Impact of Augmented Engagement Model for Collaborative Avatars on a Collaborative Task in Virtual Reality

To improve communication and collaboration in virtual reality (VR), we suggest going beyond improving behavioral realism on participant avatars. Leveraging VR capabilities, our approach focuses on transforming and amplifying social interactions. VR technology prevents users from naturally expressing social signals, accurately detecting and transmitting them due to still limited technological capabilities, or even fully perceiving them. We propose an augmented model aimed at enhancing collaboration by displaying non-verbal engagement behaviors on listeners' avatars, even if not executed. In a trio VR session organizing a cultural event, participants were represented by avatars, with or without the augmented model in a within-subject design. Results indicate significantly improved social presence and significant changes in participants' behaviors, particularly their gaze, demonstrating the transformative potential of social augmentations for collaborative tasks in VR.