Being in Virtual Worlds: How Interaction, Environment, and Touch Shape Embodiment in Immersive Experiences

Embodiment is an every­day expe­ri­ence that typ­i­cally goes unno­ticed. While we often take it for granted, with the adop­tion of vir­tual real­ity (VR) tech­nol­ogy, embod­i­ment in vir­tual bodies and worlds has become an impor­tant con­sid­er­a­tion for design­ers of immer­sive expe­ri­ences. To date, the VR design com­mu­nity has pri­mar­ily con­sid­ered embod­i­ment in terms of body own­er­ship over a syn­chro­nized visual rep­re­sen­ta­tion. In this paper, we con­struct an inter­ac­tional frame­work of vir­tual embod­i­ment, begin­ning by revis­it­ing what it really means to be “embod­ied.” Our frame­work recon­nects embod­i­ment and pres­ence in vir­tual envi­ron­ments founded in Dourish’s con­cept of embod­ied inter­ac­tion and Heidegger’s Dasein or “being-in-the-world.” We dis­cuss how embod­i­ment, fun­da­men­tally rooted in past and present inter­ac­tions, changes our under­stand­ing of body own­er­ship and its exten­sion into VR. Integrating the­o­ries from VR research, phi­los­o­phy, HCI, and psy­chol­ogy we uncover the com­plex inter­play of inter­ac­tion, envi­ron­ment, and touch in shap­ing embod­ied expe­ri­ences. We present a novel frame­work for under­stand­ing embod­i­ment in VR rooted in inter­ac­tion, enabling design­ers to create more immer­sive and mean­ing­ful vir­tual worlds.

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