The Influence of Emotion-based Prioritized Facial Expressions on Social Presence in Avatar-mediated Remote Communication

In avatar-mediated remote communication, avatars’ facial expressions can be dynamically adjusted according to each user’s computational and device constraints, highlighting the importance of varied expressions and their impact on user perception. However, there is a lack of research on how variations in avatar facial expressions, especially when simplified, influence user perception, particularly in terms of social presence. To address this, we examine the impact of various facial expression combinations on social presence in avatar-mediated communication scenarios, ranging from informative speeches to emotional conversations. Our approach involves prioritizing avatar facial blendshape combinations using two main approaches: (1) commonly activated expressions that reflect the active facial movements observed during casual conversations, and (2) emotion-based expressions derived from Facial Action Coding System (FACS). These combinations were compared against minimal baseline and full blendshape conditions through a comprehensive study involving 32 participants. Our findings reveal that emotion-based condition achieves comparable levels of social presence and communication quality to the full condition, in both informative speeches and emotional conversations. This highlights the effectiveness of prioritizing emotion-based expressions and adopting a streamlined approach to avatar facial control. By focusing on emotional expressions while optimizing resources, this approach shows potential for enhancing the avatar-mediated communication experience, accommodating the diverse users’ contexts.