The Human in the Avatar - an investigation into how tracking technologies could change the way we embody and interact in Social VR applications

The Virtual Reality (VR) industry has seen rapid growth since the introduction of consumer-oriented VR Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) such as the Oculus Rift (OculusVR 2015) and the HTC Vive (HTC Corporation 2016). However, these only inject the players head and hands into the virtual world leaving Inverse Kinematics (IK) to calculate the rest of the body. Additional trackers attached to the players limbs can offer a greater accuracy of lower body pose estimation and can open up new ways to interact with a game. This study aims to investigate the viability of new methods of interaction when offered additional tracking such as Facial and Eye tracking. This will be done through experimentation of consumer tracking systems to inform choices made during the developmental stage of a consumer VR Game. Applications of this information could create mechanics based on body language to create immediate feedback for the player.