An Augmented and Diminished Reality Exergame for Investigating the Embodiment of a Prosthetic Limb

Bionic limb prosthetics continue to face significant challenges in terms of artificial limb embodiment, often leading to prosthesis abandonment in patients. Following recent results in literature on digital trainings, this study investigates the impact of the visuo-attentive feedback of an Augmented/Diminished Reality (AR/DR) exergame on prosthetic embodiment. Two interaction paradigms were compared, i.e. a reference unrestricted interaction of a virtual prosthetic limb against a one in which the prosthesis and its interaction capability fades over time and requires the participant’s visual-attention to reestablish it. Preliminary findings on non-amputees demonstrated hardship with the visuo-attentive approach which was associated with detrimental effects on the prosthesis embodiment, possibly because of the re-allocation of cognitive resources that are necessary to establish the process of body ownership.