research-article

Blowing in the wind: : Increasing social presence with a virtual human via environmental airflow interaction in mixed reality

Authors:

Jason Hochreiter,

Gregory WelchAuthors Info & Claims

Volume 83, Issue C

Pages 23 - 32

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cag.2019.06.006

Published: 01 October 2019 Publication History

Highlights

•

Importance of social presence in real-virtual human interactions.

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Physical-virtual interaction to improve social presence in mixed reality.

•

Improving social presence via plausible physical-virtual airflow interaction.

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Improving social presence via appropriate virtual human environment-aware behavior.

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Abstract

In this paper, we describe two human-subject studies in which we explored and investigated the effects of subtle multimodal interaction on social presence with a virtual human (VH) in mixed reality (MR). In the studies, participants interacted with a VH, which was co-located with them across a table, with two different platforms: a projection based MR environment and an optical see-through head-mounted display (OST-HMD) based MR environment. While the two studies were not intended to be directly comparable, the second study with an OST-HMD was carefully designed based on the insights and lessons learned from the first projection-based study. For both studies, we compared two levels of gradually increased multimodal interaction: (i) virtual objects being affected by real airflow (e.g., as commonly experienced with fans during warm weather), and (ii) a VH showing awareness of this airflow. We hypothesized that our two levels of treatment would increase the sense of being together with the VH gradually, i.e., participants would report higher social presence with airflow influence than without it, and the social presence would be even higher when the VH showed awareness of the airflow. We observed an increased social presence in the second study when both physical–virtual interaction via airflow and VH awareness behaviors were present, but we observed no clear difference in participant-reported social presence with the VH in the first study. As the considered environmental factors are incidental to the direct interaction with the real human, i.e., they are not significant or necessary for the interaction task, they can provide a reasonably generalizable approach to increase social presence in HMD-based MR environments beyond the specific scenario and environment described here.

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Cited By

Chang ZPai YCao JGupta KBillinghurst M(2024)EMiRAs-Empathic Mixed Reality AgentsProceedings of the 3rd Empathy-Centric Design Workshop: Scrutinizing Empathy Beyond the Individual10.1145/3661790.3661791(1-7)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3661790.3661791
Ahmmed AButts ENaeiji KThiamwong LAncis JDaher S(2024)Aware Intelligent Virtual Agent's Effect on Social Presence and Empathy of CaregiversProceedings of the 24th ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents10.1145/3652988.3673951(1-5)Online publication date: 16-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3652988.3673951
Norouzi NKim KBruder GBailenson JWisniewski PWelch G(2022)The advantages of virtual dogs over virtual peopleInternational Journal of Human-Computer Studies10.1016/j.ijhcs.2022.102838165:COnline publication date: 1-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2022.102838
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Blowing in the wind: Increasing social presence with a virtual human via environmental airflow interaction in mixed reality
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Computer graphics
    1. Graphics systems and interfaces
      1. Virtual reality
2. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Interaction paradigms
      1. Mixed / augmented reality
      2. Virtual reality

Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image Computers and Graphics

Computers and Graphics Volume 83, Issue C

Oct 2019

122 pages

ISSN:0097-8493

Issue’s Table of Contents

Elsevier Ltd.

Publisher

Pergamon Press, Inc.

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 October 2019

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Cited By

Chang ZPai YCao JGupta KBillinghurst M(2024)EMiRAs-Empathic Mixed Reality AgentsProceedings of the 3rd Empathy-Centric Design Workshop: Scrutinizing Empathy Beyond the Individual10.1145/3661790.3661791(1-7)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3661790.3661791
Ahmmed AButts ENaeiji KThiamwong LAncis JDaher S(2024)Aware Intelligent Virtual Agent's Effect on Social Presence and Empathy of CaregiversProceedings of the 24th ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents10.1145/3652988.3673951(1-5)Online publication date: 16-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3652988.3673951
Norouzi NKim KBruder GBailenson JWisniewski PWelch G(2022)The advantages of virtual dogs over virtual peopleInternational Journal of Human-Computer Studies10.1016/j.ijhcs.2022.102838165:COnline publication date: 1-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2022.102838
Caldas OSanchez NMauledoux MAvilés ORodriguez-Guerrero C(2022)Leading presence-based strategies to manipulate user experience in virtual reality environmentsVirtual Reality10.1007/s10055-022-00645-326:4(1507-1518)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10055-022-00645-3

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