Investigating Control Mappings for Spider Embodiment in Virtual Reality

Abstract

Virtual Reality allows users to embody vast types of avatars, including ones very different in skeletal structure than themselves. Designing control mappings for such avatars can be a difficult task, since humans might lack physiological capabilities to control all of their virtual body parts. Spiders are a particularly intriguing subject for such a case, being the most common animal phobia, while also being present in everyday life and different types of media. This makes them a prime target to be used in virtual reality games, as well as for potential therapeutic applications. However, there is little research investigating how a spider avatar in virtual reality could be controlled. In this thesis, we investigate four distinct control mappings: Finger-Mapping, Half-Body, Full-Body and Joystick-Locomotion. These were evaluated for perceived exertion, spider distress, usability, virtual embodiment and task scores. We identified Half-Body as the clear best mapping in terms of usability, task performance and subjective user ratings, while also performing well in other metrics. Full-Body, on the other hand, fell short in most areas. Additionally, we were not able to measure an effect of spider embodiment on spider distress. Contrary to previous literature, we could not find a correlation between control mapping and virtual embodiment scores either.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	English
Supervisor	Martin Kocur (Supervisor)