TruePresence: Affecting Social Presence and Uncanniness with Animation Variety in LLM-Based Virtual Humans
Authors
Winther, Julius Ebenau ; Bendixen, Krestian Holm ; Nysted, Lukas Lund
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2025
Submitted on
2025-05-26
Pages
16
Abstract
Vi undersøgte, hvordan social tilstedeværelse (følelsen af, at en figur virkelig er til stede sammen med dig) og uncanny valley-effekten (den ubehagelige fornemmelse, når noget næsten, men ikke helt, virker menneskeligt) opleves i en virtual reality-oplevelse med en figur drevet af en stor sprogmodel (LLM) bygget på Convai-rammeværket. Vi sammenlignede to versioner af den samme VR-oplevelse, som kun adskilte sig i, hvor varierede figurens animationer var (fx bevægelser og gestik). Efter hver oplevelse udfyldte deltagerne et selvrapporteret spørgeskema på en 7-punkts Likert-skala for at vurdere social tilstedeværelse og uhyggelighed, efterfulgt af kvalitative spørgsmål for at pege på de karaktertræk, der havde størst betydning for deres oplevelse. Resultaterne viser statistisk signifikant evidens for, at større variationsrigdom i animationerne hos LLM-baserede NPC’er i VR er forbundet med højere social tilstedeværelse og lavere oplevet uhyggelighed.
We studied how social presence (the feeling that a character is truly there with you) and the uncanny valley effect (unease when something is almost, but not quite, human) are experienced in a virtual reality application where users interact with a character powered by a large language model (LLM) built on the Convai framework. We compared two versions of the same VR experience that differed only in how varied the character’s animations were (e.g., movements and gestures). After each experience, participants completed a 7-point Likert-scale self-report questionnaire to rate social presence and uncanniness, followed by qualitative questions to identify which character features most influenced their perceptions. The results provide statistically significant evidence that greater animation variety in LLM-based non-player characters (NPCs) in VR is associated with higher social presence and lower perceived uncanniness.
[This summary has been rewritten with the help of AI based on the project's original abstract]
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