An official website of the United States government
Virtual reality (VR) and interactive 3D visualization systems have enhanced educational experiences and environments, particularly in complicated subjects such as anatomy education. VR-based systems surpass the potential limitations of traditional training approaches in facilitating interactive engagement among students. However, research on embodied virtual assistants that leverage generative artificial intelligence (AI) and verbal communication in the anatomy education context is underrepresented. In this work, we introduce a VR environment with a generative AI-embodied virtual assistant to support participants in responding to varying cognitive complexity anatomy questions and enable verbal communication. We assessed the technical efficacy and usability of the proposed environment in a pilot user study with 16 participants. We conducted a within-subject design for virtual assistant configuration (avatar- and screen-based), with two levels of cognitive complexity (knowledge- and analysis-based). The results reveal a significant difference in the scores obtained from knowledge- and analysis-based questions in relation to avatar configuration. Moreover, results provide insights into usability, cognitive task load, and the sense of presence in the proposed virtual assistant configurations. Our environment and results of the pilot study offer potential benefits and future research directions beyond medical education, using generative AI and embodied virtual agents as customized virtual conversational assistants.
more »
« less
Effects of Embodiment on Generic and Content-Specific Intelligent Virtual Agents as Exhibition Guides
Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs) received enormous attention in recent years due to significant improvements in voice communication technologies and the convergence of different research fields such as Machine Learning, Internet of Things, and Virtual Reality (VR). Interactive conversational IVAs can appear in different forms such as voice-only or with embodied audio-visual representations showing, for example, human-like contextually related or generic three-dimensional bodies. In this paper, we analyzed the benefits of different forms of virtual agents in the context of a VR exhibition space. Our results suggest positive evidence showing large benefits of both embodied and thematically related audio-visual representations of IVAs. We discuss implications and suggestions for content developers to design believable virtual agents in the context of such installations.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1800961
- PAR ID:
- 10106968
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistence and Eurographics Symposium on Virtual Environments (ICAT-EGVE 2018), Limassol, Cyprus, November 7–9, 2018
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 13-20
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Voice-activated Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs) such as Amazon Alexa offer a natural and realistic form of interaction that pursues the level of social interaction among real humans. The user experience with such technologies depends to a large degree on the perceived trust in and reliability of the IVA. In this poster, we explore the effects of a three-dimensional embodied representation of Amazon Alexa in Augmented Reality (AR) on the user’s perceived trust in her being able to control Internet of Things (IoT) devices in a smart home environment. We present a preliminary study and discuss the potential of positive effects in perceived trust due to the embodied representation compared to a voice-only condition.more » « less
-
Extended reality (XR) technologies, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), provide users, their avatars, and embodied agents a shared platform to collaborate in a spatial context. Although traditional face-to-face communication is limited by users’ proximity, meaning that another human’s non-verbal embodied cues become more difficult to perceive the farther one is away from that person, researchers and practitioners have started to look into ways to accentuate or amplify such embodied cues and signals to counteract the effects of distance with XR technologies. In this article, we describe and evaluate the Big Head technique, in which a human’s head in VR/AR is scaled up relative to their distance from the observer as a mechanism for enhancing the visibility of non-verbal facial cues, such as facial expressions or eye gaze. To better understand and explore this technique, we present two complimentary human-subject experiments in this article. In our first experiment, we conducted a VR study with a head-mounted display to understand the impact of increased or decreased head scales on participants’ ability to perceive facial expressions as well as their sense of comfort and feeling of “uncannniness” over distances of up to 10 m. We explored two different scaling methods and compared perceptual thresholds and user preferences. Our second experiment was performed in an outdoor AR environment with an optical see-through head-mounted display. Participants were asked to estimate facial expressions and eye gaze, and identify a virtual human over large distances of 30, 60, and 90 m. In both experiments, our results show significant differences in minimum, maximum, and ideal head scales for different distances and tasks related to perceiving faces, facial expressions, and eye gaze, and we also found that participants were more comfortable with slightly bigger heads at larger distances. We discuss our findings with respect to the technologies used, and we discuss implications and guidelines for practical applications that aim to leverage XR-enhanced facial cues.more » « less
-
Prior work has shown that embodiment can benefit virtual agents, such as increasing rapport and conveying non-verbal information. However, it is unclear if users prefer an embodied to a speech-only agent for augmented reality (AR) headsets that are designed to assist users in completing real-world tasks. We conducted a study to examine users' perceptions and behaviors when interacting with virtual agents in AR. We asked 24 adults to wear the Microsoft HoloLens and find objects in a hidden object game while interacting with an agent that would offer assistance. We presented participants with four different agents: voice-only, non-human, full-size embodied, and a miniature embodied agent. Overall, users preferred the miniature embodied agent due to the novelty of his size and reduced uncanniness as opposed to the larger agent. From our results, we draw conclusions about how agent representation matters and derive guidelines on designing agents for AR headsets.more » « less
-
Ali, Raian; Lugrin, Birgit; Charles, Fred (Ed.)The widespread adoption of intelligent voice assistants (IVAs), like Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Assistant, presents new opportunities for designers of persuasive technologies to explore how to support people’s behavior change goals and habits with voice technology. In this work, we explore how to use planning prompts, a technique from behavior science to make specific and effective plans, with IVAs. We design and conduct usability testing (N = 13) on a voice app called Planning Habit that encourages users to formulate daily plans out loud. We identify strategies that make it possible to successfully adapt planning prompts to voice format. We then conduct a week-long online deployment (N = 40) of the voice app in the context of daily productivity. Overall, we find that traditional forms of planning prompts can be adapted to and enhanced by IVA technology.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.2312/egve.20181309
