research-article

Effects of virtual agent and object representation on experiencing exhibited artifacts

Authors:

Susanne Schmidt,

Frank SteinickeAuthors Info & Claims

Volume 83, Issue C

Pages 1 - 10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cag.2019.06.002

Published: 01 October 2019 Publication History

Highlights

•

Virtual embodied guides elicit a higher sense of spatial as well as social presence and appear more credible to users than virtual audio guides.

•

Virtual guides that are content-related (e.g., an astronaut in a space museum scenario) improve the user experience in terms of attractiveness, stimulation and novelty.

•

Museum environments with a virtual component (i.e., a virtual guide or exhibit) are more engaging and support the learning of visual details.

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Abstract

With the emergence of speech-controlled virtual agents (VAs) in consumer devices such as Amazon’s Echo or Apple’s HomePod, we have seen a large public interest in related technologies. While most of the current interactive conversational VAs appear in the form of voice-only assistants, other representations showing, for example, a contextually related or generic humanoid body are possible. In our previous work, we analyzed the effectiveness of different forms of VAs in the context of a virtual reality (VR) exhibition space. We found positive evidence that agent embodiment induces a higher sense of spatial and social presence. The results also suggest that both embodied and thematically related audio-visual representations of VAs positively affect the overall user experience. We extend this work by further analyzing the effects of the physicality of the agent’s environment (i.e., virtual vs. real). The results of the follow-up study indicate some benefits of virtual environments, e.g., regarding user engagement and learning of visual facts. We also evaluate some interaction effects between the representations of the virtual agent and its surrounding and discuss implications on the design of exhibition spaces.

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Cited By

Schott ELópez García IZoeppig THartmann MFroehlich B(2024)The Guide's Apprentices: Engaging Visitors of Virtual Museums through Appropriate Agent EmbodimentsProceedings of the 30th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology10.1145/3641825.3689529(1-2)Online publication date: 9-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3641825.3689529
Kusuyama HKageyama YIwai DSato K(2024)A Multi-aperture Coaxial Projector Balancing Shadow Suppression and DeblurringIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2024.345617030:11(7031-7041)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TVCG.2024.3456170
Takeuchi MKusuyama HIwai DSato K(2024)Projection Mapping under Environmental Lighting by Replacing Room Lights with Heterogeneous ProjectorsIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2024.337203130:5(2151-2161)Online publication date: 4-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TVCG.2024.3372031
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Effects of virtual agent and object representation on experiencing exhibited artifacts
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Computer graphics
    1. Graphics systems and interfaces
      1. Virtual reality
2. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. HCI design and evaluation methods
    2. 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

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

Schott ELópez García IZoeppig THartmann MFroehlich B(2024)The Guide's Apprentices: Engaging Visitors of Virtual Museums through Appropriate Agent EmbodimentsProceedings of the 30th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology10.1145/3641825.3689529(1-2)Online publication date: 9-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3641825.3689529
Kusuyama HKageyama YIwai DSato K(2024)A Multi-aperture Coaxial Projector Balancing Shadow Suppression and DeblurringIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2024.345617030:11(7031-7041)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TVCG.2024.3456170
Takeuchi MKusuyama HIwai DSato K(2024)Projection Mapping under Environmental Lighting by Replacing Room Lights with Heterogeneous ProjectorsIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2024.337203130:5(2151-2161)Online publication date: 4-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TVCG.2024.3372031
Kruse LMostajeran FSteinicke F(2023)The Influence of Virtual Agent Visibility in Virtual Reality Cognitive TrainingProceedings of the 2023 ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction10.1145/3607822.3614526(1-9)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3607822.3614526
Li KRolff TSchmidt SBacher RLeemans WSteinicke F(2023)Interacting with Neural Radiance Fields in Immersive Virtual RealityExtended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544549.3583920(1-4)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544549.3583920
Erel YIwai DBermano A(2023)Neural Projection Mapping Using Reflectance FieldsIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2023.332025629:11(4339-4349)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TVCG.2023.3320256
Hiratani KIwai DKageyama YPunpongsanon PHiraki TSato K(2023)Shadowless Projection Mapping using Retrotransmissive OpticsIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2023.324710429:5(2280-2290)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TVCG.2023.3247104
Gan QLiu ZLiu TZhao YChai Y(2023)Design and user experience analysis of AR intelligent virtual agents on smartphonesCognitive Systems Research10.1016/j.cogsys.2022.11.00778:C(33-47)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.cogsys.2022.11.007
Jasin JNg HAtmosukarto IIyer POsman FWong PPua CCheow W(2023)The implementation of chatbot-mediated immediacy for synchronous communication in an online chemistry courseEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-023-11602-128:8(10665-10690)Online publication date: 3-Feb-2023
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Dai LKritskaia Vvan der Velden EJung MPostma MLouwerse M(2022)Evaluating the usage of Text-To-Speech in K12 educationProceedings of the 2022 6th International Conference on Education and E-Learning10.1145/3578837.3578864(182-188)Online publication date: 21-Nov-2022
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