Analyser et comprendre les interactions incarnées en système de réalité virtuelle

Embodied interactions allow the creation of realistic and immersive 3D storytelling scenarios by giving users the possibility to engage with virtual environments through the use of their physical bodies, including gestures, posture, and locomotion. Nonetheless, new methodologies to capture and analyze experiences are required for the case of embodied VR experiences, because of the use of the body as a communication device, stimulating the brain and enabling reactions differently than traditional media. Communication problems are also likely to arise between the experience sought by the designer and the experience lived and interpreted by the user, due to the variety of scenarios and interaction modalities that make up a realistic embodied scenario. To address these challenges, this thesis contributes to the observation, analysis, and comprehension of the lived embodied experiences through the conception of frameworks, models, and methodologies, a subject that has not yet been fully explored in the literature applied to VR. Paul Dourish's theory of embodiment highlights three key elements to take into account for an efficient comprehension of embodied interaction. Inspired by this theory, this thesis is composed of three components: (1) The ontology component, presenting an embodied experience creation framework, to address the creation, the management, and the observation of experiences using embodied interactions in immersive environments; (2) the intentionality component, presenting an embodied interaction analysis methodology, to address the comprehension of the embodied interactions through the analysis of the correlations between the user behavioral data and the system contextual data; and (3) the intersubjectivity component, presenting a designer-system-user communication model in embodied context, to address the communication issues existing between a designer building an embodied experience and a user living this experience. Each component represents a chapter of this thesis, taking a user-centered approach to support designers in their understanding of the embodied experience lived in an immersive context by proposing tools inspired by existing works in human-computer interactions (HCI). To validate our tools, three user studies were conducted. The first study evaluates the system implementation of the proposed creation framework, with participants who possess expertise in 3D experience development. The second study enables embodied interaction observation and analysis by collecting participant behavioral metrics (e.g., body motion, skin conductance) while they perform embodied interactions in VR. The third investigates the communication gulf existing between the designer and the user of an embodied experience by observing and classifying the issues happening during the design and the usage phases of the experience. This thesis can support research that aims at a better understanding of human behavior or the improvement of user experience (e.g., health, HCI) by submitting tools that can support designers in acquiring a better understanding of how embodied experiences are lived in VR.