Effect of visual feedback caused by changing mental states of the avatar based on the operator’s mental states using physiological indices

Abstract

Use of a virtual environment allows rehearsal or practice in specialized situations, extraordinary environments, or circumstances in which mistakes are not allowed. However, virtual experiences often do not translate to the real world. We propose to regard a virtual avatar as an agent which mediates between virtual experiences and the real ones. The aim of this study is to investigate how to enhance the effect of virtual experiences. To achieve this, we propose a method of providing feedback on human mental state by using affective avatar expressions based on physiological indices. We conduct experiments to evaluate the effect of the method. As a result, we find that feedback from avatar expressions can increase participants’ physiological responses without reducing concentration on the task. We suggest that this feedback can enhance commitment to virtual-world experiences.