Framing Social Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments

Framing Social Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments PDF Author: Ann-Sofie Axelsson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789172914957
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Framing Social Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments

Framing Social Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments PDF Author: Ann-Sofie Axelsson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789172914957
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Being There Together

Being There Together PDF Author: Ralph Schroeder
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199707782
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Virtual environments provide places for 'being there together', for avatars to interact with each other in computer-generated spaces. They range from immersive systems in which people have life-size tracked avatar bodies to large-scale spaces such as Second Life where populations of users socialize in persistent virtual worlds. This book draws together research on how people interact in virtual environments: What difference does avatar appearance make? How do avatars collaborate and play together? How do the type of system and the space affect how people engage with each other? How does interaction between avatars differ from face-to-face interaction? What can social scientists learn from experiments and other studies of how people interact in virtual environments? What are the ethical and social issues in doing this research, and in the uses of this technology? And how do virtual environments differ from other communication technologies such as videoconferencing systems and other new media? This book is a state-of-the art survey of research on these topics, and offers a framework for understanding this technology and its future implications.

Connected Practice

Connected Practice PDF Author: Maria Spante
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789173852623
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 71

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The Social Life of Avatars

The Social Life of Avatars PDF Author: Ralph Schroeder
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781447102786
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Virtual reality technology has been developed commercially since the early 1990s but it is only recently, with the popularity of the internet, that it has become feasible to link many users simultaneously in shared virtual environments. This raises a number of interesting questions such as: what is the difference between face-to-face and avatar-to-avatar interaction? What patterns govern the formation of virtual communities? How does the appearance of the avatar change the nature of the communication? There has been much speculation about issues such as these but research is still at a relatively early stage. This is the first book to bring together work from relevant disciplines to form a reference guide for practitioners, students and researchers interested in how we interact in computer-generated environments. It contains contributions from most of the key people in this area (including Microsoft Research's Virtual Worlds Group) and presents their findings in a way which is accessible to readers who are new to this field or who come from related areas. It is divided into 2 parts; chapters 2-6 deal with internet-based virtual worlds which have been widely used by the public; chapters 7-10 deal with networked VR systems which have been primarily used in pilot studies and research. Some chapters take the viewpoint of a participant observer, whilst others take a more experimental approach and assess the results of relevant trials. This book will be essential reading for anyone involved in developing, using or researching virtual worlds, and will also be of interest to students on courses such as VR and Computer-mediated communication.

Shared Virtual Environments

Shared Virtual Environments PDF Author: Maria Spante
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 50

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The Social Life of Avatars

The Social Life of Avatars PDF Author: Ralph Schroeder
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1447102770
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
Virtual reality (VR) technology has been developed commercially since the early 1990s [1]. Yet it is only with the growth of the Internet and other high-bandwidth links that VR systems have increasingly become networked to allow users to share the same virtual environment (VE). Shared YEs raise a number of interesting questions: what is the difference between face-to-face interaction and interaction between persons inside YEs? How does the appearance of the "avatar" - as the graphical representation of the user has become known - change the nature of interaction? And what governs the formation of virtual communities? This volume brings together contributions from social scientists and computer scientists who have conducted research on social interaction in various types of YEs. Two previous volumes in this CSCW book series [2, 3] have examined related aspects of research on YEs - social navigation and collaboration - although they do not always deal with VRIVEs in the sense that it is used here (see the definition in Chapter 1). The aim of this volume is to explore how people interact with each other in computer-generated virtual worlds.

Avatars at Work and Play

Avatars at Work and Play PDF Author: Ralph Schroeder
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402038984
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
Avatars at Work and Play brings together contributions from leading social scientists and computer scientists who have conducted research on virtual environments used for collaboration and online gaming. They present a well-rounded and state-of-the-art overview of current applications of multi-user virtual environments, ranging from highly immersive virtual reality systems to internet-based virtual environments on personal computers. The volume is a follow-up to a previous essay collection, ‘The Social Life of Avatars’, which explored general issues in this field. This collection goes further, examining uses of shared virtual environments in practical settings such as scientific collaboration, distributed meetings, building models together, and others. It also covers online gaming in virtual environments, which has attracted hundreds of thousands of users and presents an opportunity for studying a myriad of social issues. Covering both ‘work’ and ‘play’, the volume brings together issues common to the two areas, including: What kind of avatar appearance is suitable for different kinds of interaction? How best to foster collaboration and promote usable shared virtual spaces? What kinds of activities work well in different types of virtual environments and systems?

Social Interactions in Virtual Worlds

Social Interactions in Virtual Worlds PDF Author: Kiran Lakkaraju
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110712882X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
This cross-disciplinary exploration of MMOs and other complex online worlds melds work from computer science, psychology and social science.

Data-driven Methods for Improving Social Interaction in Virtual Environments

Data-driven Methods for Improving Social Interaction in Virtual Environments PDF Author: Millie Aila Salvato
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the value of remote social communication between individuals. The fundamentals of such communication are actively studied for virtual reality interaction, remote video calls, and social networking, but research on these methods infrequently focuses on encoding explicit social use-case. In addition, systems that do incorporate modalities for explicit social information, such as touch, are often hand-tuned or manually generated. In this work, we seek to leverage data-driven methods to improve social interaction between individuals in virtual environments. In order to socialize effectively in shared virtual environments, we seek to learn how a person physically interacts in such environments. For the first contribution of this thesis, we develop the interaction-expectation model to improve hand tracking and interaction. The purpose of this model is to predict hand-object interaction before such interaction occurs. This allows for smooth interaction in virtual environments, which can be used to improve haptic feedback in shared-object settings. We find that we are able to predict human-object interaction before it occurs over short timescales (approximately 100ms). In order to improve social interaction, we must also understand the emotional intent of actions between individuals. In the second contribution of this thesis, we collected a dataset of pairs of individuals interacting to convey affective information through touch. We record the data using a soft pressure sensor on one participants arm. This dataset was collected in a more natural environment than existing ones, and utilized scenario prompts rather than single word prompts. For the third contribution we then develop a system to automatically convey social touch information using our dataset. We develop an algorithm that leverages computer vision algorithms to map from the recorded data to an actuator sleeve with an array of actuators which indent the skin. We find that humans accurately interpret the affective intent of our system with accuracy comparable to human touch interaction. Finally, we consider the visual mode of social experience by improving affective facial expressions for 2D virtual avatars. In recent years socialization via virtual avatars has dramatically increased, with the growing use of 2D drawn, rigged, virtual avatars with face tracking. As a last contribution of this thesis, we create a novel dataset of 2D avatar expressions, of high quality and richer data than previous datasets. We then propose use cases for this dataset to automate the creation of 2D avatars. Through the collection of contributions in this thesis, we seek to push the field of virtual social interaction forward with multi-modal interaction. This will allow people to interact in virtual environments, connect with remote loved ones, and represent a version of themselves online more easily and effectively.

Blended Learning: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications

Blended Learning: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications PDF Author: Management Association, Information Resources
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1522507841
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 2308

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Book Description
Traditional classroom learning environments are quickly becoming a thing of the past as research continues to support the integration of learning outside of a structured school environment. Blended learning, in particular, offers the best of both worlds, combining classroom learning with mobile and web-based learning environments. Blended Learning: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications explores emerging trends, case studies, and digital tools for hybrid learning in modern educational settings. Focusing on the latest technological innovations as well as effective pedagogical practice, this critical multi-volume set is a comprehensive resource for instructional designers, educators, administrators, and graduate-level students in the field of education.