Being Guided or Having Exploratory Freedom

ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA), pp. 33–40

Abstract

A virtual guide in an immersive virtual environment allows users a structured experience without missing critical information. However, although being in an interactive medium, the user is only a passive listener, while the embodied conversational agent (ECA) fulfills the active roles of wayfinding and conveying knowledge. Thus, we investigated for the use case of a virtual museum, whether users prefer a virtual guide or a free exploration accompanied by an ECA who imparts the same information compared to the guide. Results of a small within-subjects study with ahead-mounted display are given and discussed, resulting in the idea of combining benefits of both conditions for a higher user acceptance. Furthermore, the study indicated the feasibility of the carefully designed scene and ECA's appearance.

Authors 4

1. Andrea Bönsch Aachen Visual Computing Institute

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Visual Computing Institute, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

2. David Hashem Aachen Department of Computer Science

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Computer Science, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

3. Jonathan Ehret Aachen Visual Computing Institute

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Visual Computing Institute, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

4. Torsten Kuhlen Aachen Visual Computing Institute

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Visual Computing Institute, RWTH Aachen University, Germany