Proxemics with multiple dynamic characters in an immersive virtual environment

An experiment was carried out to examine the impact on electrodermal activity of people when approached by groups of one or four virtual characters at varying distances. It was premised on the basis of proxemics theory that the closer the approach of the virtual characters to the participant, the greater the level of physiological arousal. Physiological arousal was measured by the number of skin conductance responses within a short time period after the approach, and the maximum change in skin conductance level 5 s after the approach. The virtual characters were each either female or a cylinder of human size, and one or four characters approached each subject a total of 12 times. Twelve male subjects were recruited for the experiment. The results suggest that the number of skin conductance responses after the approach and the change in skin conductance level increased the closer the virtual characters approached toward the participants. Moreover, these response variables were inversely correlated with the number of visits, showing a typical adaptation effect. There was some evidence to suggest that the number of characters who simultaneously approached (one or four) was positively associated with the responses. Surprisingly there was no evidence of a difference in response between the humanoid characters and cylinders on the basis of this physiological data. It is suggested that the similarity in this quantitative arousal response to virtual characters and virtual objects might mask a profound difference in qualitative response, an interpretation supported by questionnaire and interview results. Overall the experiment supported the premise that people exhibit heightened physiological arousal the closer they are approached by virtual characters

Interaction with virtual crowd in Immersive and semi‐Immersive Virtual Reality systems

This study examines attributes of virtual human behavior that may increase the plausibility of a simulated crowd and affect the user's experience in Virtual Reality. Purpose-developed experiments in both Immersive and semi-Immersive Virtual Reality systems queried the impact of collision and basic interaction between real-users and the virtual crowd and their effect on the apparent realism and ease of navigation within Virtual Reality (VR). Participants' behavior and subjective measurements indicated that facilitating collision avoidance between the user and the virtual crowd makes the virtual characters, the environment, and the whole Virtual Reality system appear more realistic and lifelike. Adding basic social interaction, such as verbal salutations, gaze, and other gestures by the virtual characters towards the user, further contributes to this effect, with the participants reporting a stronger sense of presence. On the other hand, enabling collision avoidance on its own produces a reduced feeling of comfort and ease of navigation in VR. Objective measurements showed another interesting finding that collision avoidance may reduce the user's performance regarding their primary goal (navigating in VR following someone) and that this performance is further reduced when both collision avoidance and social interaction are facilitated

Aesthetiography : The next Milestone in the Confluence of Media

Art and technology always evolved simultaneously, often inspiring and complimenting each other. This can be observed at every point in the history of media technologies. We suggest that the evolution of media has always been looking forward to an ultimate form of representation of reality that one could experience - a perfect Simulated Reality. Over the years the forms of media have been evolving and improving in order to create stronger perceptual as well as psychological illusions. Today virtual reality and associated technologies help evoke illusion of reality strong enough to make one believe to be entirely immersed and present in an artificial world. Observing these developments, we believe that the distinct goal of tomorrow’s media would be to create a perfect experience of perceptual illusion with the help of multisensory mediation. In this pursuit of an ultimate representational media, different media technologies will converge. This meeting point of cinema, virtual reality and associated new-media technologies in the near future, is what we would like to refer to as ‘Aesthetiography’ - the art and science of capturing (or creating) and reproducing an absolute perceptual experience. We propose that it would be the next milestone in the confluence of media

Bystander responses to a violent incident in an immersive virtual environment

Under what conditions will a bystander intervene to try to stop a violent attack by one person on another? It is generally believed that the greater the size of the crowd of bystanders, the less the chance that any of them will intervene. A complementary model is that social identity is critical as an explanatory variable. For example, when the bystander shares common social identity with the victim the probability of intervention is enhanced, other things being equal. However, it is generally not possible to study such hypotheses experimentally for practical and ethical reasons. Here we show that an experiment that depicts a violent incident at life-size in immersive virtual reality lends support to the social identity explanation. 40 male supporters of Arsenal Football Club in England were recruited for a two-factor between-groups experiment: the victim was either an Arsenal supporter or not (in-group/out-group), and looked towards the participant for help or not during the confrontation. The response variables were the numbers of verbal and physical interventions by the participant during the violent argument. The number of physical interventions had a significantly greater mean in the ingroup condition compared to the out-group. The more that participants perceived that the Victim was looking to them for help the greater the number of interventions in the in-group but not in the out-group. These results are supported by standard statistical analysis of variance, with more detailed findings obtained by a symbolic regression procedure based on genetic programming. Verbal interventions made during their experience, and analysis of post-experiment interview data suggest that in-group members were more prone to confrontational intervention compared to the out-group who were more prone to make statements to try to diffuse the situation

Non-Verbal Interaction and Students’ Visual Engagement in Mathematics and English classes

Background: The interactions in the classroom are of particular interest to the teaching and learning processes. Objectives: This study examines nonverbal interaction in mathematics classrooms, and how different modes of nonverbal behaviour, contributed to the engagement in lessons. Design: A quantitative study. Setting and Participants: 30 randomly selected students wore mini camera-mounted eyeglasses in their mathematics and English lessons. Approximately 45 hours of video recording were made from these cameras (from a first-person’s perspective) to analyse and compare the nonverbal interaction in mathematics and English lessons. Data collection and analysis: In Google Images, we objectively searched and statistically analysed frames in which the class teachers appeared within the students’ visual field. Results: The results show that how students are visually engaged with the teacher depends on a set of proxemics. Differences were found related to visual attention both regarding the subject matter and the different proxemics of the student in relation to the teacher, pointing out that students are more visually involved with the teachers’ instructions when at a proxemic of 1.20 to 3.70 meters. Furthermore, we report differences between boys and girls and how they are visually engaged in their mathematics classrooms. Conclusions: Finally, we report how teachers pointing gestures can serve as a tool to recapture student’s visual attention in mathematics classrooms

Measuring and understanding photo sharing experiences in social virtual reality

Millions of photos are shared online daily, but the richness of interaction compared with face-to-face (F2F) sharing is still missing. While this may change with social Virtual Reality (socialVR), we still lack tools to measure such immersive and interactive experiences. In this paper, we investigate photo sharing experiences in immersive environments, focusing on socialVR. Running context mapping (N=10), an expert creative session (N=6), and an online experience clustering questionnaire (N=20), we develop and statistically evaluate a questionnaire to measure photo sharing experiences. We then ran a controlled, within-subject study (N=26 pairs) to compare photo sharing under F2F, Skype, and Facebook Spaces. Using interviews, audio analysis, and our questionnaire, we found that socialVR can closely approximate F2F sharing. We contribute empirical findings on the immersiveness differences between digital communication media, and propose a socialVR questionnaire that can in the future generalize beyond photo sharing

Avatar Embodiment. Towards a Standardized Questionnaire

Inside virtual reality, users can embody avatars that are collocated from a first-person perspective. When doing so, participants have the feeling that the own body has been substituted by the self-avatar, and that the new body is the source of the sensations. Embodiment is complex as it includes not only body ownership over the avatar, but also agency, co-location, and external appearance. Despite the multiple variables that influence it, the illusion is quite robust, and it can be produced even if the self-avatar is of a different age, size, gender, or race from the participant's own body. Embodiment illusions are therefore the basis for many social VR experiences and a current active research area among the community. Researchers are interested both in the body manipulations that can be accepted, as well as studying how different self-avatars produce different attitudinal, social, perceptual, and behavioral effects. However, findings suggest that despite embodiment being strongly associated with the performance and reactions inside virtual reality, the extent to which the illusion is experienced varies between participants. In this paper, we review the questionnaires used in past experiments and propose a standardized embodiment questionnaire based on 25 questions that are prevalent in the literature. We encourage future virtual reality experiments that include first-person virtual avatars to administer this questionnaire in order to evaluate the degree of embodiment

Effects of appearance and gender on pre-touch proxemics in virtual reality

Virtual reality (VR) environments are increasingly popular for various applications, and the appearance of virtual characters is a critical factor that influences user behaviors. In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of avatar and agent appearances on pre-touch proxemics in VR. To achieve this goal, we designed experiments utilizing three user avatars (man/woman/robot) and three virtual agents (man/woman/robot). Specifically, we measured the pre-touch reaction distances to the face and body, which are the distances at which a person starts to feel uncomfortable before being touched. We examined how these distances varied based on the appearances of avatars, agents, and user gender. Our results revealed that the appearance of avatars and agents significantly impacted pre-touch reaction distances. Specifically, those using a female avatar tended to maintain larger distances before their face and body to be touched, and people also preferred greater distances before being touched by a robot agent. Interestingly, we observed no effects of user gender on pre-touch reaction distances. These findings have implications for the design and implementation of VR systems, as they suggest that avatar and agent appearances play a significant role in shaping users’ perceptions of pre-touch proxemics. Our study highlights the importance of considering these factors when creating immersive and socially acceptable VR experiences

Step into the Void: A Study of Spatial Perception in Virtual Reality

The introduction of virtual reality (VR) into the architectural profession offers an unprecedented opportunity to experience unbuilt designs at full scale. The premise of the technology is that it gives users the illusion of being in another place by replacing their field of vision with a digital image. While VR technology, for the most part, can only simulate visual sensations at this point in its development, it has demonstrated in various applications that the immersiveness of the medium can elicit visceral reactions. This potential could be leveraged to expand the capacity of architects to convey the complexities of architectural space in an easily comprehensible form. Because VR is relatively unfamiliar, especially in architecture, there is a need to identify the technology’s strengths and weaknesses so that it can be appropriately utilized in practice. The goal of this thesis is to further the understanding of interior spatial perception in VR. Perception of interior space is affected by many visual factors, like the shape of the space, details, and how crowded the space is. In order to test the impact of these aspects of spatial perception in VR, a set of experiments were conducted at the School of Architecture. Participants engaged in a series of exercises where they would attempt to position the walls and ceilings of a series of rooms to match a given set of dimensions. Each room is designed slightly differently to test the aforementioned aspects of spatial perception. These exercises are completed once with orthogonal architectural drawings and once with VR. Some results from the experiments might indicate that atmospheric design elements may be more impactful when represented in VR, but further research is required. In most cases, participants were more accurate when using orthogonal drawings to complete the exercises. However, participants created rooms that were more similar to each other when completing the exercises in VR, which suggests that VR might be more effective than orthogonal drawings in imparting a common understanding of space to different people, an encouraging sign that VR is an effective medium for communication