & Zhang, J. (2021). TheEffects of Virtual Reality News on Learning about Climate Change. Mass Communication and Society, 1-24.Das, D.A., Grimmer, K.A., Sparnon, A.L., McRae, S.E., Thomas, B.H., 2005. The efficacy of playing a virtual reality game in modulating pain for children with acute burn injuries: a randomized controlled trial [isrctn87413556]. BMC pediatrics 5, 1±10. Davis, M.H., et al., 1980. A Multidimensional Approach to Individual Differences in Empathy. Technical Report. The University of Texas at Austin. Jennett, C., Cox, A.L., Cairns, P., Dhoparee, S., Epps, A., Tijs, T., Walton, A., 2008. Measuring and defining the experience of immersion in games. International journal of human-computer studies 66, 641±661. Krekhov, A., Cmentowski, S., & Krüger, J. (2019, August). The illusion of animal body ownership and its potential for virtual reality games. In 2019 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG) (pp. 1-8). IEEE. Gonzalez-Franco, M., & Peck, T. C. (2018). Avatar embodiment. towards a standardized questionnaire. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 5, 74. Markowitz, D. M., Laha, R., Perone, B. P., Pea, R. D., & Bailenson, J. N. (2018). Immersive virtual reality field trips facilitate learning about climate change. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 2364. Peck, T. C., & Gonzalez-Franco, M. (2021). Avatar embodiment. a standardized questionnaire. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 1, 44. Pimentel, D., & Kalyanaraman, S. (2021). How Multi-Sensory Animal Embodiment in Virtual Reality Influences Environmental Threat Processing and Conservation Behaviors Sierra Rativa, A. S., Postma, M., & Van Zaanen, M. (2020b). Can virtual reality act as an affective machine? The wild animal embodiment experience and the importance of appearance. Proceedings of the MIT LINC, 3, 214-223. Sierra Rativa, A., Postma, M., & Van Zaanen, M. (2020a). The influence of game character appearance on empathy and immersion: Virtual non-robotic versus robotic animals. Simulation & Gaming, 51(5), 685-711. Sierra Rativa, A. S., Postma, M., & Van Zaanen, M. (2022). Try Walking in My Paws: Is it Possible to Increase Empathy, Immersion, and Perceived Pain in Virtual Reality Environments by Manipulating Animal Character Appearance?. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4014076 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4014076 âNROD F., & Liarokapis, F. (2021). Study of full-body virtual embodiment using noninvasive brain stimulation and imaging. International Journal of Human±Computer Interaction, 37(12), 1116-1129. Laval Virtual VRIC ConVRgence 2022 Proceedings - Page 36

Animal embodiment: embodying a beaver in immersive virtual environments to create empathy and teach about the impact of global warming in a playful way.

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Animal embodiment: embodying a beaver in immersive virtual environments to create empathy and teach about the impact of global warming in a playful way.

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