Meeting Remotely – The Challenges of Optimal Avatar Interaction in VR

About this Research Topic

Background

The theme of the proposed special issue of Frontiers in Virtual Reality would feature the current challenges of avatar interaction in VR.

Recent global events called for an increased requirement to use online media for communication in work related and social spaces. The ability to represent oneself digitally, has never before been in such a high demand, and virtual reality (VR) environments have often been considered as a valuable substitute for hosting events, meetings and conferences. However, communication in VR comes with challenges as well.

As humans can represent themselves in VR as avatars which can take various forms, some of the design aspects have been an active research question, specifically the importance of visual fidelity and personal resemblance of avatars, real-time body and face tracking, and the extent of user’s input modalities, to name a few. Optimizing character design to maximize successful communication through channels for different devices and processing speed (online streamed events) is the ultimate challenge of avatar interaction in VR. The important psychological and sociological impacts of VR have recently been put into question as well.

In order to tackle the challenges of interactive avatars in VR, we invite research papers which explore the wide area of topics on interaction, collaboration, and perception of digital characters in VR. We are specifically interested in papers which explore the challenges of real-time avatar interaction, but other related topics such as interactive agents and user experience (input, locomotion, cybersickness, workspace design) can also be considered.

We therefore welcome submissions of Original (or Brief) Research, Reviews, and Opinion articles on the following topics:

- Advantages and challenges of interaction in virtual reality for a variety of applications (e.g. work and social meetings, entertainment).
- Design and evaluation of virtual characters in virtual reality (e.g., animation, stylization, perceptual evaluation)
- Design and evaluation of technological systems and task attributes of virtual environments to sustain the interaction in virtual reality (e.g., haptics, sound, locomotion, collaborative tasks)
- Methods for measuring and understanding the impact of human factors (e.g., embodiment, plausibility illusion and place illusion) for interaction in virtual reality
- Theoretical perspective of human interaction in virtual reality

Please note that there is currently a 50% discount for all Article Processing Charges applied to manuscripts submitted before 31.12.2020 - this is already reflected in our publishing fees page.

Keywords: Virtual Reality, Perception, Collaboration, Avatars, Interaction

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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