Crossing the Uncanny Valley? Understanding Affinity, Trustworthiness, and Preference for More Realistic Virtual Humans in Immersive Environments

Developers have long strived to create virtual avatars that are more realistic because they are believed to be preferred over less realistic avatars; however, an “Uncanny Valley” exists in which avatars that are almost but not quite realistic trigger aversion. We used a field study to investigate whether users had different affinity, trustworthiness, and preferences for avatars with two levels of realism, one photo-realistic and one a cartoon caricature. We collected survey data and conducted one-on-one interviews with SIGGRAPH conference attendees who watched a live interview carried out utilizing two avatars, either on a large screen 2D video display or via 3D VR headsets. 18 sessions were conducted over four days, with the same person animating the photo realistic avatar but with different individuals animating the caricature avatars. Participants rated the photo-realistic avatar more trustworthy, had more affinity for it, and preferred it as a virtual agent. Participants who observed the interview through VR headsets had even stronger affinity for the photo-realistic avatar and stronger preferences for it as a virtual agent. Interviews further surprisingly suggested that our ability to cross the Uncanny Valley may depend on who controls the avatar, a human or a virtual agent

Facing the Artificial: Understanding Affinity, Trustworthiness, and Preference for More Realistic Digital Humans

In recent years, companies have been developing more realistic looking human faces for digital, virtual agents controlled by artificial intelligence (AI). But how do users feel about interacting with such virtual agents? We used a controlled lab experiment to examine users’ perceived trustworthiness, affinity, and preference towards a real human travel agent appearing via video (i.e., Skype) as well as in the form of a very human-realistic avatar; half of the participants were (deceptively) told the avatar was a virtual agent controlled by AI while the other half were told the avatar was controlled by the same human travel agent. Results show that participants rated the video human agent more trustworthy, had more affinity for him, and preferred him to both avatar versions. Users who believed the avatar was a virtual agent controlled by AI reported the same level of affinity, trustworthiness, and preferences towards the agent as those who believed it was controlled by a human. Thus, use of a realistic digital avatar lowered affinity, trustworthiness, and preferences, but how the avatar was controlled (by human or machine) had no effect. The conclusion is that improved visual fidelity alone makes a significant positive difference and that users are not averse to advanced AI simulating human presence, some may even be anticipating such an advanced technology

Personality Perception in Human Videos Altered by Motion Transfer Networks

The successful portrayal of personality in digital characters improves communication and immersion. Current research focuses on expressing personality through modifying animations using heuristic rules or data-driven models. While studies suggest motion style highly influences the apparent personality, the role of appearance can be similarly essential. This work analyzes the influence of movement and appearance on the perceived personality of short videos altered by motion transfer networks. We label the personalities in conference video clips with a user study to determine the samples that best represent the Five-Factor model's high, neutral, and low traits. We alter these videos using the Thin-Plate Spline Motion Model, utilizing the selected samples as the source and driving inputs. We follow five different cases to study the influence of motion and appearance on personality perception. Our comparative study reveals that motion and appearance influence different factors: motion strongly affects perceived extraversion, and appearance helps convey agreeableness and neuroticism

To Affinity and Beyond: Interactive Digital Humans as a Human Computer Interface

The field of human computer interaction is increasingly exploring the use of more natural, human-like user interfaces to build intelligent agents to aid in everyday life. This is coupled with a move to people using ever more realistic avatars to represent themselves in their digital lives. As the ability to produce emotionally engaging digital human representations is only just now becoming technically possible, there is little research into how to approach such tasks. This is due to both technical complexity and operational implementation cost. This is now changing as we are at a nexus point with new approaches, faster graphics processing and enabling new technologies in machine learning and computer vision becoming available. I articulate the issues required for such digital humans to be considered successfully located on the other side of the phenomenon known as the Uncanny Valley. My results show that a complex mix of perceived and contextual aspects affect the sense making on digital humans and highlights previously undocumented effects of interactivity on the affinity. Users are willing to accept digital humans as a new form of user interface and they react to them emotionally in previously unanticipated ways. My research shows that it is possible to build an effective interactive digital human that crosses the Uncanny Valley. I directly explore what is required to build a visually realistic digital human as a primary research question and I explore if such a realistic face provides sufficient benefit to justify the challenges involved in building it. I conducted a Delphi study to inform the research approaches and then produced a complex digital human character based on these insights. This interactive and realistic digital human avatar represents a major technical undertaking involving multiple teams around the world. Finally, I explored a framework for examining the ethical implications and signpost future research areas