Virtual idol marketing: Benefits, risks, and an integrated framework of the emerging marketing field

The marketing practice involved with virtual idols became popular, leading to the emergence of virtual idol marketing. However, there is a lack of scientific understanding of this emerging marketing field. To promote a fundamental understanding of virtual idol marketing, this study clarifies the conceptual boundary of virtual idols and provides meaningful insights into the definitions, benefits, and risks of virtual idol marketing. On this basis, this study further proposes an integrated framework established on the existing theories and research to explain the potential working mechanism of virtual idol marketing. This study can increase the accumulation of knowledge in the emerging field of virtual idol marketing, provide inspiration and decision-making assistance for brands to build connections with young consumers, especially Generation Z, and provide an avenue for future research in the field of virtual idol marketing.

Generation and application of avatars in pharmacometric modelling

Simulations from population models have critical applications in drug discovery and development. Avatars or digital twins, defined as individual simulations matching clinical criteria of interest compared to observations from a real subject within a predefined margin of accuracy, may be a better option for simulations performed to inform future drug development stages in cases where an adequate model is not achievable. The aim of this work was to (1) investigate methods for generating avatars with pharmacometric models, and (2) explore the properties of the generated avatars to assess the impact of the different selection settings on the number of avatars per subject, their closeness to the individual observations, and the properties of the selected samples subset from the theoretical model parameters probability density function. Avatars were generated using different combinations of nature and number of clinical criteria, accuracy of agreement, and/or number of simulations for two examples models previously published (hemato-toxicity and integrated glucose-insulin model). The avatar distribution could be used to assess the appropriateness of the models assumed parameter distribution. Similarly it could be used to assess the models ability to properly describe the trajectories of the observations. Avatars can give nuanced information regarding the ability of a model to simulate data similar to the observations both at the population and at the individual level. Further potential applications for avatars may be as a diagnostic tool, an alternative to simulations with insurance to replicate key clinical features, and as an individual measure of model fit.

Virtual and Augmented Simulations in Mental Health

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

This examines significant trends and developments in the utilization of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) simulations in the field of mental health and education. The objective is to gain insights into the emerging applications of VR/AR in mental health interventions and their potential impact on patient outcomes. The review also includes personal observations on the effectiveness and challenges associated with VR/AR simulations and the rise of exciting, disruptive artificial intelligence large language models. The findings of this review contribute to the understanding of the current state of VR/AR technology in mental health and highlight potential future directions in this rapidly evolving field.

RECENT FINDINGS

Recent studies have shown that VR/AR simulation is an effective and promising approach for treating various anxiety disorders, including specific phobias, social anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Simulated environments can be tailored to induce provoking situations, allowing individuals to learn from and gradually confront and grow in controlled and safe environments. Recent findings in the field of virtual reality simulations in mental health indicate that VR/AR exposure therapy is effective for treating anxiety disorders, while interventions show promise in improving social skills in individuals working with patients. In a broader sense, the use of VR/AR as an educational tool shows enormous potential now that functional generative artificial intelligence (AI) is recently available.

Tendencies Toward Supernormality/Subnormality in Generating Attractive and Unattractive Female and Male Avatars: Gender Differences

In the present study, we investigated the differences in the experience of attractiveness and unattractiveness of human bodies. A total of 101 participants (55 females) were asked to create the most attractive and the most unattractive female and male figures using a computer animation. They performed this task by adjusting the size of six body parts: shoulders, breasts/chest, waist, hips, buttocks, and legs. Analyses indicated that attractive body parts were distributed normally with the peak shifted to moderately supernormal sizes, while unattractive body parts had mostly U-shaped or skewed distributions with extremes in super-supernormal and/or subnormal sizes. Generally, both male and female attractive bodies had prominent "sporty" look: supernormally wide shoulders and long legs. Gender differences showed that men prefer more supernomal masculine and feminine sizes, while women show an ambivalence toward both groups of traits. Principal components analysis revealed gender differences on the multitrait level: males focus on prominent masculine and feminine traits, while women focus on traits that make both male and female bodies more elongated and slender. Gender differences were in line with specific male and female positions in the partner selection process, while a certain tendency toward masculinization of the female body required the inclusion of social factors, such as the influence of the culture of a sporty and fit look.

Chasing Metaverses: Reflecting on Existing Literature to Understand the Business Value of Metaverses

Metaverses refer to immersive virtual worlds in which people, places, and things of the physical world are represented by their digital representations. The wide adoption of metaverses is expected to widely disrupt the way we interact in the virtual world by elevating our online interactive experiences and bringing a plethora of implications for businesses. Following a structured literature review of related research published in the last decade, we shed light on our current understanding of metaverses and reflect on the potentially transformative value of metaverses for businesses in the near future. We draw on an established research framework to organize the insights of existing literature across different levels of analysis and activities' purpose. Through this analysis, we reveal eight propositions on the changes brought by the use of metaverses and identify a number of open questions which could serve as future research avenues.

Study of the characteristics of ear animations used to convey information and emotion in remote communication without web camera

The use of remote communication has grown globally due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In some remote communication, meeting participants use audio only with their web cameras turned off, resulting in a lack of exchange of nonverbal information. In this study, we defined an "ear animation" as an avatar composed of a simple face-like body with no facial features and ear-like parts coming out from this body which can be animated. The purpose of this study was to design the ear animation and evaluate user impressions of it as nonverbal information. While setting conveying information and conveying emotion as dependent variables, the independent variables we set in this study were three different conditions: when ear animations were presented with no sound, when ear animations were presented simultaneously with simple voice, when only voice was played, and three different kinds of content: "agreement", "skepticism", and "disagreement" conveyed from ear animations. Using Two-way ANOVA (repeated) with these variables, we conducted comparative analysis. The results showed that ear animations presented simultaneously with voice had the potential to be a new way of conveying nonverbal information by combining relevant ear animation movement forms.

Seeing through the cat's eyes: evidence of a spontaneous perspective taking process using a non-human avatar

In many daily face-to-face interactions, people are able to take the perspective of others, for example, coding right and left based on point-of-view of others. In the present study, we investigated whether observers are able to take the perspective of a non-human figure such as a cat, observing the same effects obtained with human or robot avatars. In both experiments, we used a centrally presented stimulus (i.e. a cat), with its tail lateralized to the left or to the right. Participants had to respond to the side of the tail with a lateralized keypress. In Experiment 1 (spatial perspective taking task), participants were required to explicitly adopt the cat's perspective to respond, whereas in Experiment 2 (SR compatibility task), this was not explicitly required. In both experiments, faster RTs are obtained when the cat is presented back, with a greater difference between front and back views when the tail is on the right; furthermore, there is no temporal modulation of the back-front effect. These common results between the two experiments are interpreted on the basis of the spatial perspective taking processes, elicited voluntarily (Experiment 1) or spontaneously (Experiment 2).

No evidence for automatic response activation with target onset in the avatar-compatibility task

When people take the perspective of an avatar and perform a stimulus-response compatibility task, they generally show the same compatibility effects that are expected from the avatar's position instead of their own. In this study, we investigated if these effects are caused by automatic response activation, a concept featured in dual-route models of stimulus-response compatibility. In two experiments we asked 24 participants each to perform a compatibility task from an avatar's point of view. We introduced a delay between the presentation of the target and the avatar in half of the trials so that the participants had to wait until the avatar appeared to select the correct response. Because the automatic response activation is known to decay quickly, its influence is eliminated in this condition. In contrast to the prediction by the automatic response activation account, we observed a larger compatibility effect in the delayed condition with orthogonal (Experiment 1) and parallel (Experiment 2) stimulus-response pairings. Additionally, distributional analyses of the compatibility effects did not support the automaticity predictions. We conclude that these results call into question the role of automatic response activation for spatial compatibility in general and perspective-based compatibility effects in particular.

Virtual reality facial emotion recognition in social environments: An eye-tracking study

BACKGROUND

Virtual reality (VR) enables the administration of realistic and dynamic stimuli within a social context for the assessment and training of emotion recognition. We tested a novel VR emotion recognition task by comparing emotion recognition across a VR, video and photo task, investigating covariates of recognition and exploring visual attention in VR.

METHODS

Healthy individuals (n = 100) completed three emotion recognition tasks; a photo, video and VR task. During the VR task, emotions of virtual characters (avatars) in a VR street environment were rated, and eye-tracking was recorded in VR.

RESULTS

Recognition accuracy in VR (overall 75%) was comparable to the photo and video task. However, there were some differences; disgust and happiness had lower accuracy rates in VR, and better accuracy was achieved for surprise and anger in VR compared to the video task. Participants spent more time identifying disgust, fear and sadness than surprise and happiness. In general, attention was directed longer to the eye and nose areas than the mouth.

DISCUSSION

Immersive VR tasks can be used for training and assessment of emotion recognition. VR enables easily controllable avatars within environments relevant for daily life. Validated emotional expressions and tasks will be of relevance for clinical applications.

FACSHuman, a software program for creating experimental material by modeling 3D facial expressions

This paper presents the FACSHuman software program, a tool for creating facial expression materials (pictures and videos) based on the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) developed by Ekman et al. (2002). FACSHuman allows almost all the Action Units (AUs) described in the FACS Manual to be manipulated through a three-dimensional modeling software interface. Four experiments were conducted to evaluate facial expressions of emotion generated by the software and their theoretical efficiency regarding the FACS. The first study (a categorization task of facial emotions such as happiness, anger, etc.) showed that 85% of generated pictures of emotional expressions were correctly categorized. The second study showed that only 82% of the most-used AUs were correctly matched. In the third experiment, two independent FACS coders rated 47 AUs generated by FACSHuman using the standard methodology used in this kind of task (AU identification). Results showed good-to-excellent codification rates (64% and 85%). In the last experiment, 54 combinations of AU were evaluated by the same FACS coders. Results showed good-to-excellent codification rates (68-82%). Results suggested that FACSHuman could be used as experimental material for research into nonverbal communication and emotional expression.

Are avatars treated like human obstacles during aperture crossing in virtual environments?

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

The current study set out to determine whether individuals walking in a virtual reality environment pass through apertures made of two avatars differently than apertures created by two pole obstacles, as previously observed between pole and human obstacles in real-world environments.

METHODS

Eleven healthy young adults wore a head-mounted virtual reality display, walked along a 10 m path and passed through a virtual aperture located 5 m from the starting location. Participants were instructed to avoid colliding with the obstacles when passing through the aperture. The experiment was conducted in a block design, where the aperture was either created by two pole obstacles or by two avatars. In both conditions, the width of the aperture ranged between 1.0-1.8x each participant's shoulder width.

RESULTS

Regardless of whether the aperture was created by the virtual poles or the avatars, participants rotated their shoulders for all aperture sizes and results found no significant differences in shoulder rotation angle, onset of rotation, walking speed or velocity at time of crossing between the two types of obstacles. Therefore, it appears that the differences in avoidance behaviours observed in real-world settings between people and pole obstacles is not translated to a virtual reality environment.

SIGNIFICANCE

It is possible that during experiments in which the avatars do not move, they do not possess human-like qualities suggested to be responsible for the increased caution used when walking through real human obstacles and instead, are treated as any ordinary obstacle.

Avatar Creation in Videogaming: Between Compensation and Constraint

Objective: We examine the extent that videogame avatars provide players with opportunities for identity exploration, aiming to test the findings of self-discrepancy theory research on the user/avatar relationship with novel cognitive anthropological methods. Specifically, we examine if avatar traits are idealized (more representative of players' ideal rather than actual self) or actualized (more representative of players' actual self) as a function of players' self-esteem. Materials and Methods: Utilizing cognitive anthropological methods, we examine the relationship between actual, avatar, and ideal selves. We first asked 21 respondents to list traits they associated with their various selves. We then asked 57 new respondents to perform four pile sorts of the salient items from these lists (1 unconstrained sort of like-traits, and 3 sorts of terms indicative of respondents' ideal/actual/avatar self). Analysis of this "free list" and "pile sort" data allowed us to clarify (in a manner sensitive to gamer culture) relationships between respondents' various conceptions of self, including how those relationships were modified by self-esteem. Illustrative quotes from the interviews further clarified these relationships. Results: Paired t-test analysis shows that informants as a whole describe their avatar compared with actual selves with fewer negative terms (idealization). Low-esteem players actualize what they deem as positive traits onto their avatars, while simultaneously idealizing avatars' negative traits by minimizing them. Compared with low-esteem gamers, high-esteem players associate significantly more positive attributes with all their various selves-actual, avatar, and ideal-while describing avatar compared with actual selves with fewer positive terms and comparable numbers of negative terms (the latter a process of actualization). Conclusion: Results point to the necessity of theoretical accounts that recognize that avatars may reflect a complex relationship with the user's actual and ideal self, without assuming that avatar play frees gamers from offline social, psychological, or bodily constraints.

Taking time to take perspective? Rapidly changing reference frames in the avatar-Simon task

The avatar-Simon task demonstrates that even task irrelevant avatars cause compatibility effects from their point of view, a result that can be interpreted within the frameworks of spontaneous spatial perspective taking and referential coding. In the present study, we used an avatar-Simon task with rapidly changing avatar positions and with simultaneous and non-simultaneous presentations to investigate the time course of this phenomenon. The results showed that participants took the avatar's perspective into account even when the avatar's position was randomized on a trial-by-trial basis. This avatar-compatibility effect was also observed when avatar and stimulus were presented simultaneously, even though the participants had no time to adopt the avatar's perspective in advance. However, the effect was much more pronounced when a delay between avatar and stimulus presentation was in place.

Zebrafish Avatars towards Personalized Medicine-A Comparative Review between Avatar Models. Cells. 2020;9. [PMID: 31991800 PMCID: PMC7072137 DOI: 10.3390/cells9020293]

Cancer frequency and prevalence have been increasing in the past decades, with devastating impacts on patients and their families. Despite the great advances in targeted approaches, there is still a lack of methods to predict individual patient responses, and therefore treatments are tailored according to average response rates. “Omics” approaches are used for patient stratification and choice of therapeutic options towards a more precise medicine. These methods, however, do not consider all genetic and non-genetic dynamic interactions that occur upon drug treatment. Therefore, the need to directly challenge patient cells in a personalized manner remains. The present review addresses the state of the art of patient-derived in vitro and in vivo models, from organoids to mouse and zebrafish Avatars. The predictive power of each model based on the retrospective correlation with the patient clinical outcome will be considered. Finally, the review is focused on the emerging zebrafish Avatars and their unique characteristics allowing a fast analysis of local and systemic effects of drug treatments at the single-cell level. We also address the technical challenges that the field has yet to overcome.

Using avatars in weight management settings: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Obesity interventions rely predominantly on managing dietary intake and/or increasing physical activity but sustained adherence to behavioural regimens is often poor. Avatar technology is well established within the computer gaming industry and evidence suggests that virtual representations of self may impact real-world behaviour, acting as a catalyst for sustained weight loss behaviour modification. However, the effectiveness of avatar technology in promoting weight loss is unclear.

AIMS

We aimed to assess the quantity and quality of empirical support for the use of avatar technologies in adult weight loss interventions.

METHOD

A systematic review of empirical studies was undertaken. The key objectives were to determine if: (i) the inclusion of avatar technology leads to greater weight loss achievement compared to routine intervention; and (ii) whether weight loss achievement is improved by avatar personalisation (avatar visually reflects self).

RESULTS

We identified 6 papers that reported weight loss data. Avatar-based interventions for weight loss management were found to be effective in the short (4-6 weeks) and medium (3-6 months) term and improved weight loss maintenance in the long term (12 months). Only 2 papers included avatar personalisation, but results suggested there may be some added motivational benefit.

CONCLUSIONS

The current evidence supports that avatars may positively impact weight loss achievement and improve motivation. However, with only 6 papers identified the evidence base is limited and therefore findings need to be interpreted with caution.

The doctor's digital double: how warmth, competence, and animation promote adherence intention

BACKGROUND

Each year, patient nonadherence to treatment advice costs the US healthcare system more than $300 billion and results in 250,000 deaths. Developing virtual consultations to promote adherence could improve public health while cutting healthcare costs and usage. However, inconsistencies in the realism of computer-animated humans may cause them to appear eerie, a phenomenon termed the uncanny valley. Eeriness could reduce a virtual doctor's credibility and patients' adherence.

METHODS

In a 2 × 2 × 2 between-groups posttest-only experiment, 738 participants played the role of a patient in a hypothetical virtual consultation with a doctor. The consultation varied in the doctor's Character (good or poor bedside manner), Outcome (received a fellowship or sued for malpractice), and Depiction (a recorded video of a real human actor or of his 3D computer-animated double). Character, Outcome, and Depiction were designed to manipulate the doctor's level of warmth, competence, and realism, respectively.

RESULTS

Warmth and competence increased adherence intention and consultation enjoyment, but realism did not. On the contrary, the computer-animated doctor increased adherence intention and consultation enjoyment significantly more than the doctor portrayed by a human actor. We propose that enjoyment of the animated consultation caused the doctor to appear warmer and more real, compensating for his realism inconsistency. Expressed as a path model, this explanation fit the data.

DISCUSSION

The acceptance and effectiveness of the animation should encourage the development of virtual consultations, which have advantages over creating content with human actors including ease of scenario revision, internationalization, localization, personalization, and web distribution.

Face recognition of full-bodied avatars by active observers in a virtual environment

Viewing faces in motion or attached to a body instead of isolated static faces improves their subsequent recognition. Here we enhanced the ecological validity of face encoding by having observers physically moving in a virtual room populated by life-size avatars. We compared the recognition performance of this active group to two control groups. The first control group watched a passive reenactment of the visual experience of the active group. The second control group saw static screenshots of the avatars. All groups performed the same old/new recognition task after learning. Half of the learned faces were shown at test in an orientation close to that experienced during learning while the others were viewed from a new viewing angle. All observers found novel views more difficult to recognize than familiar ones. Overall, the active group performed better than both other groups. Furthermore, the group learning faces from static images was the only one to be at chance level in the novel-view condition. These findings suggest that active exploration combined with a dynamic experience of the faces to learn allow for more robust face recognition and point out the value of such techniques for integrating facial visual information and enhancing recognition from novel viewpoints.

Artificial intelligence in medicine

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a general term that implies the use of a computer to model intelligent behavior with minimal human intervention. AI is generally accepted as having started with the invention of robots. The term derives from the Czech word robota, meaning biosynthetic machines used as forced labor. In this field, Leonardo Da Vinci's lasting heritage is today's burgeoning use of robotic-assisted surgery, named after him, for complex urologic and gynecologic procedures. Da Vinci's sketchbooks of robots helped set the stage for this innovation. AI, described as the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, was officially born in 1956. The term is applicable to a broad range of items in medicine such as robotics, medical diagnosis, medical statistics, and human biology-up to and including today's "omics". AI in medicine, which is the focus of this review, has two main branches: virtual and physical. The virtual branch includes informatics approaches from deep learning information management to control of health management systems, including electronic health records, and active guidance of physicians in their treatment decisions. The physical branch is best represented by robots used to assist the elderly patient or the attending surgeon. Also embodied in this branch are targeted nanorobots, a unique new drug delivery system. The societal and ethical complexities of these applications require further reflection, proof of their medical utility, economic value, and development of interdisciplinary strategies for their wider application.

Avatar Web-Based Self-Report Survey System Technology for Public Health Research: Technical Outcome Results and Lessons Learned

This paper reports on a specific Web-based self-report data collection system that was developed for a public health research study in the United States. Our focus is on technical outcome results and lessons learned that may be useful to other projects requiring such a solution. The system was accessible from any device that had a browser that supported HTML5. Report findings include: which hardware devices, Web browsers, and operating systems were used; the rate of survey completion; and key considerations for employing Web-based surveys in a clinical trial setting.

Development of A Teen-Focused Exergame

INTRODUCTION

Exergames require body movement to play and may be an effective method for enhancing teen physical activity (PA). However, results have been mixed. Innovative methods are needed to develop Exergames that increase and maintain PA. Self-representational avatars, or avatars created from a digital image of an individual, may increase PA (e.g., intensity, duration) during Exergame play. This article addresses this novel idea by describing the development of an Exergame played with a self-representational avatar.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Twelve- to 14-year-olds, stratified by gender, body mass index, and PA, were invited to participate in two rounds of data collection. Each round consisted of an online survey, followed by a telephone interview to ensure comprehension of survey responses. After the first round, an Exergame prototype and the system for creating the self-representational avatar were created. A second round of data was collected to obtain information with which to create a fully functional Exergame and the avatar creation system.

RESULTS

Forty-eight teens were recruited. The sample was multi-ethnic (41.7% White, 37.5% Black, 18.8% Hispanic, 2.1% Mixed/Other). Complete data were obtained on 48 teens in the first round of data collection and on 43 teens in the second round. Teens provided important information regarding preferences and expectations. Gender similarities and differences were observed.

CONCLUSION

This research contributes to the body of knowledge regarding how to design an appealing Exergame for teens navigated by a self-representational avatar.

Avatar body dimensions and men's body image

Two online surveys examined the significance of the visual analogues, or 'avatars', men (total N=266) create and use online. Two-dimensional (adiposity×muscle) somatomorphic matrices revealed that avatars are generally thinner than their creator's actual body and similar to their ideal, but more muscular than either their actual or ideal. Men's ratings of the importance of their avatar's appearance correlated with their actual weight and muscle concerns, and disparity between their avatar and actual body dimensions predicted their offline context body change concerns additional to that accounted for by disparity between their ideal and actual bodies. Together with the observation that men also reported higher self-esteem, less social interaction anxiety and less social phobia while online (which correlated with the time they spent online), these results suggest that the physical dimensions of avatars used in social interactions online may serve a compensatory function.