Heautoscopy—the phenomenon where individuals perceive their body from a third person viewpoint like meeting one’s doppelganger—engages multiple sensory systems, including visual, proprioceptive, and vestibular. Despite its significance, existing methodologies lack effectiveness in actively inducing strong heautoscopic experiences through voluntary participant movements[Altschuler and Ramachandran 2007][Blanke and Metzinger 2009][Nakul et al. 2020].
This paper introduces an XR hide-and-seek game designed to induce heautoscopic experiences by integrating traditional game mechanics with an extracorporeal viewpoint. Players alternate between the roles of seeker and hider, experiencing an altered bodily self-perception through the interaction of their physical and virtual bodies. This demonstrates how VR technology can expand the boundaries of bodily awareness and reveal cognitive plasticity.
Contributors
Cajole
Sohei Wakisaka
Tatsuya Saito
Kouta Minamizawa
VRC Award Finalist