Luxury Fashion in Metaverse: What are the strategies employed by fashion brands in virtual worlds?

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Data Driven Marketing, specialization in Marketing IntelligenceThe metaverse, a platform bridging the real and virtual worlds, has recently emerged as an attractive business avenue, particularly for the fashion industry. Fashion brands are increasingly exploring the metaverse as a novel marketing platform to connect with younger audiences. However, the concept of the metaverse lacks consensus, and there is limited academic research on its impact on fashion brands' marketing strategies and immersive brand experiences. To address these gaps, this study employs a qualitative approach, utilizing immersive netnographic research conducted on gaming and virtual platforms to firsthand observe luxury brands' strategies. The analysis reveals three key strategies employed by fashion brands in the metaverse. Firstly, luxury brands establish their own virtual spaces within gaming platforms and virtual worlds to showcase their products and engage consumers. Secondly, brands strive to captivate and involve consumers through highly immersive experiences. Lastly, economic transactions within the metaverse predominantly rely on non-fungible tokens (NFTs), enabling brands to sell digital assets and maintain exclusivity. This study not only identifies the primary strategies of fashion brands but also serves as a model for future research endeavors aiming to conduct immersive netnographic studies in this evolving landscape

Coming to your senses: exploring the role of touch in physical and digitally immersive consumption experiences

This dissertation consists of two empirical papers in which I examine the Need for Touch (NFT)in two settings where the ability to touch is disrupted, exploring the role of touch and other senses in physical and metaverse consumption experiences. In the first paper, I investigate the pandemic\u27s influence on consumer shopping behaviors, focusing on the coping mechanisms for reduced tactile interactions. The research uses an exploratory, inductive sequential design to chronicle shopping experiences through longitudinal interviews and autodriving. The findings reveal two primary themes: Shopping as a Reprieve and Fear of Shopping. This research underscores the intricate connection between grieving and the sensory deprivation of touch in traumatic events like COVID-19. In the second paper, I adopt a mixed-method approach that combines short-form interviews and a 2x2 between-subjects design experiment to test whether the physical touch of a featured product before a virtual encounter affects brand attitudes, examining the moderating role of the NFT. A multiple linear regression analysis shows a significant interaction between the physical touch condition and the NFT on brand attitudes. Individuals with high-NFT reported lower brand attitudes, while low-NFT participants express enhanced positivity towards the brand. This paper contributes insights into the interplay between tactile experiences and the NFT on the formation of attitudes toward brands encountered in digitally immersive environments

All Hands on Deck: Choosing Virtual End Effector Representations to Improve Near Field Object Manipulation Interactions in Extended Reality

Extended reality, or XR , is the adopted umbrella term that is heavily gaining traction to collectively describe Virtual reality (VR), Augmented reality (AR), and Mixed reality (MR) technologies. Together, these technologies extend the reality that we experience either by creating a fully immersive experience like in VR or by blending in the virtual and real worlds like in AR and MR. The sustained success of XR in the workplace largely hinges on its ability to facilitate efficient user interactions. Similar to interacting with objects in the real world, users in XR typically interact with virtual integrants like objects, menus, windows, and information that convolve together to form the overall experience. Most of these interactions involve near-field object manipulation for which users are generally provisioned with visual representations of themselves also called self-avatars. Representations that involve only the distal entity are called end-effector representations and they shape how users perceive XR experiences. Through a series of investigations, this dissertation evaluates the effects of virtual end effector representations on near-field object retrieval interactions in XR settings. Through studies conducted in virtual, augmented, and mixed reality, implications about the virtual representation of end-effectors are discussed, and inferences are made for the future of near-field interaction in XR to draw upon from. This body of research aids technologists and designers by providing them with details that help in appropriately tailoring the right end effector representation to improve near-field interactions, thereby collectively establishing knowledge that epitomizes the future of interactions in XR

Modelling virtual urban environments

In this paper, we explore the way in which virtual reality (VR) systems are being broadened to encompass a wide array of virtual worlds, many of which have immediate applicability to understanding urban issues through geocomputation. Wesketch distinctions between immersive, semi-immersive and remote environments in which single and multiple users interact in a variety of ways. We show how suchenvironments might be modelled in terms of ways of navigating within, processes of decision-making which link users to one another, analytic functions that users have to make sense of the environment, and functions through which users can manipulate, change, or design their world. We illustrate these ideas using four exemplars that we have under construction: a multi-user internet GIS for Londonwith extensive links to 3-d, video, text and related media, an exploration of optimal retail location using a semi-immersive visualisation in which experts can explore such problems, a virtual urban world in which remote users as avatars can manipulate urban designs, and an approach to simulating such virtual worlds through morphological modelling based on the digital record of the entire decision-making process through which such worlds are built

Opportunities and challenges of high-level visualization technology in process operations and safety

PresentationThe rapid development in high-level visualization technology in recent years has created tremendous opportunities for enhancing all facets of industry. Augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and virtual reality (VR) can be harnessed to support efforts in various stages of a life cycle of a facility. For example, AR technology can be utilized in the fabrication stage as well as in the validation and operation stages of the life cycle. MR can support efforts during fabrication, operation, and decommissioning stages. VR can be used in various dimensions of all stages of the life cycle. This paper will review the forefront of technology of high-level visualization and will discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with this technology with respect to its implementation in the process operations and safety arena

Examining the role of smart TVs and VR HMDs in synchronous at-a-distance media consumption

This article examines synchronous at-a-distance media consumption from two perspectives: How it can be facilitated using existing consumer displays (through TVs combined with smartphones), and imminently available consumer displays (through virtual reality (VR) HMDs combined with RGBD sensing). First, we discuss results from an initial evaluation of a synchronous shared at-a-distance smart TV system, CastAway. Through week-long in-home deployments with five couples, we gain formative insights into the adoption and usage of at-a-distance media consumption and how couples communicated during said consumption. We then examine how the imminent availability and potential adoption of consumer VR HMDs could affect preferences toward how synchronous at-a-distance media consumption is conducted, in a laboratory study of 12 pairs, by enhancing media immersion and supporting embodied telepresence for communication. Finally, we discuss the implications these studies have for the near-future of consumer synchronous at-a-distance media consumption. When combined, these studies begin to explore a design space regarding the varying ways in which at-a-distance media consumption can be supported and experienced (through music, TV content, augmenting existing TV content for immersion, and immersive VR content), what factors might influence usage and adoption and the implications for supporting communication and telepresence during media consumption

Emerging Affect Detection Methodologies in VR and future directions.

The uses of Virtual reality are constantly evolving, from healthcare treatments to evaluating commercial products, all of which would benefit from a better understanding of the emotional state of the individual. There is ongoing research into developing specially adapted methods for the recognition of the user’s affect while immersed within Virtual Reality. This paper outlines the approaches attempted and the available methodologies that embed sensors into wearable devices for real-time affect detection. These emerging technologies are introducing innovative ways of studying and interpreting emotion related data produced within immersive experience

VR Storytelling

The question of cinematic VR production has been on the table for several years. This is due to the peculiarity of VR language which, even if it is de ned by an image that surrounds and immerses the viewer rather than placing them, as in the classic cinematic situation, in front of a screen, relies decisively on an audiovisual basis that cannot help but refer to cinematic practices of constructing visual and auditory experience. Despite this, it would be extremely reductive to consider VR as the mere transposition of elements of cinematic language. The VR medium is endowed with its own speci city, which inevitably impacts its forms of narration. We thus need to investigate the narrative forms it uses that are probably related to cinematic language, and draw their strength from the same basis, drink from the same well, but develop according to di erent trajectories, thus displaying di erent links and a nities

Multimodality in VR: A survey

Virtual reality (VR) is rapidly growing, with the potential to change the way we create and consume content. In VR, users integrate multimodal sensory information they receive, to create a unified perception of the virtual world. In this survey, we review the body of work addressing multimodality in VR, and its role and benefits in user experience, together with different applications that leverage multimodality in many disciplines. These works thus encompass several fields of research, and demonstrate that multimodality plays a fundamental role in VR; enhancing the experience, improving overall performance, and yielding unprecedented abilities in skill and knowledge transfer