A Cardboard-Based Virtual Reality Study on Self-Avatar Appearance and Breathing

Cardboard-based virtual reality is an affordable solution for experiencing virtual reality content. Particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, several studies used cardboard-based virtual reality remotely to minimize viral spread. We conducted a study to explore the potentials of low-cost virtual reality on participants' sense of presence and body ownership illusion in our research lab, thereby providing a controlled research setting. Our 2 (Avatar: realistic vs. mannequin self-avatar) × 2 (Breathing; breathing vs. no breathing motion) study investigated presence and body ownership when participants were instructed to observe a virtual environment passively through a cardboard-based virtual reality application while being embodied as a self-avatar. Our study's results indicated that: (1) the mannequin self-avatar exerted a stronger effect on participants' presence; (2) younger participants who experienced the mannequin avatar reported stronger body ownership compared with older participants; and (3) while experiencing a mannequin avatar with no breathing motion, participants with prior VR experience reported higher body ownership illusion compared with participants with no prior VR experience. In this paper, we discuss our findings, as well as the study's limitations and future research directions.