Social Interaction With Agents and Avatars in Immersive Virtual Environments: A Survey

Abstract

Immersive virtual reality technologies are used in a wide range of fields such as training, education, health, and research. Many of these applications include virtual humans that are classified into avatars and agents. An overview of the applications and the advantages of immersive virtual reality and virtual humans is presented in this survey, as well as the basic concepts and terminology. To be effective, many virtual reality applications require that the users perceive and react socially to the virtual humans in a realistic manner. Numerous studies show that people can react socially to virtual humans; however, this is not always the case. This survey provides an overview of the main findings regarding the factors affecting the social interaction with virtual humans within immersive virtual environments. Finally, this survey highlights the need for further research that can lead to a better understanding of human–virtual human interaction.

Expressiveness of real-time motion captured avatars influences perceived animation realism and perceived quality of social interaction in virtual reality

“…Qi Sun, New York University, United States Michael-Grigoriou, 2022;Rogers et al, 2022;Roth et al, 2016;Seymour et al, 2021;Thomas et al, 2022;Wu et al, 2021).…”

“…While we recognize the importance of both these qualities, in our research we are focused on the visual expressiveness of the avatar. Motion capture technologies can affect the experience of social VR because motion captured avatars are able to convey a wider range of social cues during an interaction (Kokkinara and McDonnell, 2015;Lugrin et al, 2015;Latoschik et al, 2017;Herrera et al, 2020;Kyrlitsias and Michael-Grigoriou, 2022;Rogers et al, 2022). For instance, avatars that express interest with direct eye gaze to our presence and behaviour in VR are often rated as having a higher level of behavioural realism (Aburumman et al, 2022;Grewe et al, 2021;Wu et al, 2021).…”

“…However, motion capture is becoming more accessible and can enhance perceptions of animation realism (Fribourg et al, 2020;Rogers et al, 2022). Avatar expressiveness in VR is important for conveying real life social cues such as eye gaze and gesturing (Aburumman et al, 2022;Cao et al, 2020;Ferstl and McDonnell, 2018;Herrera et al, 2020;Kokkinara and McDonnell, 2015;Kyrlitsias and…”

Pipetting in virtual reality can predict real-life pipetting performance.

“…Social influence refers to changes in a person's cognitions, attitudes, physiological states, and behaviors resulting from the perception that another person is present (Fox et al, 2015). Kyrlitsias and Michael-Grigoriou (2022) propose numerous methods for evaluating the effectiveness of social interactions with virtual humans, including objective measures suitable for VR.…”

"Seeing the Faces Is So Important" -- Experiences From Online Team Meetings on Commercial Virtual Reality Platforms

“…Social presence as "the connection of people via telecommunication systems" has been a central concept for comparing various forms of computer-mediated collaboration for decades (Nowak, 2001). Various factors affect how people interact with each other in VEs, including their visual and behavioral (self-)representation, the perceived agency of others' avatars, and potentially immersion (Kyrlitsias and Michael-Grigoriou, 2022). Different studies yield inconclusive results on the effect of visual realism on social presence (Zibrek and McDonnell, 2019;Kang and Watt, 2013;Bente et al, 2008;Nowak and Biocca, 2003) and imply dependence on other aspects of the simulation such as behavioral realism (Bailenson et al, 2005), which is generally a powerful predictor of social presence (Oh et al, 2018), such as turn-taking in a conversation (Bailenson et al, 2004).…”