Virtual reality for body substitution
A team from the University of Barcelona (Spain) led by Professor Mel Slater - a researcher for the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) based at the UBʼs Faculty of Psychology - has conducted a range of experiments to demonstrate how virtual reality can be used to give the illusion that the whole body has changed. The results will be presented during the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that takes place this weekend in Washington.
A team from the University of Barcelona (Spain) led by Professor Mel Slater - a researcher for the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) based at the UBʼs Faculty of Psychology - has conducted a range of experiments to demonstrate how virtual reality can be used to give the illusion that the whole body has changed. The results will be presented during the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that takes place this weekend in Washington.
Researchers working at the Experimental Virtual Environments (EVENT) Lab for Neuroscience and Technology from the UB, which is directed by Professor Slater, have conducted an experiment to demonstrate how men can be tricked into thinking that their body has changed and been transformed into that of a woman. In another experiment the team has demonstrated how a similar technique can be used to induce the illusion of being fat. As Professor Slater explains, “Virtual reality has the power to transform our sensation not only of where we are but also of who we are”.
Articles reference:
Slater M, Spanlang B, Sanchez-Vives MV, Blanke O (2010). First Person Experience of Body Transfer in Virtual Reality. PLoS ONE 5(5): e10564. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010564