Virtual Agent Representation for Critical Transactions

Abstract

With their proliferation, virtual agents become increasingly involved in critical transactions between groups and individuals. Mediated-reality technologies such as virtual and augmented reality present both new opportunities and challenges for representing such agents. This study explores which agent representation users prefer for critical transactions such as a substantial financial investment. We compare our experimental results from a more general group of users with those from a control group of savvy users familiar with virtual environments and computer games, deriving initial design recommendations and an outlook on further research. Generally, a human or humanoid representation is deemed preferable, while, among the alternatives, object representations are favored over zoomorphic, plant-based, or purely symbolic options. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Virtual reality; Mixed / augmented reality; • Computing methodologies → Intelligent agents; Appearance and texture representations.

Technological Immersion and Delegation to Virtual Agents

“…The VAs were embodied in virtual humans in light of the evidence that users prefer to interact with visually human-like VAs in critical tasks [76]. The virtual human characters used in the experiment were generated using Character Creator 4, a software application that provides an integrated solution for creating high-quality digital characters.…”