Eye and Face Tracking in VR: Avatar Embodiment and Enfacement with Realistic and Cartoon Avatars

Date：Dec 2023

Teams:Technische Universität Ilmenau

Writers:Jakob Hartbrich,Florian Weidner,Christian Kunert,Alexander Raake,Wolfgang Broll,Stephanie Arévalo Arboleda

PDF:Eye and Face Tracking in VR: Avatar Embodiment and Enfacement with Realistic and Cartoon Avatars

Abstract

Previous studies have explored the perception of various types of embodied avatars in immersive environments. However, the impact of eye and face tracking with personalized avatars is yet to be explored. In this paper, we investigate the impact of eye and face tracking on embodiment, enfacement, and the uncanny valley with four types of avatars using a VR-based mirroring task. We conducted a study (N=12) and created self-avatars with two rendering styles: a cartoon avatar (created in an avatar generator using a picture of the user’s face) and a photorealistic scanned avatar (created using a 3D scanner), each with and without eye and face tracking and respective adaptation of the mirror image. Our results indicate that adding eye and face tracking can be beneficial for certain enfacement scales (belonged), and we confirm that compared to a cartoon avatar, a scanned realistic avatar results in higher body ownership and increased enfacement (own face, belonging, mirror) — regardless of eye and face tracking. We critically discuss our experiences and outline the limitations of the applied hardware and software with respect to the provided level of control and the applicability for complex tasks such as displaying emotions. We synthesize these findings into a discussion about potential improvements for facial animation in VR and highlight the need for a better level of control, the integration of additional sensing and processing technologies, and an objective metric for comparing facial animation systems.