- Title
- Exploring avatar facial fidelity and emotional expressions on observer perception of the Uncanny Valley
- Creator
- Bailey, Jacqueline; Blackmore, Karen; Robinson, Grant
- Relation
- Australasian Simulation Congress (SimTecT 2016). Australasian Simulation Congress 2016: Congress Proceedings ( 26-29 September, 2016) p. 109-117
- Publisher
- Simulation Australasia
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2016
- Description
- Avatars have traditionally been associated with game based applications where they enhance story-based interaction and player engagement. However, interest in accurate and cost effective avatar development has increased in fields such as serious gaming and simulation training has emerged. The interest from these fields stems from training needs where avatars conveying human emotional experiences could aid in appropriate education. The area of avatar emotional expression is not well understood, often resulting in a feeling of uncanniness being experienced by end users that may have a negative impact on the training outcomes. This paper aims firstly, to explore how avatar fidelity or realism could influence the emotional experience of interactions between end users and virtual humans. Secondly, to examine how avatar facial features displaying emotional expressions affect participants perceived valance of the avatar. These affects were assessed through a combination of experimental and survey methodologies. Through a modified Godspeed survey that measures an end users’ perception of an avatars ‘humanness’, ‘eeriness’ and ‘attractiveness,’ and a three-part experiment that measured a participants’ startle probe reflex responses to avatars with differing fidelity and emotional expressions. The results indicated that participant gender played a role in their perception of avatars. In addition, the gender of the avatar appeared to have a significant impact on participant responses. Sad expressions emerged as less unpleasant and possibly less uncanny than smiling expressions. This research represents an entry point in a broad area of research that is cross-disciplinary. While there are important findings and a significant amount of data generated these elements will pose questions for future work in this area.
- Subject
- avatar; facial fidelity; emotional expressions; Uncanny Valley
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1344949
- Identifier
- uon:29531
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780992596026
- Language
- eng
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