An evaluation of virtual human appearance fidelity on user's positive and negative affect in human-virtual human interaction

The effectiveness of visual realism of virtual characters in engaging users and eliciting affective responses has been an open question. We empirically evaluated the effects of realistic vs. non-realistic rendering of virtual humans on the emotional response of participants in a medical virtual reality system that was designed to educate users to recognize the signs and symptoms of patient deterioration. In a between-subjects experiment protocol, participants interacted with one of three different appearances of a virtual patient, namely realistic, non-realistic cartoon-shaded and charcoal-sketch like conditions. Emotional impact of the rendering conditions was measured via a combination of subjective and objective metrics.