Procedurals

• Exam

• Readings

• Experiments

Virtual Reality as a Communication Medium

• Define VR, discuss central concepts

• People interacting with virtual people

• Collaborative Virtual Environments

VR in Popular Culture

VR in Popular Culture

VR in the Real World

• Expensive

• Rare

• Clunky

• Poor Fidelity

but…

• Getting Better!

What is VR?

•William Gibson:

‘consensual hallucination’

•Jaron Lanier:

‘new post-symbolic paradigm" which circumvents representation with a direct experience’

Defining VR: Immersion/Presence

Computer-generated environments that give the user the experience of being there

Defining VR: Immersion/Presence

How do you define Presence?

Defining VR: Digital?

Defining VR: Digital?

Defining VR: Tracking and Rendering

Defining VR: Tracking and Rendering

Defining VR: Tracking and Rendering

Defining VR: Virtual Human Representation

Defining VR: Virtual Human Representation

Defining VR: Virtual Human Representation

Immersive Virtual Environment Apparatus (HMD)

Immersive Virtual Environment Apparatus: CAVE

Haptics

Proxemics

• Studied extensively in the social sciences since 1950’s

• Do proxemic patterns hold true with virtual humans?

• Social Presence/Copresence

Sample Proxemics Task

Sample Data

Mutual Gaze Study: Task

Mutual Gaze Study:

Conditions

CONTROL CYLINDER

COND 1 EYES CLOSED

COND 2 EYES OPEN

COND 3 BLINKING

COND 4

BLINKS And

HEAD TURNS

COND 5

BLINKS, HEAD TURNS,

And PUPIL

DILATION

Mutual Gaze Study: Results

Mutual Gaze Study: Results

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

Virtual Human Control Pylon

Met

ers

Minimum Distance (Virtual Human vs. Control Condition)

Mutual Gaze Study: Results

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

Females Males

Eyes ClosedMutual GazeM

eter

s

Minimum Distance (Gaze by Gender)

Mutual Gaze Study: Results

Virtual Human Representation Study

Independent Variables:

– Subject Gender– Virtual Human Gender– Gaze (eyes closed vs.

mutual gaze)– ‘Soul’ (Agent/Avatar)

Agents

Avatars

Virtual Human Representation: Results

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

Agent Avatar

Eyes ClosedMutual Gaze

Met

ers

Minimum Distance

Approaching Virtual Human Study

Virtual Human Approach Results

Min

imu

m D

ista

nce

(C

M)

.7

.6

.5

.4

.3

.2

.1

0.0

Stranger

Tutor

Virtual Human Status/Politeness Effects

Collaborative Virtual Environments

Collaborative Virtual Environments

Collaborative Virtual Environments

• Multiple people sharing virtual space

• “Co-presence”, “Tele-Presence”, “Social Presence”

• Perceptually convincing

• No true avatars

• Why not a videoconference?

CVE Apparatus: COCODEX

Police Lineups

Virtual Human Interaction Lab

http://vhil.stanford.edu