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abstract

My Body, My Avatar: How People Perceive Their Avatars in Social Virtual Reality

Published: 25 April 2020 Publication History

Abstract

The perception and experience of avatars has been critical to understand the social dynamics in virtual environments, online gaming, and collaborative systems. How would emerging sociotechnical systems further complicate the role of avatars in our online social lives? In this paper we focus on how people perceive and understand their avatars in social virtual reality (VR) - 3D virtual spaces where multiple users can interact with one another through VR head-mounted displays (HMDs). Based on 30 interviews, we identified three key themes emerging in people's perceptions and experiences of their avatars across various social VR applications. Our study contributes to further improving social VR technologies and better understanding emerging social interaction dynamics and consequences within social VR.

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI EA '20: Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    April 2020
    4474 pages
    ISBN:9781450368193
    DOI:10.1145/3334480
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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    Published: 25 April 2020

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    1. avatar
    2. social virtual reality
    3. virtual worlds

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    • (2024)Metaverse risks and harms among US youth: Experiences, gender differences, and prevention and response measuresNew Media & Society10.1177/14614448241284413Online publication date: 12-Oct-2024
    • (2024)Does Who You Are or Appear to Be Matter?: Understanding Identity-Based Harassment in Social VR Through the Lens of (Mis)Perceived Identity RevelationProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36869238:CSCW2(1-40)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
    • (2024)From Prompt to Metaverse: User Perceptions of Personalized Spaces Crafted by Generative AICompanion Publication of the 2024 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing10.1145/3678884.3681897(497-504)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2024
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    • (2024)AI Comes Out of the Closet: Using AI-Generated Virtual Characters to Help Individuals Practice LGBTQIA+ AdvocacyProceedings of the 29th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces10.1145/3640543.3645213(686-698)Online publication date: 18-Mar-2024
    • (2024)"My Audience Gets to Know Me on a More Realistic Level": Exploring Social VR Streamers’ Unique Strategies to Engage with Their AudiencesExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3651036(1-7)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
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