When Faces Are Masked: Exploring Emotional Expression Through Body Postures in Virtual Reality
As simulation advances in healthcare training, understanding how body-only signals convey emotions in virtual environments is crucial, particularly with masked virtual agents. This study involved 41 nursing students evaluating 16 faceless fear and surprise postures to assess their realism and the emotion conveyed. While well-recognized in 2D human representations, only three of 16 postures were correctly identified by more than 50% of participants in a 3D virtual agent. These results highlight the impact of virtual agent design on emotional recognition and the need for rigorous testing and refinement to improve emotional expressiveness and realism.
Authors
- Florian Nouviale (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6896-4629)
- Valérie Gouranton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9351-2747)
- Pierre Jannin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7415-071X)
- Estelle Michinov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5872-2450)
- Alexandre Audinot
- Arnaud Huaulmé (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7844-5259)
- Mathieu Risy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6248-9988)
- Inas Redjem (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3620-8252)
- Julien Cagnoncle
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Inserm (FR)
- Institut de Recherche en Informatique et Systèmes Aléatoires (FR)
- Université de Rennes (FR)
Publication Details
- Published
- 2025-03-08
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1109/vrw66409.2025.00394
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.94