The real problem: avatars, metaphysics and online social interaction

Humanoid Personalized Avatar Through Multiple Natural Language Processing

There has been a growing interest in implementing humanoid avatars in networked virtual environment. However, most existing avatar communication systems do not take avatars’ social backgrounds into consideration. This paper proposes a novel humanoid avatar animation system to represent personalities and facial emotions of avatars based on culture, profession, mood, age, taste, and so forth. We ...

Learning in the Virtual World: the Pedagogical Potentials of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games

A much more attractive way to use the internet was discovered. Users are represented by avatars in the fantasy persistent 3D world, and the avatars apparently come to occupy a special place in the hearts of their creators (Castronova, 2001). At present, millions of people worldwide have accounts to some kind of virtual environments. Virtual world may soon become the primary venue for all online...

The Effects of Text-To-Speech Voice and 3D Avatars on Consumer Trust in the Design of Live Help Interface of Electronic Commerce

With the prevalence of online shopping, companies have begun to provide “Live Help” functions through instant messaging or text chat on their websites to facilitate interactions between online consumers and the serviceperson. But the reliance on text alone reduces nonverbal feedback and social context information. With the help of multimedia technologies, companies could now use computer-genera...

Overcoming of Metaphysics: Heidegger's Interpretation of Kant's Thought and the Problem of Metaphysics

Antecedents of the Closeness of Human-Avatar Relationships in a Virtual World1

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...