Evaluating movement qualities with visual feedback for real-time motion capture

The focus of this paper is to investigate how the design of visual feedback on full body movement affects the quality of the movements. Informed by the theory of embodiment in interaction design and media technology, as well as by the Laban theory of effort, a computer application was implemented in which users are able to project their movements onto two visuals ('Particle' and 'Metal') We investigated whether the visual designs influenced movers through an experiment where participants were randomly assigned to one of the visuals while performing a set of simple tasks. Qualitative analysis of participants' verbal movement descriptions as well as analysis of quantitative movement features combine several perspectives with respect to describing the differences and the change in the movement qualities. The qualitative data shows clear differences between the groups. The quantitative data indicates that all groups move differently when visual feedback is provided. Our results contribute to the design effort of visual modality in movement-focused design of extended realities.