Exploring the Impact of Environmental Effects on Social Presence with a Virtual Human

We explore how and in what ways the surrounding environment can be an important factor in human perception during interactions with virtual humans. We also seek to leverage any such knowledge to increase the sense of Social/Co-Presence with virtual humans. We conducted a user study to explore the influence of environmental events on social interaction between real and virtual humans in a Mixed Reality setting. Specifically we tested two different treatments to see the effects on Social/Co-Presence: (i) enhanced physical-virtual connectivity/influence via a real fan blowing on virtual paper, and (ii) the virtual human's corresponding awareness of the environmental factor as she looks at the fan and holds the fluttering paper. While a statistical analysis for the study did not support the positive effects of the two treatments, we have developed some new insights that could be useful for future studies involving virtual humans.