''It''+''I'': Virtual Embodiments as Hybrid Experiences

International audienceA dichotomy exists in the way virtual embodiments are currently studied: embodied entities are considered by conversational approaches as other selves whereas avatar approaches study them as users' hosts. Virtual reality applications such as in our case study often propose a different, in between embodiment experience. In the context of a virtual house for sale visit, this paper aims at examining the user's self-reported embodiment perception resulting from such a hybrid experience. To induce variability in this embodiment experience, we manipulated avatar representations (high versus low anthropomorphism) and frame of reference (egocentric versus exocentric). Results show the importance of the entity humanness to foster both experiences. When controlled by humanness, having a conversational experience appears uncorrelated to an avatar experience. This highlights the need to study these hybrid experiences as a combination of both approaches

The multimodal EchoBorg:: Not as smart as it looks

In this paper we present a Multimodal Echoborg interface to explore the effect of different embodiments of an Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA) in an interaction. We compared an interaction where the ECA was embodied as a virtual human (VH) with one where it was embodied as an Echoborg, i.e, a person whose actions are covertly controlled by a dialogue system. The Echoborg in our study not only shadowed the speech output of the dialogue system but also its non-verbal actions. The interactions were structured as a debate between three participants on an ethical dilemma. First, we collected a corpus of debate sessions with three humans debaters. This we used as baseline to design and implement our ECAs. For the experiment, we designed two debate conditions. In one the participant interacted with two ECAs both embodied by virtual humans). In the other the participant interacted with one ECA embodied by a VH and the other by an Echoborg. Our results show that a human embodiment of the ECA overall scores better on perceived social attributes of the ECA. In many other respects the Echoborg scores as poorly as the VH except copresence

Cyber-Virtual Systems: Simulation, Validation & Visualization

We describe our ongoing work and view on simulation, validation and visualization of cyber-physical systems in industrial automation during development, operation and maintenance. System models may represent an existing physical part - for example an existing robot installation - and a software simulated part - for example a possible future extension. We call such systems cyber-virtual systems. In this paper, we present the existing VITELab infrastructure for visualization tasks in industrial automation. The new methodology for simulation and validation motivated in this paper integrates this infrastructure. We are targeting scenarios, where industrial sites which may be in remote locations are modeled and visualized from different sites anywhere in the world. Complementing the visualization work, here, we are also concentrating on software modeling challenges related to cyber-virtual systems and simulation, testing, validation and verification techniques for them. Software models of industrial sites require behavioural models of the components of the industrial sites such as models for tools, robots, workpieces and other machinery as well as communication and sensor facilities. Furthermore, collaboration between sites is an important goal of our work.Comment: Preprint, 9th International Conference on Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering (ENASE 2014

The Avatar as Sociomaterial Entanglement: A Performative Perspective on Identity, Agency and World-Making in Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds are utterly contrived and artificial simulations of the actual world. As such, they offer exciting new opportunities to question taken-for-granted, supposedly naturally-occurring binaries such as subject/objects, human/non-human, and reality/fantasy and to explore computer-mediated work and play in ways that do not rely on a priori boundaries between people and technology, online and off-line identities, and actual and virtual reality. Focusing on the avatar as a sociomaterial assemblage constituted of the embodied user and his/her virtual embodiment, this research explores how virtual worlds users construct agency, identity and reality in situated practice by making agential cuts. Whereas prior research on virtual worlds has tended to frame the distinctions between the avatar and the user, between human and material agency, and between reality and fantasy in more essentialist terms, theorizing these boundaries as given and fixed, this research employs a performative lens. It identifies a number of discursive and material practices virtual world users rely on to construct identity, agency and worlds

CONTINUOUS ARTIFICIAL REALITY EXPERIENCES

Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to continuous artificial reality (XR) experiences. Some implementations can seamlessly transition between XR experiences as a user walks around her home space wearing her XR device. For example, when in the living room, the user can automatically be within an XR home experience, while in the office, the user can automatically be transported to an XR workspace experience, without having to go through a portal and wait for the XR workspace experience to load. Some implementations can preload XR experiences as the user approaches corresponding home areas

Trans youth in Portugal: gendered embodiments

The lived gendered experience of trans youth constitutes a relatively overlooked aspect of current research. Addressing this gap, this study reveals how young trans people in Portugal define their identities and legitimate their bodies in daily life. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 12 Portuguese trans young people, this study focuses on how trans youth situate themselves within dominant paradigms for understanding (trans)gender identities and embodiment. In doing so, this study engages with wider discussion regarding transgender embodiment that aims to move beyond binary/non-binary gender divisions, as well as privilege the voices and lived experiences of trans people. As the study demonstrates, trans youth are able to (re)construct authentic and coherent gendered selves through the incorporation of a diverse range of frameworks available in contemporary society. Although these frameworks may sometimes seem incompatible and contradictory, trans youth demonstrate conditional forms of agency in the way they (re)create their gender identity and embodiment. By revealing the diversity of trans participant discourses, practices and embodiments of gender, this study makes a key contribution to research on trans youth in Portugal and beyond, as well as broader debates.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Reality, education and design challenges in the field of architecture after the embracement of virtual reality

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Arquitetura (área de especialização em Construção e Tecnologia)Virtual Reality (VR) has always been seen as tool with lots of potential, but it has been limited by hardware, high prices, and a lack of consumer-oriented experiences. However, this is slowly changing, and as VR adoption increases, new challenges will arise in the field of architecture. When it comes to VR and architecture, most research are focused on its visualization aspect. However, this dissertation wants to put on the table some less talked topics in architecture that have been. Having the capacity of creating and being immersed in synthetic spaces arise various questions: What is considered real space? How does the language of virtual space differ from physical space? Should architects be involved in the design of virtual spaces? These questions and more shapes what is this work, a non conclusive overview that tries to open discussions and minds about what could mean the interaction between virtual reality and architecture for architects.A tecnologia da Realidade Virtual (RV) sempre foi vista como uma ferramenta com muito potencial, mas tem sido limitada por hardware, preços elevados, e falta de experiências orientadas para o consumidor. No entanto, isto está a mudar lentamente, e à medida que a adopção da RV aumenta, novos desafios irão surgir no campo da arquitectura. Quando se trata de RV e arquitectura, a maioria das investigações falam de seu aspecto como ferramenta de visualização. No entanto, esta dissertação quer colocar em cima da mesa alguns tópicos que têm sido menos falados na arquitectura. Ter a capacidade de criar e estar imerso em espaços sintéticos levanta várias questões: O que é considerado um espaço real? Como é que a linguagem do espaço virtual difere do espaço físico? Os arquitectos devem ser envolvidos na concepção de espaços virtuais? Estas perguntas e mais moldam o que é este trabalho, uma visão geral não conclusiva que tenta abrir discussões e mentes sobre o que poderia significar a interacção entre realidade virtual e arquitectura para nos arquitectos

Enabling collaboration in virtual reality navigators

In this paper we characterize a feature superset for Collaborative Virtual Reality Environments (CVRE), and derive a component framework to transform stand-alone VR navigators into full-fledged multithreaded collaborative environments. The contributions of our approach rely on a cost-effective and extensible technique for loading software components into separate POSIX threads for rendering, user interaction and network communications, and adding a top layer for managing session collaboration. The framework recasts a VR navigator under a distributed peer-to-peer topology for scene and object sharing, using callback hooks for broadcasting remote events and multicamera perspective sharing with avatar interaction. We validate the framework by applying it to our own ALICE VR Navigator. Experimental results show that our approach has good performance in the collaborative inspection of complex models.Postprint (published version

Free the sheep: Improvised song and performance in and around a minecraft community

Recent work around the use of virtual world video games in educational contexts has conceptualised literacies as communal processes, whilst considering complex notions of collaboration through participants' multiplicity of presence in hybrid virtual / physical locations. However, further research is necessary in order to help us understand how the complex interactions afforded by such spaces influence - and are influenced by - children's social relationships. This article draws upon data from a year-long ethnographic study, investigating a group of ten and eleven year old children's engagement with the video game 'Minecraft' as they collaborate to build a 'virtual community'. With a particular focus on the children's improvised singing and use of song during the club, I examine how their creative practices - drawing on a wide range of self-selected resources, played out both in and out of the virtual world - help to fundamentally shape the nature of the space around them. Furthermore, through examination of one particular performance, I demonstrate the importance of ensuring that such details are not written out of accounts of children interactions around technology, if we are to understand the true potential of such environments

Oops... they did it again : pop music nostalgia, collective (re)memory, and post-teeny queer music scenes

This thesis reckons with contemporary trends for early aughts nostalgia to examine the power of collective memory in musical genres and the role of temporality in preserving and deconstructing queer identity. Through intersections of music scene theory, queer temporalities, and cultural memory studies, I argue the collective power and translocal permeation of this scene creates, sustains, and circulates a virtual network of independent music and performance artists. Using textual and discourse analysis, this project explores how this networked music community revises dominant cultural memories of a largely heteronormative moment in popular music history to produce a shared performance language of past sonic, aesthetic, and sartorial references. In merging appropriations and reimaginations of mainstream pop music within queer practices of camp and satire, DIY practices of community-building, and virtual practices of co-production and networked connectivity, this Post-Teeny scene uses (re)memory of pop music’s past to structure their contemporary queer and trans positionalities as imaginative embodiments of more inclusive and utopic futures. The case studies of Rina Sawayama, Dorian Electra, and p1nkstar illustrates this Post-Teeny scene’s unique performative negotiations within frameworks of mainstream pop music and networks of physical and virtual queer subcultures. I contend that these artists’ dynamic temporal and spatial intersections challenge attendant academic binaries of mainstream and subcultural, as well as displaces the heterocentric cannon of music scene literature, to further queer contributions to popular music scholarship. With the increasing global hybridity and digital connectivity of contemporary music cultures, this thesis asserts the power of queer temporality, queer community-building, and queer performance practice to reformat previous music industry exclusions, suggest interventions in contemporary scholarship, and imagine future potentialities of mainstream popular music culture.Radio-Television-Fil