Enhancing Virtual Walking in Lying Position: Upright Perception by Changing Self-Avatar's Posture

We aimed to decrease visual-proprioceptive conflict in experiencing virtual walking with the lying posture. An optic flow during an avatar's standing up was presented before virtual walking that was induced by the radial optic flow and foot vibrations. The walking sensation and telepresence slightly increased by the standing-up optic flow, but it did not reach statistical significance. Participants felt as the posture was more matched to the walking avatar with the standing-up optic flow compared to the noanimation condition. These results highlight the potential for posture-informed VR design to improve user experiences in a situation with visual-proprioceptive conflict.