About me
Lena studied Computer Science and Media (B.Sc.) at the Technische Hochschule Georg Simon Ohm in Nürnberg. She then completed her master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction at the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg.
For her master thesis, she investigated the effect of embodying the self-defined ideal body weight on self-esteem and body perception in virtual reality.
During her time as a master’s student, she worked as a student research assistant on various projects at the institute.
Lena joined the TESDA Research Training Group in April 2026.
2025
Timo Menzel, Erik Wolf, Stephan Wenninger, Niklas Spinczyk, Lena Holderrieth, Carolin Wienrich, Ulrich Schwanecke, Marc Erich Latoschik, Mario Botsch,
Avatars for the masses: smartphone-based reconstruction of humans for virtual reality
, In
Frontiers in Virtual Reality
, Vol.
6
.
2025.
[BibTeX]
[Download]
[BibSonomy]
[Doi]
@article{menzel2025avatars,
title = {Avatars for the masses: smartphone-based reconstruction of humans for virtual reality},
author = {Menzel, Timo and Wolf, Erik and Wenninger, Stephan and Spinczyk, Niklas and Holderrieth, Lena and Wienrich, Carolin and Schwanecke, Ulrich and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Botsch, Mario},
journal = {Frontiers in Virtual Reality},
year = {2025},
volume = {6},
url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/virtual-reality/articles/10.3389/frvir.2025.1583474/pdf},
doi = {10.3389/frvir.2025.1583474}
}
Lena Holderrieth, Erik Wolf, Marie Luisa Fiedler, Mario Botsch, Marc Erich Latoschik, Carolin Wienrich,
Do You Feel Better? The Impact of Embodying Photorealistic Avatars with Ideal Body Weight on Attractiveness and Self-Esteem in Virtual Reality
, In
2025 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (IEEE VRW)
, pp. 1404-1405
.
IEEE Computer Science
, 2025.
Best Poster 🏆
[BibTeX]
[Abstract]
[Download]
[BibSonomy]
[Doi]
@inproceedings{holderrieth2025better,
title = {Do You Feel Better? The Impact of Embodying Photorealistic Avatars with Ideal Body Weight on Attractiveness and Self-Esteem in Virtual Reality},
author = {Holderrieth, Lena and Wolf, Erik and Fiedler, Marie Luisa and Botsch, Mario and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Wienrich, Carolin},
booktitle = {2025 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (IEEE VRW)},
year = {2025},
pages = {1404-1405},
publisher = {IEEE Computer Science},
note = {Best Poster 🏆},
url = {https://downloads.hci.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de/2025-ieeevr-holderrieth-do-you-feel-better.pdf},
doi = {10.1109/VRW66409.2025.00348}
}
Abstract: Body weight issues can manifest in low self-esteem through a negative body image or the feeling of unattractiveness. To explore potential interventions, the pilot study examined whether embodying a photorealistically personalized avatar with enhanced attractiveness affects self-esteem. Participants in the manipulation group adjusted their avatar's body weight to their self-defined ideal, while a control group used unmodified avatars. To confirm the manipulation, we measured the perceived avatars' attractiveness. Results showed that participants found avatars at their ideal weight significantly more attractive, confirming an effective manipulation. Further, the ideal weight group showed a clear trend towards higher self-esteem post-exposure.
2024
Timo Menzel, Erik Wolf, Stephan Wenninger, Niklas Spinczyk, Lena Holderrieth, Ulrich Schwanecke, Marc Erich Latoschik, Mario Botsch,
WILDAVATARS: Smartphone-Based Reconstruction of Full-Body Avatars in the Wild
, In
TechRxiv
.
2024.
Preprint
[BibTeX]
[Abstract]
[Download]
[BibSonomy]
[Doi]
@article{menzel2024wildavatars,
title = {WILDAVATARS: Smartphone-Based Reconstruction of Full-Body Avatars in the Wild},
author = {Menzel, Timo and Wolf, Erik and Wenninger, Stephan and Spinczyk, Niklas and Holderrieth, Lena and Schwanecke, Ulrich and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Botsch, Mario},
journal = {TechRxiv},
year = {2024},
note = {Preprint},
url = {https://d197for5662m48.cloudfront.net/documents/publicationstatus/221002/preprint_pdf/475c2f7830adb5d85a17466ac50bc9c5.pdf},
doi = {10.36227/techrxiv.172503940.07538627/v1}
}
Abstract: Realistic full-body avatars play a key role in representing users in virtual environments, where they have been shown to considerably improve body ownership and presence. Driven by the growing demand for realistic virtual humans, extensive research on scanning-based avatar reconstruction has been conducted in recent years. Most methods, however, require complex hardware, such as expensive camera rigs and/or controlled capture setups, thereby restricting avatar generation to specialized labs. We propose WILDAVATARS, an approach that empowers even non-experts without access to complex equipment to capture realistic avatars in the wild. Our avatar generation is based on an easy-to-use smartphone application that guides the user through the scanning process and uploads the captured data to a server, which in a fully automatic manner reconstructs a photorealistic avatar that is ready to be downloaded into a VR application. To increase the availability and foster the use of realistic virtual humans in VR applications we will make WILDAVATARS publicly available for research purposes.
