Is Photorealism Important for Perception of Expressive Virtual Humans in Virtual Reality?

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katja Zibrek ◽  
Sean Martin ◽  
Rachel McDonnell
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Humans

A Virtual Reality Version of the Trier Social Stress Test: A Pilot Study

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 325-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattias Wallergård ◽  
Peter Jönsson ◽  
Gerd Johansson ◽  
Björn Karlson
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Stress Response ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Physiological Data ◽  
Virtual Humans ◽  
Arithmetic Task

One of the most common methods of inducing stress in the laboratory in order to examine the stress response in healthy and clinical populations is the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Briefly, the participant is asked to deliver a speech and to perform an arithmetic task in front of an evaluating committee. The committee, consisting of three trained actors, does not respond emotionally during the test, which makes the situation very stressful for the participant. One disadvantage of the TSST is that it can be difficult to hold the experimental conditions constant. In particular, it may be difficult for actors to hold their acting constant across all sessions. Furthermore, there are several practical problems and costs associated with hiring professional actors. A computerized version of the TSST using virtual humans could be a way to avoid these problems provided that it is able to induce a stress response similar to the one of the original TSST. The purpose of the present pilot study was therefore to investigate the stress response to a virtual reality (VR) version of the TSST visualized using an immersive VR system (VR-TSST). Seven healthy males with an average age of 24 years (range: 23–26 years) performed the VR-TSST. This included delivering a speech and performing an arithmetic task in front of an evaluating committee consisting of three virtual humans. The VR equipment was a CAVE equipped with stereoscopy and head tracking. ECG and respiration were recorded as well as the participant's behavior and comments. Afterward, a semi-structured interview was carried out. In general, the subjective and physiological data from the experiment indicated that the VR version of the TSST induced a stress response in the seven participants. In particular, the peak increase in heart rate was close to rates observed in studies using the traditional TSST with real actors. These results suggest that virtual humans visualized with an immersive VR system can be used to induce stress under laboratory conditions.

Expressive Avatars in Psychological Intervention and Therapy

2019 ◽  
pp. 27-48
Author(s):  
Ana Paula Cláudio ◽  
Maria Beatriz Carmo ◽  
Augusta Gaspar ◽  
Renato Teixeira
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Psychological Intervention ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Behavioural Therapy ◽  
Virtual Humans ◽  
Nonverbal Behaviour ◽  
Cognitive Behavioural ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Virtual Reality Application ◽  
Human Facial Expression

A wide range of applications for virtual humans can be envisaged for the needs of both research and intervention in Psychology. This chapter describes the development and preliminary testing of an interactive virtual reality application “Virtual Spectators” – whereby virtual humans with expressive behaviour modelled on the basis of field research in human facial expression in real emotion contexts can be configured to interact with people in an interview or jury. We discuss the possibilities of this application in cognitive behavioural therapy using virtual reality and in nonverbal behaviour.

Synthetic Perception and Decision-making for Autonomous Virtual Humans in Virtual Reality Applications

2020 ◽  
pp. 55-90
Author(s):  
Hector Rafael Orozco Aguirre ◽  
Daniel Thalmann ◽  
Felix Francisco Ramos Corchado
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Humans

scholarly journals Personal space Increases during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Response to Real and Virtual Humans

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphne J Holt ◽  
Sarah Zapetis ◽  
Baktash Babadi ◽  
Roger B.H. Tootell
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Personal Space ◽  
Repeated Measurements ◽  
Psychological Effects ◽  
Virtual Humans ◽  
Virtual Reality Environment ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Actual Risk ◽  
Space Requirements

Typically, people maintain a certain distance from others (personal space) during daily life, in a largely automatic, unconscious manner. However during the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing recommendations led to deliberate expansions of personal space outside of intimate social circles. In the laboratory, personal space preferences are quite stable over repeated measurements. Here, we collected such measurements both before and during the pandemic in the same individuals, using both conventional and virtual reality-based techniques. We found that the size of personal space, and discomfort ratings in response to personal space intrusions, increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, in response to both real humans and virtual others. Moreover, this increase in personal space requirements correlated with the perceived, not the actual, risk of being infected with COVID-19, even in a virtual reality environment in which there was no possibility of infection. Thus, quantification of personal space may reveal some of the psychological effects of the pandemic, and subsequent progress towards recovery.

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

2022 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christos Kyrlitsias ◽  
Despina Michael-Grigoriou
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Humans ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Immersive Virtual Environments ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range

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.

Virtual Digital Olympic Museum

2011 ◽  
pp. 245-256
Author(s):  
Gaoqi He ◽  
Zhigeng Pan ◽  
Weimin Pan ◽  
Jianfeng Liu
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Data Storage ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Olympic Games ◽  
Virtual Humans ◽  
Entertainment Education ◽  
Digital Museum ◽  
Storage And Retrieval ◽  
Task Modeling ◽  
The Olympic Games

Virtual reality and the Olympic Games Museum are used to create a virtual digital Olympic museum (VDOM). This is available solely through the medium of digital technology. VDOM extends in a comprehensive way the main functionalities of the traditional physical Olympic museum. Thus virtual reality technologies and the Olympic Games motivate the researchers. Three characteristics, namely sports, humans, and entertainment/ education, are crucial for the development of the VDOM. In developing the VDOM, the four major concerns were data storage and retrieval oriented to the Olympics task; modeling and rendering of the digital museum; the virtual demonstration of sports with virtual humans; and virtual reality based sports simulation. Appropriate solutions to these problems are proposed. Finally, a prototype of the VDOM using these technologies is demonstrated. This validates the efficiency of the proposed methods.

A Virtual Reality Solution to Handle Social Anxiety

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Paula Cláudio ◽  
Maria Beatriz Carmo ◽  
Tânia Pinheiro ◽  
Francisco Esteves
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Virtual Humans ◽  
Common Feeling ◽  
Different Levels

Anxiety is an increasingly common feeling in our society; it can be very debilitating and, if not properly treated, can evolve to more serious health problems. This paper describes a low-cost Virtual Reality solution to support the treatment of social anxiety, more specifically the anxiety of speaking in front of an audience. Our application involves: i) a simulation that takes place in a virtual auditorium inhabited by animated virtual humans with controllable behaviours; ii) an interface which allows the therapist to control these behaviors and a set of features and events of the simulation, inducing different levels of distress in the patients. The use of Virtual Reality environments for the treatment of phobias emerged in the 90s and usually implies expensive special purpose hardware. Our challenge was to conceive a low-cost solution, easy to install and use for people without expertise in informatics.

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