scholarly journals Using a Fully Expressive Avatar to Collaborate in Virtual Reality: Evaluation of Task Performance, Presence, and Attraction

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanjie Wu ◽  
Yu Wang ◽  
Sungchul Jung ◽  
Simon Hoermann ◽  
Robert W. Lindeman
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Interpersonal Attraction ◽  
Body Movement ◽  
Camera Tracking ◽  
Nonverbal Expression ◽  
Control Scheme ◽  
High Level ◽  
Tracking Behavior

Avatar-mediated collaboration in virtual environments is becoming more and more prevalent. However, current consumer systems are not suited to fully replicate real-world nonverbal communication. We present a novel avatar system for collaboration in virtual reality, which supports high levels of nonverbal expression by tracking behavior such as body movement, hand gesture, and facial expression. The system was built using camera tracking technology only. Therefore, in contrast to many other high-level tracking systems, it does not require users to wear additional trackers on their bodies. We compared our highly expressive system with a consumer setup extended with two body-worn trackers in a dyadic study. We investigated users’ performance, such as completion time and accuracy, as well as the presence and interpersonal attraction in a virtual charades game using an asymmetric control scheme. The results show that participants interacting with highly expressive avatars felt more social presence and attraction and exhibited better task performance than those interacting with partners represented using low-expressive avatars. Hence, we conclude that virtual reality avatar systems benefit from a higher level of nonverbal expressiveness, which can be achieved without additional body-worn trackers.

scholarly journals What Players of Virtual Reality Exercise Games Want: Thematic Analysis of Web-Based Reviews

10.2196/13833 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. e13833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuša Faric ◽  
Henry W W Potts ◽  
Adrian Hon ◽  
Lee Smith ◽  
Katie Newby ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Body Movement ◽  
Psychosocial Health ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Negative Perceptions ◽  
High Level

Background Physical activity (PA) is associated with a variety of physical and psychosocial health benefits, but levels of moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA remain low worldwide. Virtual reality (VR) gaming systems involving movement (VR exergames) could be used to engage people in more PA. Objective This study aimed to synthesize public reviews of popular VR exergames to identify common features that players liked or disliked to inform future VR exergame design. Methods We conducted a thematic analysis of 498 reviews of the 29 most popular exergames sold in the top 3 VR marketplaces: Steam (Valve Corporation), Viveport (Valve Corporation), and Oculus (Oculus VR). We categorized reviews as positive and negative as they appeared in the marketplaces and identified the most common themes using an inductive thematic analysis. Results The reviews were often mixed, reporting a wide variety of expectations, preferences, and gaming experiences. Players preferred highly realistic games (eg, closely simulated real-world sport), games that were intuitive (in terms of body movement and controls), and games that provided gradual increases in skill acquisition. Players reported feeling that they reached a high level of exertion when playing and that the immersion distracted them from the intensity of the exercise. Some preferred features included music and social aspects of the games, with multiplayer options to include friends or receive help from experienced players. There were 3 main themes in negative reviews. The first concerned bugs that rendered games frustrating. Second, the quality of graphics had a particularly strong impact on perceived enjoyment. Finally, reviewers disliked when games had overly complex controls and display functions that evoked motion sickness. Conclusions Exergames prove to be a stimulating avenue for players to engage in PA and distract themselves from the negative perceptions of performing exercise. The common negative aspects of VR exergames should be addressed for increased uptake and continued engagement.

scholarly journals What Players of Virtual Reality Exercise Games Want: Thematic Analysis of Web-Based Reviews (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuša Farič ◽  
Henry W W Potts ◽  
Adrian Hon ◽  
Lee Smith ◽  
Katie Newby ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Body Movement ◽  
Psychosocial Health ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Negative Perceptions ◽  
High Level

BACKGROUND Physical activity (PA) is associated with a variety of physical and psychosocial health benefits, but levels of moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA remain low worldwide. Virtual reality (VR) gaming systems involving movement (VR exergames) could be used to engage people in more PA. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to synthesize public reviews of popular VR exergames to identify common features that players liked or disliked to inform future VR exergame design. METHODS We conducted a thematic analysis of 498 reviews of the 29 most popular exergames sold in the top 3 VR marketplaces: Steam (Valve Corporation), Viveport (Valve Corporation), and Oculus (Oculus VR). We categorized reviews as positive and negative as they appeared in the marketplaces and identified the most common themes using an inductive thematic analysis. RESULTS The reviews were often mixed, reporting a wide variety of expectations, preferences, and gaming experiences. Players preferred highly realistic games (eg, closely simulated real-world sport), games that were intuitive (in terms of body movement and controls), and games that provided gradual increases in skill acquisition. Players reported feeling that they reached a high level of exertion when playing and that the immersion distracted them from the intensity of the exercise. Some preferred features included music and social aspects of the games, with multiplayer options to include friends or receive help from experienced players. There were 3 main themes in negative reviews. The first concerned bugs that rendered games frustrating. Second, the quality of graphics had a particularly strong impact on perceived enjoyment. Finally, reviewers disliked when games had overly complex controls and display functions that evoked motion sickness. CONCLUSIONS Exergames prove to be a stimulating avenue for players to engage in PA and distract themselves from the negative perceptions of performing exercise. The common negative aspects of VR exergames should be addressed for increased uptake and continued engagement.

Method of virtual reality for early comprehensive rehabilitation of patients with acute stroke

2020 ◽  
pp. 39-45
Author(s):  
N. Nozdryukhina ◽  
E. Kabayeva ◽  
E. Kirilyuk ◽  
K. Tushova ◽  
A. Karimov
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Acute Stroke ◽  
Functional Outcome ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Stroke Patients ◽  
Post Stroke ◽  
Stroke Disability ◽  
Comprehensive Rehabilitation ◽  
High Level

Despite significant advances in the treatment and rehabilitation of stroke, level of post-stroke disability remains at a fairly high level. Recent innovative developments in the rehabilitation of these patients provide good results in terms of functional outcome. One of such developments is method of virtual reality (VR), which affects not only the speed and volume of regaining movement, as well as coordination, but also normalizes the psycho-emotional background, increasing the motivation of patients to improve the recovery process. This article provides a literature review of the use of the VR method in the rehabilitation of post-stroke patients, neurophysiological aspects of recovery of lost functions using this method are considered.

scholarly journals The Use of Fitness Testing to Predict Occupational Performance in Tactical Personnel: A Critical Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (14) ◽  
pp. 7480
Author(s):  
Robin Orr ◽  
Takato Sakurai ◽  
Jordan Scott ◽  
Jason Movshovich ◽  
J. Jay Dawes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Cardiovascular Fitness ◽  
Fitness Testing ◽  
Occupational Performance ◽  
Occupational Tasks ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Fitness Tests ◽  
Critical Appraisal Skills ◽  
High Level ◽  
Occupational Task

Tactical personnel work in an occupation that involves tasks requiring a high level of cardiovascular fitness as well as muscular strength and endurance. The aim of this literature review was to identify and critique studies investigating the relationship between physical fitness, quantified by fitness assessment measures, and occupational task performance. Databases were searched for relevant articles which assessed a fitness measure and a measure of occupational performance. A total of 15 articles were included and were deemed to be of acceptable methodological quality (8.4/12 on the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist). Included articles assessed a variety of fitness attributes and occupational tasks. Across tactical groups, there appear to be no standardized fitness tests that can determine occupational performance, with aerobic fitness, anaerobic fitness, strength, endurance, power, and agility all being associated with occupational task performance. A wide range of fitness assessments appears to be required to predict occupational performance within tactical personnel. Efforts should be made to base fitness assessments on occupational demands unique to both the environment and requirements of each individual tactical unit.

scholarly journals Quantifying the signals contained in heterogeneous neural responses and determining their relationships with task performance

2014 ◽  
Vol 112 (6) ◽  
pp. 1584-1598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marino Pagan ◽  
Nicole C. Rust
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Single Neuron ◽  
Weighted Sums ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Signal Modulation ◽  
Neural Data ◽  
Match To Sample ◽  
Neural Populations ◽  
Different Types ◽  
High Level

The responses of high-level neurons tend to be mixtures of many different types of signals. While this diversity is thought to allow for flexible neural processing, it presents a challenge for understanding how neural responses relate to task performance and to neural computation. To address these challenges, we have developed a new method to parse the responses of individual neurons into weighted sums of intuitive signal components. Our method computes the weights by projecting a neuron's responses onto a predefined orthonormal basis. Once determined, these weights can be combined into measures of signal modulation; however, in their raw form these signal modulation measures are biased by noise. Here we introduce and evaluate two methods for correcting this bias, and we report that an analytically derived approach produces performance that is robust and superior to a bootstrap procedure. Using neural data recorded from inferotemporal cortex and perirhinal cortex as monkeys performed a delayed-match-to-sample target search task, we demonstrate how the method can be used to quantify the amounts of task-relevant signals in heterogeneous neural populations. We also demonstrate how these intuitive quantifications of signal modulation can be related to single-neuron measures of task performance ( d′).

Puzzles Unpuzzled

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (CHI PLAY) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Andrey Krekhov ◽  
Katharina Emmerich ◽  
Ronja Rotthaler ◽  
Jens Krueger
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Design Framework ◽  
Emotional Challenges ◽  
Related Research ◽  
Board Games ◽  
Current State ◽  
Prior Literature ◽  
High Level

Escape rooms exist in various forms, including real-life facilities, board games, and digital implementations. The underlying idea is always the same: players have to solve many diverse puzzles to (virtually) escape from a locked room. Within the last decade, we witnessed a rapidly increasing popularity of such games, which also amplified the amount of related research. However, the respective academic landscape is mostly fragmented in its current state, lacking a common model and vocabulary that would withstand these games' variety. This manuscript aims to establish such a foundation for the analysis and construction of escape rooms. In a first step, we derive a high-level design framework from prior literature. Then, as our main contribution, we establish an atomic puzzle taxonomy that closes the gap between the analog and digital domains. The taxonomy is developed in multiple steps: we compose a basic structure based on previous literature and systematically refine it by analyzing 39 analog and digital escape room games, including recent virtual reality representatives. The final taxonomy consists of mental, physical, and emotional challenges, thereby providing a robust and approachable basis for future works across all application domains that deal with escape rooms or puzzles in general.

Assessing Telepresence, Social Presence and Stress Response in a Virtual Reality Store

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yinshu Zhao ◽  
Nilufar Baghaei ◽  
Alexander Schnack ◽  
Lehan Stemmet
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Stress Response ◽  
Social Presence

Virtual reality in Education. Broken promises or new hope?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. L. McGee ◽  
Lisa Jacka
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Research Needs ◽  
Business Environments ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Technology Changes ◽  
Software And Hardware ◽  
High Level ◽  
K 12

Virtual reality in one form or another has been around for over 50 years, most notably in entertainment and business environments. Technology-focused teachers have been leading the way with attempts at utilising and integrating virtual reality into K-12 and Higher Education. However, as quickly as technology changes so does the enthusiasm for the use in educational contexts. Much of this is due to the high-level cost (time and money) with no evidence-based educational return. In 2020 the global pandemic forced the education sector to innovate to provide authentic learning environments for students. The time is right for virtual reality to take centre stage. Over 171 million people worldwide currently use virtual reality, and the market in education is expected to grow by 42% over the next five years. This paper focuses on a range of virtual reality literature encompassing work across the spectrum of software and hardware, identifying where more educational implementation and research needs to be done and providing a perspective on future possibilities focusing on current affordances.

Immersion, interactivity and three-dimensionality: virtual reality documentation of media art installations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kira A. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Sensory Experience ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Media Art ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Art Installation ◽  
High Level

This research paper explores the possibilities for virtual reality (VR) documentation of media art installations. Based on an analysis of the characteristics of media art, and a survey of current documentation strategies, this paper investigates the viability of three-dimensional documentation. Four cross-disciplinary case studies are presented and analysed to demonstrate that VR documentation provides an immersive and richer reconstruction of a media art installation in three dimensions. In addition, the interactive components can be simulated within the VR environment, offering the possibility for curators and visitors to virtually re-experience the artwork. The case studies show that, although the creation of VR documentation can be costly and time-consuming, and currently requires a high-level of expertise, it can be a useful addition to established documentation strategies by providing essential information about the visual aspects of the artwork, its environment and the user’s multi-sensory experience.

Exploring the Effects of Extraversion on Social Facilitation and Vigilance Task Performance

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 1216-1220
Author(s):  
Victoria L. Claypoole ◽  
Grace E. Waldfogle ◽  
Alexis R. Neigel ◽  
James L. Szalma
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Social Facilitation ◽  
Vigilance Task ◽  
Task Design ◽  
Personality Factors ◽  
Vigilance Performance ◽  
Mere Presence ◽  
Design Factors ◽  
And Task

Vigilance, or sustained attention, is the ability to maintain attention for extended periods of time. Recently, research on vigilance has focused on identifying individual differences and task design factors that may improve cognitive-based vigilance performance. One such factor is social facilitation, which leads to improved task performance when at least one individual is present. But, relatively little is known about the personality factors, such as extraversion or introversion, which may influence the effects of social presence, and in turn affect vigilance performance. Given this gap in the literature, the present research seeks to determine how personality, specifically extraversion, is related to vigilance performance in the presence of another individual. A total of 39 observers completed a 24-minute vigilance task either alone, in the mere presence of another person, or in the evaluative presence of another person (i.e., an individual monitoring their performance). The results indicated that extraversion was negatively correlated to the proportion of correct detections and sensitivity ( A’).

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document