Proprioceptive Puppeteering: Enhancing Lower-Body Control in Virtual Avatars

Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) present promising new solutions for pain management, particularly for phantom limb pain (PLP) in amputee patients. These technologies enable immersive experiences that promote the embodiment of missing limbs, offering novel therapeutic possibilities. However, fully embodying one’s lower limbs with a virtual avatar can be difficult due to the lack of robust lower-body alignment techniques. To address this, two lower-body control interfaces were designed for use within both VR and MR environments. A user study with 40 healthy participants assessed how the immersive environment (VR vs. MR) influences task performance, sense of embodiment, and system usability during a body alignment task.