Avatars

We have three types of avatars, each serving a different key purpose as part of our training

Social Avatars

These avatars are used when a user is interacting with another user, in a group setting.

Designed to be unique from each other and enable interaction and conversation.

Designed to be friendly, and genderless / raceless. Human enough to connect and engage with, without being so human they bring bias.

The avatar is created for the user, and destroyed upon completion. No need for tracking the user, creating accounts or logging in.

They are generated when the application starts, and randomized in color (blue, green, purple) and shape.

Users are also generated a username, for identification. Names are designed to be unique, and friendly, genderless and raceless. Names are a combination of adjective + noun.
"Happy Butterfly", "Blue Flower", "Smiling Potato"

“We don't pick the bodies we are born into”

Embodiment Avatars

Avatars are for when a user is stepping into the shoes of a particular character, or doing a role play depend on the experience being delivered to the user.

These Avatars are human. Designed in a human-realistic style, matching the other characters in the role plays.

The avatars have full body IK, including hands / fingers.

We pay particular attention quality of to hands, eyes and face with these characters to the most genuine connection possible.

Role playing users are taken into a private room. When they embody this character, they are not interacting with other users.

When first entering an embodied avatar, users are presented with a mirror, where they can see their reflection. This is an important step to being the process of body-transfer, as backed by research from the Sandford Human Interaction Lab.

"Hi, I am Tamara. I’m an organizational design specialist and I’ve been working at Cornell for 4 months now. I’ve worked really hard over my 20+ year career to hone my skills and I was excited to bring that experience to this team. So far my time at Cornell has been, uh, interesting... Everyone’s been nice for the most part and I really like my colleagues, but these little subtle and not so subtle things keep happening that make me feel… well.. you’ll see. "

Play As Yourself Non-Avatars

Non-Avatars are used when role-playing as yourself.

We keep the avatar minimal, to avoid projecting anything onto the users. They should be in their own body.

The only part of the body that is visualized is the users hands.

Embodied hands are very important for immersion, and connection to the simulation.

We use lifelike-blue gloves, to avoid projecting skin-color.

Playing as yourself is tool we use to allow the users to safely practice behavior in a difficult situation.

Embodiment

We focus on a few key points around embodiment to get the best results.

Transitioning

We put special care into the appropriate transitioning between characters to achieve the best results.

Interactivity

Hands are the most important part of embodiment, and body transfer

Eyes and eye contact very important for connection to a character and body. This brings the character to life.

Full Body. We use Inverse Kinematics to allow users to step fully into an avatars when appropriate. Sometimes it is best to leave this out.

Model Quality

Achieving a life-like character is important, and similar to interactivity, different parts of the body are more important than others.

Identity

It is important to make sure the user is able to authentically connect with their avatar, and that the avatar is accurately representing the right person.

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