The Human Octopus: Controlling Supernumerary Hands with the Help of Virtual Reality
Name
Sander Kulu
Abstract
This thesis is about investigating the “human octopus” phenomenon which involves con-trolling various supernumerary hands with the help of virtual reality and hand tracking technology. A set of experiments were developed in order to observe how subjects operate with different number and control strategies of supernumerary hands. The control strate-gies involved inserting delay into the supernumerary hands and adjusting their movement scale or position. It was found that having more hands to operate with does not necessarily mean that one would be more successful performing a certain task. However, one could make supernumerary hands more effective by adjusting movement scale of the hands if it suits the task better. Furthermore, the natural feeling and ownership of the hands seems to diminish when delay is inserted into the hands or their position is altered. Therefore, body avatar extension is a difficult task and needs to be done carefully in order for it to feel natural. It was also found that using head movement to assist controlling supernumerary hands is something that is worth researching more into. Body avatars with supernumerary hands also have great potential in entertainment industry.
Graduation Thesis language
English
Graduation Thesis type
Bachelor - Computer Science
Supervisor(s)
Jaan Aru, Madis Vasser, Raul Vicente Zafra
Defence year
2016