Avoiding the uncanny valley in virtual character design

Schwind, Valentin; Wolf, Katrin; Henze, Niels

doi:10.1145/3236673

Cited by 71 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…In general, the creation of avatars, agents, and social interactions for VR settings is an issue which is challenging not only for psychological but also for computer science research. As an example, the degree of naturalism required for virtual agents is being intensively discussed, which seems to not be linearly related to the users' acceptance of the agent (“uncanny valley effect”) (see for e.g., Stein and Ohler, 2017; Schwind et al, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inferiority or Even Superiority of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy in Phobias?—A Systematic Review and Quantitative Meta-Analysis on Randomized Controlled Trials Specifically Comparing the Efficacy of Virtual Reality Exposure to Gold Standard in vivo Exposure in Agoraphobia, Specific Phobia, and Social Phobia

2019

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Background: Convincing evidence on Virtual Reality (VR) exposure for phobic anxiety disorders has been reported, however, the benchmark and golden standard for phobia treatment is in vivo exposure. For direct treatment comparisons, the control of confounding variables is essential. Therefore, the comparison of VR and in vivo exposure in studies applying an equivalent amount of exposure in both treatments is necessary.Methods: We conducted a systematic search of reports published until June 2019. Inclusion criteria covered the diagnosis of Specific Phobia, Social Phobia, or Agoraphobia, and a randomized-controlled design with an equivalent amount of exposure in VR and in vivo. We qualitatively reviewed participants' characteristics, materials, and the treatment procedures of all included studies. For quantitative synthesis, we calculated Hedges' g effect sizes for the treatment effects of VR exposure, in vivo exposure, and the comparison of VR to in vivo exposure in all studies and separately for studies on each diagnosis.Results: Nine studies (n = 371) were included, four on Specific Phobia, three on Social Phobia, and two on Agoraphobia. VR and in vivo exposure both showed large, significant effect sizes. The comparison of VR to in vivo exposure revealed a small, but non-significant effect size favoring in vivo (g = −0.20). Specifically, effect sizes for Specific Phobia (g = −0.15) and Agoraphobia (g = −0.01) were non-significant, only for Social Phobia we found a significant effect size favoring in vivo (g = −0.50). Except for Agoraphobia, effect sizes varied across studies from favoring VR to favoring in vivo exposure.Conclusions: We found no evidence that VR exposure is significantly less efficacious than in vivo exposure in Specific Phobia and Agoraphobia. The wide range of study specific effect sizes, especially in Social Phobia, indicates a high potential of VR, but also points to the need for a deeper investigation and empirical examination of relevant working mechanisms. In Social Phobia, a combination of VR exposure with cognitive interventions and the realization of virtual social interactions targeting central fears might be advantageous. Considering the advantages of VR exposure, its dissemination should be emphasized. Improvements in technology and procedures might even yield superior effects in the future.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inferiority or Even Superiority of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy in Phobias?—A Systematic Review and Quantitative Meta-Analysis on Randomized Controlled Trials Specifically Comparing the Efficacy of Virtual Reality Exposure to Gold Standard in vivo Exposure in Agoraphobia, Specific Phobia, and Social Phobia

2019

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“…A similar remark was made by Schwind, Wolf, & Henze (2018). They offered several suggestions as to how users can avoid negative emotions, including stylisation.…”

Section: Backdooring the Uncanninessmentioning

confidence: 76%

“…However, to the best of our knowledge, studying the eerie features of characters may at least lead to a decrease in the uncanny valley effect. Certainly, this will be much harder in virtual reality due to the greater complexity of environments (Schwind et al, 2018). Whereas the multidimensionality of the uncanny valley effect seems to impede the progress and we still do not know what causes the effect, it is important to stress that not all unpleasant receptions of game characters are related to the uncanny valley.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Uncanny Valley in Video Games: An Overview

Ratajczyk

2019

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The uncanny valley is an idea proposed by Masahiro Mori (1970) regarding negative emotions present in contacts with almost humanlike characters. In the beginning, it was considered only in the context of humanoid robots, but this context was broadened by the development of highly realistic animations and video games. Particularly evident are players’ interests in the uncanny valley. Recently there have been a growing number of reports from empirical studies regarding participants’ perception of highly realistic characters. In the paper, a review of publications concerning the uncanny valley hypothesis in video games is presented, as are deliberations about the impact of the uncanny valley on the game industry. According to the results, there is a need to recognise which attributes of virtual characters cause the uncanny valley effect.

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“…However, some commercial solutions have been introduced that aim to achieve copresence through a cartoon-like avatar, such as Facebook Horizon [19] and AltspaceVR [20]. By avoiding any attempt to achieve high ecological validity and photorealistic human likeness, solutions of this kind reduce the risk of a potential uncanny valley [21,22] created by flaws of the mediating technology or representation [23,24]. Other ways of avoiding an uncanny valley have been explored through research towards the creation of near perfect photorealistic human representations [25].…”

Section: Background and Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generative RGB-D Face Completion for Head-Mounted Display Removal

Numan

Haar²,

César

2021

2021 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW)

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My supervisors, Frank ter Haar and Pablo Cesar, for providing invaluable guidance through their constructive feedback, great patience and extensive knowledge.• My colleagues at the Intelligent Imaging department of TNO, for their exciting suggestions, stimulating feedback and infectious enthusiasm.• My mom and sister, for their endless love, support and encouragement.• My grandparents, for always believing in me.

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Avoiding the uncanny valley in virtual character design

Cited by 71 publications

References 6 publications

Uncanny Valley in Video Games: An Overview

Generative RGB-D Face Completion for Head-Mounted Display Removal

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