The effect of avatar realism in immersive social virtual realities

Marc Erich Latoschik, Daniel Roth, Dominik Gall, Jascha Achenbach, Thomas Waltemate, Mario Botsch

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

276 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of avatar realism on embodiment and social interactions in Virtual Reality (VR). We compared abstract avatar representations based on a wooden mannequin with high fidelity avatars generated from photogrammetry 3D scan methods. Both avatar representations were alternately applied to participating users and to the virtual counterpart in dyadic social encounters to examine the impact of avatar realism on self-embodiment and social interaction quality. Users were immersed in a virtual room via a head mounted display (HMD). Their full-body movements were tracked and mapped to respective movements of their avatars. Embodiment was induced by presenting the users' avatars to themselves in a virtual mirror. Afterwards they had to react to a non-verbal behavior of a virtual interaction partner they encountered in the virtual space. Several measures were taken to analyze the effect of the appearance of the users' avatars as well as the effect of the appearance of the others' avatars on the users. The realistic avatars were rated significantly more human-like when used as avatars for the others and evoked a stronger acceptance in terms of virtual body ownership (VBO). There also was some indication of a potential uncanny valley. Additionally, there was an indication that the appearance of the others' avatars impacts the self-perception of the users.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - VRST 2017
Subtitle of host publication23rd ACM Conference on Virtual Reality Software and Technology
EditorsStephen N. Spencer
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)9781450355483
DOIs
StatePublished - 8 Nov 2017
Externally publishedYes
Event23rd ACM Conference on Virtual Reality Software and Technology, VRST 2017 - Gothenburg, Sweden
Duration: 8 Nov 201710 Nov 2017

Publication series

NameProceedings of the ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology, VRST
VolumePart F131944

Conference

Conference23rd ACM Conference on Virtual Reality Software and Technology, VRST 2017
Country/TerritorySweden
CityGothenburg
Period8/11/1710/11/17

Keywords

  • Avatars
  • Lifelike
  • Social interaction
  • Virtual reality

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