AHFE Open AccessHuman-Centered Metaverse and Digital Environments
Editors: Matteo Zallio
Topics: Simulation and Modelling
Publication Date: 2023
ISBN: 978-1-958651-75-9
DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1003924
Articles
The effects of Virtual Reality from different visual perspectives on empathy.
Virtual Reality (VR), as a modern technology, can embody perspective-taking, making people see the world through the eyes of others. Many research has found that VR can be an effective medium to facilitate empathy; besides, some studies have investigated the underlying mechanism of empathy facilitation through VR devices. The current research examines whether the difference in visual perspective, which are represented as the first or third-person point of view, would affect the empathy facilitation of VR users.We invited forty people, separated into two groups as the first-person perspective group (1PP) and the third-person perspective group (3PP). The subjects were asked to watch the video through VR devices with same contents but from different points of view. The results indicated that there was no significant difference in empathy facilitation between the two groups. However, after dividing empathy into two dimensions, affective and cognitive empathy, the former showed a significant difference. Experiencing from the third-person perspective, the subjects aroused more emotions, such as guilty and compassion, thereby cultivating empathy toward the character of the video. Furthermore, for the feelings of the VR experience, the subjects of 1PP and 3PP displayed great disparity as well. Most of the subjects of 3PP subjectively considered the experience good, while the others felt neutral.
Dinghau Huang, Yuling Pan
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Exploring the Application of Virtual Digital Human in the Transmission of Food Culture
Food culture is an important branch of traditional Chinese culture, and it is an important medium for carrying civilization, memory and emotion. With the development of the Internet era, traditional food culture is gradually facing various challenges. First of all, the spread of traditional food culture is breaking down, impacting the information content of the public's exposure to food culture. Secondly, due to the rapidly accelerating pace of life, young people gradually lack initiative in acquiring food culture content, focusing more on the taste and preparation of food, making it more difficult to access the deeper food culture heritage. Thirdly , the input of multiple cultures has brought impact to traditional culture, and the living space of traditional food culture has been compressed.Currently, virtual digital humans are widely used in the meta-universe ecology, in which they take on the important role of producing and disseminating information, so virtual digital humans play an irreplaceable role in the inheritance of food culture. Through market research and other methods, this study finds that the existing culture transmission class platforms lack certain fun and initiative; through literature analysis method, experimental method, interview method and questionnaire method, it aims to prove that virtual digital human can play the role of connecting culture and life, and it can transmit the traditional Chinese food culture in a more amiable way.
Shuwen Qiu, Zixuan Huang, Ren Long
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Memories-to-go: A remote interactive experience for parents and their overseas adolescent children
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many people haven’t returned to their hometowns for several years. It also makes people pay more attention to long-distance interaction. Online meeting platforms these days expand their function beyond just face-to-face meeting but also uses virtual space to make them more interactive. More and more platforms provide a proximity video chat. People can walk in and out of conversations in their avatars. That makes people feel natural and seamless in virtual space.As a place preserved the lifestyle of local people, we found the traditional market is a meaningful place that reminds people of their hometowns. Most people have the experience going to the market with their family in their childhood. Thus, this study focuses on the parent-child memory in the market. By collecting the information of people’s memories, making them into Gather town, it provides remote interactive experiences for parents and their overseas adolescent children uniquely. Memories-To-Gather is a Gather Town space that makes people to experience the traditional market. Not just visiting an online market, but to bring the memorable time to their mind. Offering the possible solution for recalling memorable moments is based on the scene transition in virtual place. By collecting and integrating the stories of the participants, we transform these stories into scenes. Guided by the map, participants complete the tasks and slowly unravel the story line. Memories-To-Gather is designed for people to remind those family times in the market with elements of play, experimentation, and collaboration in the digital environment. There are two main research questions for this study:1. What kinds of parent-child interactions in the market are meaningful and worth discussing?2. How does a remote interactive experience trigger people’s memory and emotion?To answer these questions, we started a series of interviews to collect people’s memories in the market with their family. Participants are prompted to share their memorable moments when they went to the market with family via describing and drawing. Through field research, we also entered the market, which allowed us to better understand place and atmosphere in reality of the market, then report it based on our experiences. At the end of the research, we invited five pairs of overseas students and their parents to take part in the Memories-To-Gather in Gather Town’s experience and conducted interviews after the experience. Based on the analysis of our interview, we got the following conclusions: Gather town is an user-friendly tool which is easier to operate and get started. The 2D pixel style has a retro style and makes people feel they are brought back to the past. Memories-To-Gather breaks the barriers of space and distance, the collaboration in the platform enhances long-distance interactions within family members. The local style in the scene, story development and character interaction remind them of the experience in their hometowns. It triggers memories for young people in these days and change the perspective of traditional market. Memories-To-Gather provides a place of peace of mind, it helps people find comfort in this era of uncertainty. In the future research, we’re expecting that remote interactive experience will be more widely used in education or other fields. After the study, we are looking forward to seeing traditional market as more than shopping, but a place where culture and memories are preserved for younger generation as well.
Yawen Chang, Wei- Chi Chien
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Collaborative design based on Metaverse technology: Case of interactive design of children's educational products
Explore the feasibility of the application of meta universe technology in collaborative design. Method: Taking the interactive design of children's education products as an example, this paper combs and analyzes the process participants and their needs in the collaborative design, builds a collaborative design process for children's education products, builds a corresponding meta universe space according to the process, invites participants to conduct collaborative design experiments and evaluate the design effect, so as to verify the feasibility of the application of meta universe technology in collaborative design. Conclusion: Experiments prove that the meta universe technology can obtain more complete design requirements, improve design efficiency and effect, and optimize design process and experience by improving the participation of participants in the design process
Ziqiang He, Ke Jiang, Jingyu Zhang, Yue Gao, Zhao Li Na
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Avatar construction methods and applications in the metaverse
In 2020, mankind has entered the critical point of virtualization, and the explosion point of the meta-universe has put forward higher requirements for the construction of virtual avatar. This paper deals with the form upgrading of virtual avatar in the meta-universe and investigates its construction method by combing and analyzing the construction of virtual avatar.Methods: Through literature research, the evolution of the definition and design of virtual avatar was analyzed, and the actual case was summarized. The framework and paradigm of virtual avatar construction in the meta-universe are summarized by combining the theoretical experience in the early stage with the technology provided in the later stage.Conclusion: The meta-universe breaks through the limitation of dimension, and gives mankind a broader and long-term space for activities in the space-time dimension. As a media form, virtual avatar expands the sensory dimension through "entry", "presence" and "interactive experience". With the expansion and simulation of sensory dimension, the boundary between real and virtual begins to blur. There is still a discussion on the internal transmission route, utility evaluation and multi-sensory construction of virtual avatar.
Ying Dong
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Perceptions on Digital, Virtual Environments and the Metaverse. An Exploratory Study with Younger Users
Digital, virtual environments and the metaverse are rapidly taking shape and will generate disruptive changes in the areas of ethics, privacy, safety, and how the relationships between human beings will be developed. To uncover some of some of the implications that will impact those areas, this study investigates the perceptions of 101 younger people from the generations Y and Z. We present a first exploratory analysis of the findings, focusing on knowledge and self-perception. Results show that these young generations are seriously doubting their knowledge on the metaverse and virtual worlds – regarding both the definition and the usage. It is interesting to see only a medium confidence level, considering that the participants are young and from an academic environment, which should increase their interest in and the affinity towards virtual worlds. Males from both generations perceive themselves as significantly more knowledgeable than females. Regarding a fitting definition, almost 40% agreed on the metaverse as a “universal and immersive virtual world that is made accessible using virtual reality and augmented reality technologies”. Regarding the topic in general, several participants (almost 40%) considered themselves sceptics or “just” users (38%). Interestingly, generation Y participants were more likely than the younger generation Z participants to identify themselves as early adopters or innovators. In result, the considerable amount of “mixed feelings” regarding digital, virtual environments and the metaverse shows that in-depth studies on the perception of the metaverse as well as its ethical and integrity implications are required to create more accessible, inclusive, safe, and inclusive digital, virtual environments.
Matteo Zallio, Oliver Korn
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Predicting Factors Influencing Online Gaming Towards Effective Decision Making among Filipinos: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach
Online gaming is a popular pastime for people of all ages, with most players using their mobile devices or going online to play with their game consoles. It has been a prospering industry in the Philippines, especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study aims to identify how online gaming influences Filipino gamers' effective decision-making, incorporating the Theory of Planned Behavior and Behavioral Decision Theory utilizing the structural equation modeling approach. A self-administered survey was conducted in the study and identified variables such as Cognitive Flexibility, Personality, Online Game Strategies, Certainty, Uncertainty, Subjective Norms, Behavioral Intention, and Attitude as significant factors affecting the perceived decision-making among Filipino online game players. Findings may serve as input to gaming developers in software and game development. This paper is the first study to analyze the factors affecting effective decision-making among Filipino online game players.
Bianca Mercy Cinco, Crissen Ann Ico, Franz Jmarc Tabafunda, Kyla Louise Uy, Yoshiki Kurata
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
DesignDAO - Concept of a Decentralized Autonomous Organization for managing Human-Centered Design
The DesignDAO is a concept of planning, conducting and auditing Human-Centered Design (HCD) through a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). Human-Centered Design is commonly executed by multidisciplinary teams of skilled experts in the fields of psychology, design and IT amongst others. The activities of HCD – process planning, context analysis, requirements engineering, prototyping and evaluation – result in several defined work packages for each project. Each work package requires a certain mix of skills, found in different individuals. A DAO distributes decision-making, management, and entity ownership amongst the organization’s community. The concept of the DesignDAO describes how HCD work packages can get organized, managed and controlled in a decentralized, autonomous fashion.
Leonhard Glomann
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
The Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning on Visual Communication Design
Powerful technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) allow us to reinvent how we integrate information, evaluate data, and put the resultant insights into practice to make better choices. AI systems are man-made software and hardware systems that perceive their physical or digital environments through data acquisition, interpretation of the acquired data, reasoning on the acquired knowledge, or processing of the data to achieve specific goals. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning focus on developing unprogrammed, data-driven computer learning algorithms and statistical models. AI and ML have the potential to profoundly change development theory and practice by stimulating a reconsideration of how data and algorithms interact to provide insights into how development issues are identified, analysed, and managed. This case study investigates the influence of explainable AI on visual communication design.
Ruth Chau, Amic Ho
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
A Scoping Review on Certified Immersive Virtual Training Applications
The fourth industrial revolution has given rise to virtual applications for training to meet the rapidly changing work environment. However, there are scanty reviews on the subject in the context of virtual training and certification. The current paper thus presents a scoping review of the literature regarding virtual applications for certification in training for specific competence building. The review essentially focuses on the required processes and outcomes of previous immersive virtual environments for certifications, and the effects of the training on competence measurement reliability. Additionally, the study investigates from the selected publications the learning outcome, competencies gained and the related training acquired. Besides, current weaknesses and strengths of VR applications are presented with suggestions for further improvements. Reviewed articles were obtained by extracting the salient information from publications indexed in four scientific digital libraries utilizing exclusion and inclusion methods. Our research design constituted five steps beginning with the research questions, literature extraction, relevant publication section, data extraction, evaluation and future research agenda. Selected publications also focused on fully immersive virtual reality utilizing HTC VIVE and Oculus Rift. Several advantages of the virtual certification training were discovered including enthusiasm, learning outcome, cost reduction, measurability and effects of the certifications. The majority of the publications focused extensively on the healthcare industry, especially medical/surgical. However, industrial virtual certifications such as hot work safety training, forklift safety operation, crane safety operation, and general work safety were discovered to be lacking. Despite these gaps, current interest and commitments are driving future alternatives for virtual training and certification for improving industrial training and competencies in other areas where utilization is conspicuously limited.
Ebo Kwegyir-Afful, Janne Heilala, Jussi Kantola
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Designing the Metaverse: a Scoping Review to Map Current Research Effort on Ethical Implications.
The metaverse and digital, virtual environments have been part of recent history as places in which people can socialize, work and spend time playing games. However, the infancy of the development of these digital, virtual environments brings some challenges that are still not fully depicted. With this article, we seek to identify and map the currently available knowledge and scientific effort to discover what principles, guidelines, laws, policies, and practices are currently in place to allow for the design of digital, virtual environments, and the metaverse. Through a scoping review, we aimed to systematically survey the existing literature and discern gaps in knowledge within the domain of metaverse research from sociological, anthropological, cultural, and experiential perspectives. The objective of this review was twofold: (1) to examine the focus of the literature studying the metaverse from various angles and (2) to formulate a research agenda for the design and development of ethical digital, virtual environments. With this paper, we identified several works and articles detailing experiments and research on the design of digital, virtual environments and metaverses. We found an increased number of publications in the year 2022. This finding, together with the fact that only a few articles were focused on the domain of ethics, culture and society shows that there is still a vast amount of work to be done to create awareness, principles and policies that could help to design safe, secure and inclusive digital, virtual environments and metaverses.
Matteo Zallio, Takumi Ohashi, John Clarkson
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
A study of the development status and purchase intention factors of metaverse NFT collectibles
During the COVID-19 epidemic, museums and visitors are moving from offline to online, the age of metadata is upon us, global digitization is increasing, blockchain technology is maturing, the NFT trading market is active, and collectibles are the most popular and fastest-growing category. China is at an early stage but developing rapidly. In the study, first, the differences between NFT collectibles in China and other countries are analyzed through literature and cases, and the platform of NFT collectibles in China is analyzed; then, the dimensions of the perceived value of NFT collectibles are summarized and obtained through user interviews; finally, a theoretical framework based on multidimensional perceived value on users' purchase intention is established and validated through expert interviews. The study facilitates the analysis of Chinese NFT collectibles, thus generalizing the benefits of multidimensional perceived value, which is essential for future development.
Junping Xu, Hui Li, Chaemoon Yoo, Younghwan Pan
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Anonymous Collaboration in Metaverse
This paper introduces a method enabling anonymous collaboration in the metaverse. As the Internet is turning to its next revolution in which time and space are incorporated more thoroughly to the everyday communication, visual and aural communication are given more prominent roles. This might lead to more biased interaction since people may possess pre-judgmental attitudes regarding other people’s age, gender, and ethnical attributes, which could impact collaboration. These attributes are rather easy to visually change within the metaverse by simply changing the avatars’ appearance. This research focused on the real-time aural communication in the metaverse, and the risks of harmful profiling based on people’s language use and voice. The research setting was a custom-made metaverse, where two anonymized participants interacted with each other to achieve the goal through collaboration. In the study, their interaction was monitored. Afterwards, they answered to questions in which told about their experiences and tried to de-anonymize the other participant. This preliminary research indicated that via modulating the sound, it was possible to anonymize users to a reasonable range within the custom-made metaverse.
Taneli Nyyssönen, Olli Heimo, Seppo Helle, Teijo Lehtonen, Tuomas Mäkilä, Jussi Jauhiainen
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
The Metaverse as an AI-mediated Tool of Targeted Persuasion
Over the next five to ten years, the metaverse will transform our digital lives from flat media viewed in the third person to immersive media experienced in the first person. While the core technologies of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are not inherently dangerous to consumers, many advocacy groups and policymakers have raised concerns about the expansive surveillance capabilities that large platforms could deploy across populations. What is often overlooked, however, is how surveillance-related risks could be significantly amplified if metaverse platforms are also allowed to simultaneously deploy targeted promotional content as real-time immersive experiences. When considered in the context of Control Theory (CT), the pairing of real-time surveillance with real-time influence raises serious new concerns, for it could enable interactive platforms to become extremely efficient instruments for targeted deception, manipulation, and persuasion. These risks are further increased by the growing likelihood that AI-controlled avatars (i.e., Virtual Spokespeople) that look, speak, and behave like authentic human users will be used as a primary tool of targeted influence within immersive environments. For these reasons, policymakers must consider limiting the ability of metaverse platforms to deploy real-time immersive influence campaigns, especially when conversational AI technologies are utilized. As described herein, conversational AI paired with real-time behavioral and emotional monitoring could enable profoundly dangerous tools for deploying targeted influence campaigns that compromise the epistemic agency of populations at scale.
Louis Rosenberg
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings