One Body, Two Minds: Alternating VR Perspective During Remote Teleoperation of Supernumerary Limbs

Remote VR teleoperation with supernumerary limbs enables distant users to operate in a local user’s space, for instance, using locally worn robotic arms. While this enables many applications, tying the remote view to the local user’s head can impair comfort, embodiment, and coordination. Informed by a formative study (N=10), we propose two alternative guest-driven perspective switching mechanisms: (a) a stabilised view with guest-controlled rotation (Embedded Anchored View), and (b) a fully decoupled third-person view (Out-of-body View) and compare them to the shared first-person baseline (Shared Embodied View). We studied 24 pairs (N=48) using the switching mechanisms and measured task performance, as well as fatigue, cybersickness, and embodiment. Our results reveal role-dependent trade-offs: Out-of-body View improves navigation and reduces fatigue, while Embedded Anchored View supports precision and embodiment. We conclude with guidelines to ensure smooth transitions between perspectives.

@inproceedings{10.1145/3772318.3791433,
  author = {Zhou, Hongyu and Huang, Xincheng and Wijaya, Winston and Cheng, Yi Fei and Lindlbauer, David and Velloso, Eduardo and Bianchi, Andrea and Sarsenbayeva, Zhanna and Withana, Anusha},
  title = {One Body, Two Minds: Alternating VR Perspective During Remote Teleoperation of Supernumerary Limbs},
  year = {2026},
  isbn = {9798400722783},
  publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  address = {New York, NY, USA},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791433},
  doi = {10.1145/3772318.3791433},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
  articleno = {822},
  numpages = {20},
  keywords = {Virtual Reality, User Experience, Supernumerary Robotic Limbs},
  series = {CHI '26}
}