Virtual World Applications Research Articles

Top concerns of user experiences in Metaverse games: A text-mining based approach

Studies on game experience, which are the most typical representatives of the Metaverse, are conceptual and in their infancy. Previous work on virtual worlds and user experience is context-specific, and user experience changes over time. Literature using text mining in game experience studies is highly fragmented and focused on extracting adjectives for user reviews, which prevents anticipating the context. Considering Metaverse's unique concepts and content, developments in supporting technologies, and the ever-increasing mobility trend, it is essential to explore how the user experience is affected, especially in mobile virtual world applications. For this reason, user comments with low scores of mobile applications related to three commonly used Metaverse games (Minecraft, Roblox or Play Together) were analyzed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study attempting to extract user concerns associated with mobile applications of Metaverse games by using text mining. As s result, we identified 12 topics, including social misconduct, controls, content lost, social interaction, price fairness, computing resources, support, playability, unstable connections, cheating, authorization, and bans. The analysis further indicated users were more frequently concerned about issues related to computing resources and price fairness. Besides, the comments that users liked the most belong to the controls, content lost and social interaction.

Exploring the metaverse in the digital economy: an overview and research framework

PurposeMetaverse is a virtual application spawned by digital technology that is becoming increasingly relevant to our lives. However, for the opportunities created and challenges posed by the metaverse, its important elements and future evolution trend remain largely unknown. Thus, this paper aims to understand the current status of metaverse research and its future research directions.Design/methodology/approachBased on the analysis of the literature data on the metaverse both in English and Chinese using Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling and bibliometrics, this study discussed the related research and development trend of the metaverse. The authors first defined the concept of the metaverse and analyzed 1,378 English articles from seven publishers and 590 Chinese articles from the CNKI database. Following that, the authors summarized three important themes from the current studies: virtual world, metaverse technologies and metaverse applications. Finally, a framework of future directions on metaverse research was proposed.FindingsThe review found that during the rapid development of the metaverse, opportunities and challenges coexisted. In the virtual world, metaverse technologies drive the implementation of application scenarios, and in turn, applications promote the improvement of technologies. The interrelationship between technology and application lays the foundation for the development of the metaverse. Future metaverse research will generate different research directions.Originality/valueThis review provides a valuable, systematic perspective for individuals who want to understand the metaverse. The conceptual framework on metaverse research proposed in this paper offers a comparison of literature analysis from domestic and international perspectives and brings new insights into the development of the metaverse.

Human Language Explanation for a Decision Making Agent via Automated Rationale Generation

Advances in reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms have made them become increasingly capable in many tasks in recent years.However, the vastmajority of RL algorithms are not readily interpretable off the shelf. Moreover, the task of generating explanations in the form of human language has not been sufficiently addressed for these RL algorithms in previous works. Human language explanations have the advantages of being easy to understand, and they can help increase the satisfaction experienced by the end user while using the product. In this paper, we propose a method for generating explanations in the form of free-text human language to help the end user better understand the behaviors of RL agents. Our work involves generating explanations for both single actions and sequences of actions. We also create an open dataset as a baseline for future research. Our proposed method is evaluated in two simulated environments: Pong and the Minimalistic Gridworld Environment (MiniGgrid). The results demonstrate that our models are able to consistently generate accurate rationales, which are highly correlated with the expert rationales. Hence, this work offers a solution for bridging the gap of trust encountered when employing RL agents in virtual world or real-world applications.

True-Random Number Generator Based on Image Histogram

It is the non-repetitive distribution that makes the random numbers important in artificial intelligence techniques, cryptology, transferring a real environment to the virtual world and many more applications. Since the source of true random numbers consists of data from the physical world, the same number chain is never produced. In this study, images taken from the outside world were used as the source of randomness. The resulting image was first converted into an 8-bit gray image, and then the histogram of this gray image was revealed. As is known, an image histogram shows the color distribution in that image. In this study, the color distribution resulting from the histogram has been converted into a random distribution between 0 and 1. As a result, it was observed that the resulting distribution of numbers overlapped with histogram. Since the distribution of the numbers depends on the ratio of the pixels and the ratio of the pixels on the image obtained, the result is a real random number sequence.

3D Face Synthesis Driven by Personality Impression

Synthesizing 3D faces that give certain personality impressions is commonly needed in computer games, animations, and virtual world applications for producing realistic virtual characters. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to synthesize 3D faces based on personality impression for creating virtual characters. Our approach consists of two major steps. In the first step, we train classifiers using deep convolutional neural networks on a dataset of images with personality impression annotations, which are capable of predicting the personality impression of a face. In the second step, given a 3D face and a desired personality impression type as user inputs, our approach optimizes the facial details against the trained classifiers, so as to synthesize a face which gives the desired personality impression. We demonstrate our approach for synthesizing 3D faces giving desired personality impressions on a variety of 3D face models. Perceptual studies show that the perceived personality impressions of the synthesized faces agree with the target personality impressions specified for synthesizing the faces.

Vehicle side-slip angle estimation on a banked and low-friction road

The effective application of integrated vehicle dynamics control and automatic driving require consistent vehicle state variables and parameters. Considering lateral vehicle dynamics, the yaw rate and (estimated) vehicle side-slip angle are the minimum set of state variables that can give insight into the handling characteristics of a vehicle. Various methods of vehicle side-slip angle (lateral velocity) estimation have been tested in virtual and real world applications, in particular on a horizontal dry road. Vehicle side-slip angle, however, is not only affected by the (steering) commands of the driver, and possibly by a vehicle dynamics controller, but can also arise from a banked road or result from a low-friction surface, changing tyre–road contact. The combined effects require a comprehensive estimation approach, which is less often touched upon in the literature. Based on earlier findings on important aspects of observability, the paper addresses a modular vehicle side-slip angle estimation approach that is particularly focused upon practical aspects of modelling and design. Estimation of the combined vehicle side-slip angle, road bank angle and maximum tyre–road friction coefficient has been broadly tested with a vehicle equipped with an electronic stability control (ESC) and electric power-assisted steering (EPS) sensor configuration, for various road conditions, driving situations and vehicle/tyre setups.

Evaluation of 2D and 3D interest management techniques in the distributed virtual environment DiVE

We present DiVE, a networking framework for the rapid development of massively multiuser three-dimensional (3D) virtual world applications. The primary contribution of the paper is twofold. First, we investigate zone-based area of interest (AOI) techniques aimed at improving DiVE’s scalability. Specifically, we present an interest management technique that is based on dividing the world into two-dimensional (2D) zones and a ‘double’ (inner/outer) AOI concept. Here the novelty is the investigation of different movement patterns of client entities to determine the optimal AOI/zone ratio. The empirical evaluation of our approach shows promising results on four metrics: bandwidth, frames per second, CPU, and RAM. Second, we extend the AOI concept from 2D space to 3D space, which has not yet been addressed in the literature. Among others, 3D space suggests interesting applications for the safety of unmanned aerial vehicles. Besides the investigation of the optimal size of volumetric AOI, we also consider different forms of volumetric zone alignment. The secondary contribution consists in a technical description of the DiVE framework, which has already been used successfully in multiuser applications in the traffic and evacuation domains.

Factors influencing purchase intent in virtual worlds: a review of the literature

Previous empirical studies have identified several factors that seem to play a role in determining purchase intent in virtual worlds; three-dimensional online environments in which users interact while represented by their avatars. So far however, a clear overview of these factors is lacking, and the question that remains is what factors affect purchase intent most. Therefore, this study aims to create an overview of factors that influence users’ purchase intent in virtual worlds, and to subsequently identify the most influential factors. To conduct this review, relevant literature was gathered using a variety of search engines and keywords. An article had to explicitly study factors influencing purchase intent in virtual worlds in order to be included in this review. This search method resulted in a selection of twelve relevant articles that were used for further analysis. Results show that perceived enjoyment, social influence, customization and ease of use are important factors that influence purchase intent in virtual worlds. Enjoyment of the virtual world, beliefs and attitudes of others, avatar customization, and easy-to-use virtual world applications can thus increase users’ willingness to purchase products in the virtual world. Practical implications as well as limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Advertising in Virtual Worlds: The Example of Second Life

As consumers become decreasingly responsive towards traditional forms of advertising, advertisers are turning towards more innovative methods. Virtual worlds provide an extraordinary potential for new and enhanced modes of advertising. This study examines the opportunities of the virtual world, Second Life, as a new platform for businesses’ advertisement and promotional activities. First, we briefly introduce the concept of virtual worlds and virtual advertising. Then, we go on to explain the development of advertising, with special emphasis on its evolution alongside technological developments. Furthermore, we discuss how virtual worlds developed and how the features of these worlds lent themselves to advertising. Second Life, the most popular virtual world application, is given a special emphasis, and we shall explore opportunities and practices for virtual advertising in this virtual world application.

Principles, interactions and devices for real-world immersive modeling

Building a real-world immersive 3D modeling application is hard. In spite of the many supposed advantages of working in the virtual world, users quickly tire of waving their arms about and the resulting models remain simplistic at best. The dream of creation at the speed of thought has largely remained unfulfilled due to numerous factors such as the lack of suitable menu and system controls, inability to perform precise manipulations, lack of numeric input, challenges with ergonomics, and difficulties with maintaining user focus and preserving immersion. The focus of our research is on the building of virtual world applications that can go beyond the demo and can be used to do real-world work. The goal is to develop interaction techniques that support the richness and complexity required to build complex 3D models, yet minimize expenditure of user energy and maximize user comfort. We present an approach that combines the natural and intuitive power of virtual reality (VR) interaction, the precision and control of 2D touch surfaces, and the richness of a commercial modeling package. We discuss the benefits of collocating 2D touch with 3D bimanual spatial input, the challenges in designing a custom controller targeted at achieving the same, and the new avenues that this collocation creates. We describe our Touch Where You Can technique that adapts the user interface to support a wide array of hand sizes, minimizing the ergonomic impact on the user. Finally, we demonstrate new interface designs that are better suited for the thumbs-only touch interactions favored by our system.

A Prototype of a Virtual World with Collaborative Games for the Study of the Periodic Table of Elements

Collaborative games are being increasingly used in educational platforms in order to promote specific learning skills among students through specific ludic experiences. Virtual worlds can also contribute to offer students a unique environment exploring knowledge domains while interacting with other students. This paper describes an innovative virtual world application that incorporates collaborative puzzles in order to support learning concepts related to the periodic table of elements in the context of a middle school study program. The paper provides a description of the virtual world and its games, the general system architecture, the main graphical user interfaces and validation results.

Appraisal of Students with Courses Mediated through Voice-Over Internet Protocol and Virtual World Application

Appraisal of Students with Courses Mediated through Voice-Over Internet Protocol and Virtual World Application

ICO2: A Networked Game for Collecting Large-Scale Eco-Driving Behavior Data

iCO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> is a networked game that aims to collect human driving behavior data at scale and help researchers better understand how people apply eco-driving practices. iCO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> is an integrated multiplatform game that can be accessed via Web client on Facebook and iPad clients, and supports a shared traffic experience among its users. Here, the authors describe iCO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> and discuss two key efforts and their results. First, they investigated the scalability of Distributed Virtual Environments (DiVE), the networking framework they developed for multiuser 3D virtual world applications. The "area of interest" method that DiVE uses was tested in a laboratory setting and showed promising results on two important metrics: bandwidth and frames per second. Second, they ran a small marketing campaign to collect data from users interacting with the iPad version of iCO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> "in the wild." They then analyzed the users' acceleration behavior, an important aspect of eco-driving.

Using Virtual Worlds to Simulate Real-World Audit Procedures

ABSTRACTIt is not uncommon for educators to struggle with providing their students real-world experiences within the classroom environment. This is particularly true when teaching a subject as application-oriented as auditing. This article furthers existing literature on using virtual worlds in the classroom by describing the learning strategies of using a common virtual world application, Second Life, to simulate a physical examination of inventory in a master's-level auditing class. Specifically, this article explores how an inventory simulation exercise can be used within a virtual world to maximize learning objectives focused on critical thinking and professional judgment, project management and teamwork, effective documentation, interviewing skills, and applying auditing standards. It also examines the feedback received from students in incorporating virtual worlds into the classroom, and lessons learned for future application. Based on pre- and post-assignment surveys, the results demonstrate that students significantly improved their inventory observation knowledge, interviewing, audit documentation, critical thinking, and group work skills completing a virtual world inventory simulation experience. The most significant lesson for instructors to take away is how to include virtual worlds into course activities to maximize the learning objectives.

Review of Educational Research Methods in Desktop Virtual World Environments: Framing the Past to Provide Future Direction

This article describes educational research methodologies being used in the investigation and evaluation of desktop virtual world environments (DVWEs) as used to teach a variety of subjects in higher education. Ellis’ research framework on innovations (2005) and Reeves and Hedberg’s research goals (2003) were used as lenses to examine the state of educational research methods within DVWEs. An extensive search that resulted in 127 peer-reviewed papers chosen, was carried out to locate journal articles in the fields of educational technology, computer science and information systems, virtual reality/virtual worlds/gaming, science and health education, human-computer interaction, media and communications, psychology, social science, cognitive science, and library science. Results showed that while small scale research is common, research with broader goals (i.e. program evaluation, developmental research) is lacking.Implications include the need for signature developmental researchers to make their virtual world applications open source, and for DVWE researchers to explore collaborative research opportunities with postmodern, education researchers in order to shed more light on important issues of equity, gender, politics, and culture that impact education.

Enhanced waypoint graph for surface and volumetric path planning in virtual worlds

Our research focuses on the problem of path planning in 3D virtual world applications. The characters we consider are heterogeneous, as they have different sizes, and can perform surface or volumetric motion. In this paper, we propose an enhanced waypoint graph, which consists of point nodes equipped with radius, as well as edges connecting those nodes. Each edge is labeled with the motion type it can support. Given a polygon soup representation of a virtual world, the proposed algorithm starts by subdividing the virtual world into regions. This enables us to process large virtual worlds. Each region is then locally voxelized, one at a time. Two kinds of waypoints are generated: local waypoints using corner detection on the voxelization, and border waypoints at the region boundary. Waypoints are then sparsely connected to form a local waypoint graph, and local graphs are finally connected via the border waypoints to create the final global enhanced waypoint graph. To plan paths between arbitrary points using this graph, the points are connected to the graph using nearest neighbor search and traversability test, then Dijkstra/A* algorithm is used to calculate the final path, taking into account the appropriate size and motion type.

Do As We Do, Not As You Think: The Effect of Group Influence on Individual Choices in a Virtual Environment

Second Life (SL) is a virtual world application that enables users to create virtual representations of themselves and interact with other users. SL is increasingly being used to study important psychological questions. The current project sought to replicate within SL Asch’s (1951) classic finding of group influence, in which participants often respond in accordance with choices expressed by other members of a group, regardless of the accuracy of those choices. Participants were given a series of perceptual judgment trials, in which they chose one of three stimulus alternatives that matched the length of a target stimulus. Participants were tested either alone or with three other confederate avatars whose choices were predetermined by the experimenter. On two of the trials, confederate avatars unanimously chose incorrectly before the actual participant made their choice. Results showed that on these trials participants were significantly more likely to choose in accord with the confederate’s choices, relative to participants tested as single avatars. The results generally support earlier research on group influence and extend these findings to a virtual world environment.

Navigation and steering for autonomous virtual humans.

The ever-increasing applicability of interactive virtual worlds in industry and academia has given rise to the need for robust, versatile autonomous virtual humans to inject life into these environments. There are two fundamental problems that must be addressed to produce functional, purposeful autonomous populaces: (1)Navigation: finding a collision-free global path from an agent's start position to its target in large complex environments, and (2) Steering: moving an agent along the path while avoiding static and dynamic threats such as other agents. In this review, we survey the large body of contributions in steering and navigation for autonomous agents in dynamic virtual worlds. We describe the benefits and limitations of different proposed solutions and identify potential future research directions to meet the needs for the next generation of interactive virtual world applications. WIREs Cogn Sci 2013, 4:263-272. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1223 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

A Virtual World Application to Assess and Aid Human Machine Collaboration

Abstract This paper presents an application using virtual reality (VR) environments to create serious games. A brief introduction to the problem area is presented followed by a detailed discussion on use of VR technology to aid research related to understanding human machine team collaborations. Some of the technical challenges and ways to mitigate them are also discussed. A VR platform provides a rich environment to setup complex scenarios that includes an avatar-based representation of human machine teams. Integration of physiological sensors into the VR application enables the computer to interpret the human state and modulate its behavior accordingly. Multimodal interactions between humans and machines allow for richer communication between them. In the current research, serious games are designed to facilitate human and computer avatar teams working together to accomplish a goal. An important aspect of this research is to study such a teaming in a high stress environment where the mission is time-critical and of high risk. The computer avatar has a social component that is driven by the RULER model (developed at Emotional Intelligence lab at Yale University) to help R: Recognize emotions in self and others, U: Understand emotion's causes and consequences, L: Label emotions with an accurate and diverse vocabulary, E: Express emotions in socially appropriate ways, and R: Regulate emotions in socially appropriate ways (Ruler Group, 2013).We plan to study the change in human computer relationship as time progresses and complexity of the task increases. A successful test of the social skills module would show improved interactions in the virtual world measured by such variables as being influenced by VR recommendations, liking the computer teammate better, and performing better on the VR tasks.

Understanding factors affecting consumer intention to shop in a virtual world

The objectives of this study were to understand that factors affecting consumer intention to shop in a virtual world and to analyze the relationships among these factors. Particularly, this study explored consumer innovativeness (consumer novelty seeking, consumer independent judgment making) as an external variable that influences consumer intention indirectly through its effects on consumer experiences with the virtual world application (ease of use, control, concentration, enjoyment). The findings indicated that consumers’ perceived enjoyment and control positively influenced their shopping intentions. While consumer novelty seeking had no significant effect on shopping intention consumer independent judgment making significantly affected consumers’ intention to shop in a virtual world indirectly through its positive effects on perceived control, enjoyment, and ease of use.