abstract: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are highly prevalent illnesses that can result in profound impairment. While many patients with these disorders present in primary care, research suggests that physicians under-detect and suboptimally manage MDD and PTSD in their patients. The development of more effective training interventions to aid primary care providers in diagnosing mental health disorders is of the utmost importance. This research focuses on evaluating computer-based training tools (Avatars) for training family physicians to better diagnose MDD and PTSD. Three interventions are compared: a "choice" avatar simulation training program, a "fixed" avatar simulation training program, and a text-based training program for training physicians to improve their diagnostic interviewing skills in detecting and diagnosing MDD and PTSD. Two one-way ANCOVAs were used to analyze the differences between the groups on diagnostic accuracy while controlling for mental health experience. In order to assess specifically how prior mental health experience affected diagnostic accuracy the covariate of prior mental health experience was then used as an independent variable and simple main effects and pairwise comparisons were evaluated. Results indicated that for the MDD case both avatar treatment groups significantly outperformed the text-based treatment in diagnostic accuracy regardless of prior mental health experience. For the PTSD case those receiving the fixed avatar simulation training more accurately diagnosed PTSD than the text-based training group and the choice-avatar training group regardless of prior mental health experience. Confidence ratings indicated that the majority of participants were very confident with their diagnoses for both cases. Discussion focused on the utility of avatar technology in medical education. The findings in this study indicate that avatar technology aided the participants in diagnosing MDD and PTSD better than traditional text-based methods employed to train PCPs to diagnose. Regardless of experience level the fixed avatar group outperformed the other groups for both cases. Avatar technology used in diagnostic training can be user-friendly and cost-effective. It can also have a world-wide reach. Additional educational benefit could be provided by using automated text analysis to provide physicians with feedback based on the extent to which their case diagnostic summaries cover relevant content. In conclusion, avatar technology can offer robust training that could be potentially transferred to real environment performance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Counseling Psychology 2012

New technology provides the possibility of delivering exposure therapy for socially anxious individuals through virtual environments. This study investigated whether emotional responses and empathy can be experienced for virtual characters (avatars) and whether the evaluations differ depending on level of social anxiety. Six scenes depicting avatars interacting were created through the consumer story scripting software Plotagon and then replicated with real humans. 102 participants viewed the scenes and appraised their emotional response and level of empathy. Results revealed the avatars varied in ability to elicit positive emotions, yet were equally successful in the negative conditions. An association was found between high social anxiety and a more negative emotional response of the scenes with humans but not with avatars. In conclusion it was found possible to feel emotions and empathy for virtual characters in a manner somewhat similarly to that for humans.

Orientador: Dalton Soares Arantes / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-25T15:13:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cinto_Tiago_M.pdf: 3829577 bytes, checksum: bbd0851268654ce7f28314c1b43f3736 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: Acaloradas discussões envolvendo reformas no sistema educacional têm se tornado cada vez mais frequentes nos últimos anos. Isto se deve às dificuldades evidentes do sistema educacional em evoluir ao mesmo passo do desenvolvimento tecnológico. O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar uma análise do contexto educacional atual e propor um sistema de criação de conteúdo interativo, bem como um professor virtual, na tentativa de tornar a experiência de aprendizagem mais rica e motivadora para os alunos / Abstract: Heated debates involving reforms in the educational system are becoming more and more frequent in recent years. This is due to the increasingly evident shortcomings in the educational system and its difficulties to evolve at the same pace as technological development. The aim of this work is to present an analysis of the current engineering educational context and propose an interactive content authoring system as well as a virtual professor in an attempt to make learning experience richer and more motivating to students / Mestrado / Telecomunicações e Telemática / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

In recent years, it is becoming more common for people to use applications or devices that keep track of their activities, such as fitness activities, places they visit, the music they listen to, and pictures they take. These data are used by the services for various purposes, but usually there are limitations for the users to explore or interact with them. This project investigates a new approach of visualizing such Quantified Self data, in a meaningful and enjoyable way that gives the users insights into their data. This thesis discusses the feasibility of creating a system that allows users to connect the activity tracking applications they already use, analyse the amount of activities, and then present the resulting information. The visualization of the information is done with an avatar that maps the different activities the user is engaged with, along with the activity levels, as graphical features. Within the scope of this work, several user studies were conducted and a system prototype was implemented to explore how to build, using web technologies, such a system that aggregates and analyses personal activity data, and also to determine what kind of data should and can be collected, to provide meaningful information to the users. Furthermore, it was investigated how a possible design for the avatar could look like, to be clearly understood by the users.

Avec la complexité croissante des environnements virtuels apparaît le besoin de doter les personnages qui les peuplent d'une plus grande autonomie de mouvement. En plus de marcher, courir et sauter, les simulations interactives actuelles requièrent des personnages qu'ils rampent, escaladent, poussent ou tirent des objets... Ces tâches sont caractérisées par les environnements contraints dans lesquelles elles sont réalisées, qui présentent un risque fort de collision et réduisent fortement les possibilités de mouvement; elles le sont aussi par les forces importantes qui doivent être exercées afin de les réaliser, résultant de la création de contacts. Ces deux aspects rendent la synthèse automatique de mouvements très difficile dans ce contexte. Cette thèse a pour objectif de proposer une méthode automatique pour la synthèse de mouvements en environnements contraints. Pour ce faire, deux problématiques de recherche ont été posées et étudiées. La première partie de la thèse porte sur la question de la génération de contacts pertinents pour la réalisation des tâches considérées. Une nouvelle heuristique appelée EFORT (Extended FORce Transmission ratio) est présentée ; elle permet d’évaluer la compatibilité d’une posture de contact avec la tâche demandée. Cette heuristique est au coeur d’une méthode pour la génération temps réel de postures de contact. Cette méthode s’applique pour des personnages et des environnements arbitraires, et peut être directement intégrée au sein de simulations interactives telles que les jeux vidéo. La deuxième partie porte sur le problème plus global de la recherche d’une trajectoire pertinente dans un environnement contraint. Cette recherche de trajectoire passe par la recherche d’une séquence de postures de contact qui vont permettre le mouvement. Une nouvelle méthode de planification de mouvement s’appuyant sur EFORT est donc proposée. Parce qu’elle est une des premières à simultanément considérer la complexité de l’environnement et la pertinence des configurations générées au regard de la tâche à accomplir, notre méthode constitue un pas significatif vers une plus grande autonomie de mouvement pour les personnages virtuels. / With the growing complexity of virtual environments comes the need to provide virtual characters with a larger autonomy of motion. Additionally to walking, running and jumping, state of the art virtual applications require characters to climb, crawl, pull or push objects... Those tasks are characterized by the constrained environments in which they are achieved, where the risk of collision is high and motion capabilities are limited; they are also associated with important force exertion, resulting from contact creation. In this context, automatic motion synthesis is really difficult. This thesis aims at proposing an automatic method for motion synthesis in constrained environments. To achieve these goals, two research problems have been identified and studied. The first part is dedicated to the issue of generating contact postures compatible to achieve the considered tasks. We propose a new heuristic called EFORT (Extended FORce Transmission ratio). EFORT is used to evaluate the compatibility of a contact posture with the requested task. EFORT lies at the center of a new method for the real time generation of task efficient contact configurations. This generator finds its applications for arbitrary virtual characters and environment, and as such can be directly integrated within video game applications. The second part of this thesis focuses on the more global issue of computing a relevant trajectory in a constrained environment. This issue is seen as the search for a sequence of task efficient contact postures, suited for achieving the task. Consequently a new motion planner based on EFORT is proposed. Because it is one of the first to simultaneously address the complexity of the environment and task efficiency, our motion planner is a significant step towards an enhanced autonomy of motion for virtual characters.

The advent of powerful wearable devices and smartphones has enabled a new generation of “in-the-wild” user studies, adaptive behavioral intervention strategies, and context measurement. Though numerous proof-of-concept studies continue to push the limitations of what a behavioral scientist can do with these technologies, there remains a major methodological roadblock separating behavioral theory and application. Avatar-user interaction theory, for example, is not well defined in its formulation, and thus guidelines for intervention designers depend on heuristic methods and designer intuition. Computational modeling has been slow to move into behavioral science in general, but a growing population of behavioral scientists recognize this shortcoming and are eager to apply new technology to their work. In order to help close this disciplinary rift between systems engineers and behavioral scientists, human-computer interaction principles must be applied to make the seemingly inaccessible “magic” of modeling and simulation techniques accessible to behavioral scientists. Thus, this dissertation presents formative work to help bring engineering methodology to human behavior modeling and simulation. Using theories of avatar-user interaction theory, physical activity regulation, and “information overload” as applications to drive toolkit design, usability considerations and interface needed to connect behavioral scientists with dynamical systems modeling are explored. A number of challenges unique to the modeling of human behavior and quirks of extant modeling efforts in behavioral science mean that existing modeling tools do not satisfy the needs of the community, and a novel design to address these shortcomings is presented. Exploration of the fundamental design questions which arise from application of engineering principles to this unique problem will produce quality publications in software engineering, HCI, and behavioral science. Furthermore, both the “behaviorSim” toolkit and the innovative inclusion of modeling and simulation represent significant contributions to the development and application of human behavioral theory.

Orientador: Cristiane Pereira Dias / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem e Laboratório de Estudos Avançados em Jornalismo / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-27T09:28:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pequeno_Vitor_M.pdf: 1673328 bytes, checksum: 6c971150145b2aa5951e0bc1f9c7e58f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: Essa pesquisa centrou suas investigações sobre as redes de relacionamento como dispositivos tecnológicos de comunicação e estabelecimento das relações sociais. Por meio da apropriação e aplicação de diversos dispositivos teóricos da teoria discursiva e do materialismo histórico, buscou analisar aspectos técnicos dessas redes como produções de cunho ideológico, desconstruindo as formulações de sujeito, relação social e circulação do sentido implícitas em sua estruturação. Essa pesquisa também se apoiou fortemente no método filosófico de Jean Baudrillard para repensar certas operações nocionais de dualização, principalmente no caso de online e off-line, e sua relevância, tanto epistêmica, quanto social, na contemporaneidade. Nos apropriamos aqui da noção de Arquivo como princípio ideológico de circulação do sentido, e desenvolvemos a noção de clivagens subterrâneas, que Pêcheux sugere em Ler o Arquivo Hoje (1982). Apesar da intensa heterogeneidade possibilitada pela materialidade do online, o que de predominante que acabamos por encontrar na estrutura técnica das redes de relacionamento foi a forma-histórica do capitalismo contemporâneo, estruturando as relações sociais, e a própria constituição da subjetividade, através do que acabamos por categorizar como relações de consumo / Abstract: This research centered its investigation on social networks as technological devices for communication and the establishment of social relations. By means of the appropriation and application of several theoretical dispositifs from discursive theory and historical materialism, this paper sought to analyze technical aspects of these networks as ideologically structured, deconstructing the implied formulations for subjects, social relations, and the circulation of meaning imbedded in this structuring. This research also heavily relied on the philosophical methods of Jean Baudrillard in order to rethink certain notional operations of duality, especially in the case of online/off-line, and their relevance, both epistemic and social, for the present. This research appropriates itself of the notion of Archive as an ideological principal for the circulation of all meaning, and develops the idea of subterranean cleavages, which Pêcheux suggests in Lir L¿archive Aujourd¿hui (1982). In spite of intensely heterogeneous material possibilities intrinsic of the online environment, what we have predominantly found in the technical structure of social networks is the historic-form of contemporary capitalism, structuring social relations, and even the constitution of subjects, through what we have come to categorize as relationships of consumption / Mestrado / Divulgação Científica e Cultural / Mestre em Divulgação Científica e Cultural

1 Abstract Current endeavors in the tech-industry to create the first true metaverse, alongside other things, sparked the emergence of interest around virtual avatars, namely in the NFT community. Given the complexity of design-challenges associated with creating an immersive metaverse, its avatars and the systems they evolve around, this paper aims to understand user desires and motivational patterns for avatar selection in VRChat, a game that resembles much of what a future metaverse could look like. Therefore, nine qualitative interviews with a random sample of VRChat users were conducted. The number of participants was limited due to time constraints, and the results hence might be skewed towards a certain perspective; also, with the risk of users not answering truthfully, et cetera. In a broad sense, the key results validated Lin & Wang’s (2014) four motivational patterns of avatar creation (Virtual Exploration, Social Navigation, Identity Representation and Contextual Adaptation), however with significant differences and nuances within those, indicating important subtypes for each category. Preceding research however did not take into account the effects that apply to users employing advanced VR equipment. Statements from such participants in fact suggest the existence of a fifth dimension (Physical Sensation - the “feeling” of an avatar), possibly caused by a heightened sense of presence (due to using said equipment). On this note, the widespread implementation of mirrors in VRChat worlds, along with the discovery of what players described as “mirror-dwelling”, might also have a serious impact on this phenomenon. Furthermore, the results matched concepts such as the Proteus Effect and Deindividuation theory.

Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. The authors conducted an experiment to determine the effects of gender, race, online video gaming experience, and the experimental context in which participants played the video game (online vs. offline vs. no information control) on avatar selection. The qualities of the avatar compared were based on eight objective differences between avatars and individuals: attractiveness, skin tone, height, girth chest size, waist size, hip size, and height. As predicted, those with online gaming experience selected avatars that were taller, thinner, and more attractive relative to their real selves than did participants with no prior online game experience. Non-white participants selected avatars with lighter skin-tones, whereas white participants selected avatars with darker skin-tones. Surprisingly, male participants selected shorter avatars than female counterparts did.

This research examines the effects of using 3D virtual shopping malls and shows the user interaction and experience in this type of virtual environments. Technology developments and the use of the Internet made users to expect more services, which help to improve the user's life. Using a 3D virtual environment and adding a shopping idea to it is considered as very interesting, especially if it reflects the real world in a virtual reality that make its users attached to it. Furthermore, the possibility of having an avatar to represent themselves in computer-mediated virtual environment help users to explore the virtual environment. Another advantage is that users have the possibility to invite friends and to navigate inside a 3D Virtual-shopping mall not alone but together, which gives the user the capability to socialise inside the mall. Besides, changing of the customer's profile and chatting with friends is supported, too. Moreover, the transformation process from a two-dimensional environment to a three-dimensional environment is considered to be convenient for both, customers and mall owners.   I have used phenomenology to investigate this new phenomenon. In addition the data was gathered by interviewing several participants from different educational levels as well as business owners of 3D virtual malls. The research will show the potential of using a 3D virtual shopping mall from the user's perspective as well as from the business' owners and having a 3D virtual shopping mall is not only considered entertaining, but also convenient.   As a future work I recommend to interview the merchants in this research to grasp this idea completely.