1st Workshop on Perception and Animation of Dissimilar AvatarS

17 March 2024, Orlando

Workshop description

Virtual Reality (VR) allows unique experiences where users can embody avatars that go beyond the limit of their real bodies. Such avatars may also be called dissimilar avatars as they differ from users’ real bodies by either subtle modifications (e.g., another body proportion, skin tone, etc.) or more extreme body changes (e.g., robot, animal, creature body, etc.). Their diverse applications range from the film industry (e.g., helping actors to improve their performance of a computer-generated creature) to environmental purposes (e.g., using animal embodiment scenarios to enhance users’ empathy towards threatened animal species and provide climate-change visualizations). Their use may also provide novel interaction means or alter the perception of affordances in VR and create virtual identities, contributing to new knowledge in cognitive sciences, psychology, etc.

However, the study of dissimilar avatars is a complex multidisciplinary topic, and despite the increasing interest in them, a lot of challenges remain to be overcome to fully take advantage of their benefits. First, given the sparsity and multi-disciplinary dimension of research related to dissimilar avatars, it tends to lack a common understanding and methodology to explore them. Second, technical and scientific challenges remain to be investigated in order for users to feel a sense of embodiment towards their avatars and provide effective experiences. In that sense, complex algorithms have to be explored to provide good real-time control of dissimilar avatars whose morphology might strongly differ from the users’ bodies. Novel multisensory feedback methods also have to be investigated in order to improve the sense of owning a body strongly different than one’s own (e.g., audio or tactile feedback, etc.).

The objective of the PANDAS workshop is threefold. Through a selection of submitted presentations (short papers) and a panel with experts in VR and avatars, we will:

Present state-of-the-art research on dissimilar avatars - We will discuss how dissimilar avatars and irregular forms of embodiment in general (such as co-embodiment) have been studied in previous research, and what aspects of their perception have been discovered until now.
Present examples and limitations of control/perception/interaction/animation with dissimilar avatars - We will discuss specific implementations of dissimilar avatars presented in the research contributions of the workshop and discuss lessons and design guidelines that can be learned from these contributions.
Discuss and address future work and requirements for improving and developing new types of avatars - We will summarize insights gained by the presenters and identify potential common problems and barriers to wider adoption of dissimilar avatars, identifying the most promising avenues for research.

PANDAS will take place for half of a day in the hybrid format, with presentations conducted on-site and online and streamed online.

The workshop will consist of a keynote session with invited speakers, a paper presentation session with presentations of peer-reviewed accepted contributions as well as late-breaking-work reports, and a panel session aimed to create a lively cross-community discussion of dissimilar avatars, current limitations, and their future potential.

Topics of interest

Workshop organizers call for submissions of research papers, technical notes, and position papers and encourage the submission of work-in-progress research on the following topics (see call for papers page for further information):

Design of dissimilar avatars for VR
Perception/embodiment with dissimilar virtual avatars
Interaction with dissimilar virtual avatars
Animation/motion/control of dissimilar virtual avatars
VR applications of dissimilar avatars

Date and Location

The workshop IEEE-PANDAS will take place during the 31st IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR 2024) conference, which will be held from March 16-20, 2024, in Orlando, USA.

IEEE-PANDAS is a half-day workshop, and it will be held in person.

Keynote Speakers

Anatole Lécuyer (Inria Rennes)

Title: Challenging the experience of embodying dissimilar avatars in virtual reality

Abstract: In this talk, we will present our past, present, and future research activities on the topic of dissimilar avatars in virtual reality. We will begin by presenting our early attempts to embody dissimilar avatars in virtual and augmented reality, including in particular the use of virtual bodies with a strong "mismatch" as in our "6-finger illusion", "very-long-arm", or "virtual co-embodiment" experiments. We will then present our taxonomy and review previous research on dissimilar avatars. Finally, we will discuss important challenges and open questions in this field, such as experimental methodology and measurement techniques, the different factors that can elicit a "good" virtual embodiment, the importance of multisensory and "haptic" feedback, or the need for new 3D interaction techniques to better control dissimilar virtual bodies.

Bio: Anatole Lécuyer is the director of research and head of Hybrid team at Inria, in Rennes, France. He has been leading a research activity on “Virtual Reality” for the past 25 years. He was involved in numerous international collaborations such as with European “GuestXR” or “NIW” projects. He initiated and still leads the OpenViBE open-source software, and co-founded the Mensia startup company. He authored more than 200 scientific publications and 15 patents. He served notably as program chair of IEEE VR conference (2015-2016) and associate editor of IEEE TVCG journal. He obtained the Inria-French Academy of Sciences “Young Researcher Prize” in 2013, the IEEE VGTC Technical Achievement Award in Virtual/Augmented Reality in 2019, and was inducted in the IEEE Virtual Reality Academy in 2022.

Rachel McDonell (Trinity College Dublin)

Title: Take a walk on the wild side: experimenting with human & animal avatars in virtual worlds

Abstract: Virtual reality allows us to immerse ourselves in alternative worlds in which we can embody avatars to take on new identities. The appearance of these avatars can have profound effects on how we are perceived and how we behave in virtual worlds. Usually, avatars are humanoid or possess very strong anthropomorphic qualities. Allowing users of VR to embody non-humanoid virtual characters or animals presents additional challenges. Extreme morphological differences and the complexities of different characters' motions can make the construction of a real-time mapping between input human motion and target character motion a difficult challenge. In this talk, I will discuss research that I have conducted over the years on the perception of virtual human appearances and how they can effect social interactions in VR. I will also discuss our recent research on realistic embodiment of animals!

Bio: Dr Rachel McDonnell is an Associate Professor in Creative Technologies at Trinity College Dublin and fellow of Trinity College. She has been a member of a number of editorial boards and international program committees of top conferences such as ACM SIGGRAPH, Eurographics, and IEEE Virtual Reality, and has been program chair for conferences including the ACM Symposium on Applied Perception, ACM/SIGGRAPH Conference on Motion, Interaction, and Games, and Eurographics STARs Programme. Her main research interests are Computer Graphics, Perception, Virtual Humans and Virtual Reality. She combines research in cutting-edge computer graphics and investigating the perception of virtual characters to both deepen our understanding of how virtual humans are perceived and directly provide new algorithms and guidelines for industry developers on where to focus their efforts.