The Uncanny Valley Hypothesis (Mori, 1970) predicts that perceptual difficulty distinguishing between a humanlike object (e.g., lifelike prosthetic hand, mannequin) and its human counterpart evokes negative affect. Research has focused on affect, with inconsistent results, but little is known about how objects along the hypothesis' dimension of human likeness (DHL) are actually perceived. This ...

We designed an observational study where participants (n = 17) were exposed to pictures and look-alike avatars pictures of themselves, a familiar friend or an unfamiliar person. By measuring participants' brain activity with electroencephalography (EEG), we found face-recognition event related potentials (ERPs) in the visual cortex, around 200-250 ms, to be prominent for the different familiari...

Virtual worlds (e.g., Second Life), where users interact and form relationships with other users’ virtual identities represented by avatars (i.e., human-avatar relationships), are increasingly influential in today’s businesses and society. Nevertheless, the sustainability and impact of virtual worlds depend largely on the closeness of human-avatar relationships. This study investigates the ante...

This paper presents a case study of the design issues facing a large multi-format virtual conference. The conference took place twice in two different years, each time using an avatar-based 3D world with spatialized audio including keynote, poster and social sessions. Between year 1 and 2, major adjustments were made to the architecture and design of the space, leading to improvement in the nat...

Alanah Davis University of Nebraska at Omaha [email protected]

Abstract Moving in synchrony with one another is a fundamental mechanism that maintains human social bonds. Yet, not all individuals are equally likely to coordinate their behaviors others. The degree of interpersonal coordination greatly influenced by pre-existing characteristics the interacting partners, like cultural homogeneity group, shared goals, and likability other person. Considering m...

Social and psychological theories have provided a plethora of evidence showing that the physical difficulty to express appropriate social interactions between drivers expresses itself in aggression, selfish driving and anti-social behaviour. Therefore there is a need to improve interactions between drivers and allow clearer collective decision making between them. Personal characteristics and t...

How do we recognize ourselves as the agents of our actions? Do we use the same error detection mechanisms to monitor self-generated vs. externally imposed actions? Using event-related brain potentials (ERPs), we identified two different error-monitoring loops involved in providing a coherent sense of the agency of our actions. In the first ERP experiment, the participants were embodied in a vir...