Effects of Skin-to-Skin Interaction Through Avatars on Users in a VR Environment

Abstract

With the recent expansion of the effects of the Corona Disaster, research on communication using social VR content has been active from the viewpoints of safety and convenience. It has been reported that synchronizing the movements of an avatar with those of an actual body contributes to a sense of physical possession and spatial awareness. It has also been reported that body contact in nursing homes has the effect of facilitating communication by giving the other person a sense of security. This paper addresses the effect of physical contact via VR avatars. In this study, we collected experimental data on the effect of physical contact through avatars on 44 healthy young men and women through a physiological psychometric experiment. There, we had them converse in a common VR space and evaluated the physiological psychological effects of physical contact during the conversation. As a result of the experiment, nasal skin temperature increased significantly during conversation while shaking hands, compared to conversation without physical contact. We concluded that this biological response was due to the relaxation effect brought about by the physical contact of shaking hands. Visual information, one of the five human senses, has a stronger influence on our perception of the outside world than other sensory information. We showed that visual information of touching or being touched is useful even in a VR environment where there is no physical contact between users.