The Effect on Lower Spine Muscle Activation of Walking on a Narrow Beam in Virtual Reality

Abstract

Abstract-To what extent do people behave in immersive virtual environments as they would in similar situations in a physical environment? There are many ways to address this question, ranging from questionnaires, behavioral studies, and the use of physiological measures. Here we compare the onsets of muscle activity using surface electromyography (EMG) while participants were walking under three different conditions: on a normal floor surface, on a narrow ribbon along the floor, and on a narrow platform raised off the floor. The same situation was rendered in an immersive virtual environment (IVE) Cave-like system, and 12 participants did the three types of walking in a counter-balanced within-groups design. The mean number of EMG activity onsets per unit time followed the same pattern in the virtual environment as in the physical environmentsignificantly higher for walking on the platform compared to walking on the floor. Even though participants knew that they were in fact really walking at floor level in the virtual environment condition, the visual illusion of walking on a raised platform was sufficient to influence their behavior in a measurable way. This opens up the door for this technique to be used in gait and posture related scenarios including rehabilitation.

A Study on Immersion and VR Sickness in Walking Interaction for Immersive Virtual Reality Applications

“…A wide variety of research on user-oriented interactions in VR has been conducted to this point, such as a study on capturing the elaborate motions of hands and fingers using optical markers and surface markers, and reflecting these motions in a virtual space [9,10], a study on the improvement of immersion by coupling the sense of touching the ground with a sound [11], and a study on the realistic expression of various behaviors such as going up stairs and pushing against a wall in a virtual space [12]. Furthermore, thoughts and behaviors can change based on the environment or conditions that the user encounters in VR [13]; the presence that users experience in VR through various approaches, such as perspective and muscle activity [14,15], has also been researched. Recently, the effects of VR on users have been analyzed with various approaches, including psychology, neuroscience, and sociology [3].…”

Ways to Measure Spatial Presence: Review and Future Directions

“…Antley and Slater ( 2011 ) recorded onsets of muscle activity using EMG sensors attached to lower spine and showed that an increase in muscle activation that is induced by walking on a narrow platform could also be elicited within an immersive VR.…”

Breaks in Presence in Virtual Environments: An Analysis of Blood Flow Velocity Responses

“…This analysis has usually been related to stressful situations (Meehan et al, 2002;Slater et al, 2006). However, recent works have also applied it to non-stressful environments (Antley & Slater, 2009).…”