Developing Avatar Transformation Methodologies in Extended Reality

Developing Avatar Transformation Methodologies in Extended Reality Level of qualifications required : Master's or equivalent Fonction : Internship Research About the research centre or Inria department The Inria Centre at the University of Rennes is one of Inria's nine centres and is home to more than thirty research teams. It is a major and well-recognized player in the field of digital science. The centre is at the heart of a rich ecosystem of R&D and innovation, involving highly innovative SMEs, large industrial groups, competitiveness clusters, research and higher education institutions, excellence laboratories, and a technological research institute. Context Over recent years, a growing attention has been observed towards the various benefits that users can obtain by embodying a virtual body different from their own in VR (dissimilar avatars[1]). For example, the capacity to interact in VR can be eased by elongating user's virtual arm[2], patients' pain can be reduced by altering a wound's appearance[3], users can experience supernatural interactions by embodying an animal body[4], and changes in the avatar can alter the user's behavioural responses[5]. However, in realistic and complex scenarios, the tasks, contexts and goals are constantly changing. Hence, it is not only important to design different avatars corresponding to these needs, but also to think about how to enable the avatar appearance to dynamically adapt to the modulation of these needs while enabling efficient interaction. However, to this day, this question has received limited attention, which leaves XR designers without practical solution to benefits from the diversity of dissimilar avatars applications, and remains even more challenging on cross-reality applications in which the user can transition between VR and AR scenarios. Assignment The primary goal of this internship is to investigate strategies for designing avatar transformations in cross-reality environments following a human-centred design methodology. Specifically, we aim to assess how different approaches influence two key aspects of the user experience: (a) usability, i.e., the ease with which users interact with virtual content via their avatar, and (b) the sense of embodiment, i.e., the psychological experience of embodying the avatar [6]. Several design factors will be considered, including the input device, avatar visual representation [4], control laws (mapping user actions to avatar actions) [2], and interaction metaphors [7], considering both perception and motor research. Beyond formalizing and prototyping novel interaction methods, the research will experimentally evaluate the most promising methods to assess their impact on users' performance and sense of embodiment. If the results are conclusive, the intern will also have the possibility to write a research paper with the support of the supervisors. The internship is open for a duration of 6 months, with a potential opening towards a PhD depending on funding opportunities. The candidate will be provided with all the required equipment to conduct the research (i.e., VR/AR hardware). [1] A. Cheymol, R. Fribourg, A. Lécuyer, J.-M. Normand, et F. Argelaguet, Beyond my Real Body: Characterization, Impacts, Applications and Perspectives of "Dissimilar" Avatars in Virtual Reality, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, p. 12, 2023. [2] I. Poupyrev, M. Billinghurst, S. Weghorst, et T. Ichikawa, The go-go interaction technique: non-linear mapping for direct manipulation in VR, ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, 1996, p. 79-80. [3] M. Matamala-Gomez, A. M. Diaz Gonzalez, M. Slater, et M. V. Sanchez-Vives, Decreasing Pain Ratings in Chronic Arm Pain Through Changing a Virtual Body: Different Strategies for Different Pain Types, Journal of Pain, vol. 20, no 6, p. 685-697, 2019. [4] A. Krekhov, S. Cmentowski, K. Emmerich, et J. Krüger, Beyond Human: Animals as an Escape from Stereotype Avatars in Virtual Reality Games, in Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, Barcelona Spain: ACM, oct. 2019, p. 439-451. [5] A. Cheymol, J. Wallace, J. Yoneyama, R. Fribourg, J.M. Normand & F. Argelaguet. Measuring the Impact of Objects' Physicalization, Avatar Appearance, and their Consistency on Pick-and-Place Performance in AR. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. 2025. [6] K. Kilteni, R. Groten, et M. Slater, The Sense of Embodiment in Virtual Reality, Presence Teleoperators Virtual Environ., vol. 21, no 4, p. 373-387, 2012. [7] J.J. LaViola, E. Kruijff, R. McMahan, D. Bowman, D., I.Poupyrev. 3D user interfaces: theory and practice. Addison-Wesley Professional. 2017. Skills The candidate should be comfortable with as much following items as possible: * Experience in the development of 3D/VR applications (e.g., Unity3D, Unreal Engine).

• Knowledge or human-computer interaction. * Good spoken and written English. Benefits package * Social, cultural and sports events and activities * Theme/Domain : Interaction and visualization Software Experimental platforms (BAP E) Warning : you must enter your e-mail address in order to save your application to Inria. Applications must be submitted online on the Inria website. Processing of applications sent from other channels is not guaranteed. Instruction to apply Please submit online : your resume, cover letter and letters of recommendation eventually Defence Security : This position is likely to be situated in a restricted area (ZRR), as defined in Decree No. 2011-1425 relating to the protection of national scientific and technical potential (PPST). Authorisation to enter an area is granted by the director of the unit, following a favourable Ministerial decision, as defined in the decree of 3 July 2012 relating to the PPST. An

unfavourable Ministerial decision in respect of a position situated in a ZRR would result in the cancellation of the appointment. Recruitment Policy : As part of its diversity policy, all Inria positions are accessible to people with disabilities. Inria is the French national research institute dedicated to digital science and technology. It employs 2,600 people. Its 200 agile project teams, generally run jointly with academic partners, include more than 3,500 scientists and engineers working to meet the challenges of digital technology, often at the interface with other disciplines. The Institute also employs numerous talents in over forty different professions. 900 research support staff contribute to the preparation and development of scientific and entrepreneurial projects that have a worldwide impact. #J-18808-Ljbffr