Exploring the Behavioral and Facial Similarities of Humans and their Virtual Representations

在许多通信、教育和娱乐环境中，人们通过某种类型的自己的数字表示与他人交互。该研究项目研究了两种类型的这种表示：1）行为像特定个体但在特定维度上看起来与该个体不同的虚拟人，以及2）看起来像特定个体但执行该个体从未做过的一些新动作的虚拟人。 在第一类中，试点工作表明，人们的行为符合他们的表征的视觉特征。 在第二类中，试点工作已经证明，当数字表示看起来像他们时，人们会更多地模仿数字表示的行为。 目前的项目探讨的强度，持续时间和互动方面的这种效果背后的过程。 具体来说，该项目将开发的技术方面，使自己似乎在实时变化？变老，变年轻，变高，变得更有吸引力，以及看到自己改变形状或社会类别的心理暗示。 这项工作是有风险的，因为a）目前还不清楚人类是否会以自然的方式对改变后的自我做出反应，B）根据特定用户建模的三维人脸的计算机算法从未在改变特定人脸的年龄，性别和吸引力方面进行过测试，c）没有研究人员测试过在接触数字模型几周后进入虚拟现实的含义。人类几个世纪以来一直依赖于对自己的抽象表示？绘画肖像和雕像一直是历史艺术的基石之一。2然而，在数字时代，表现形式比物理对应物更具动态性和可变形性。 考虑到相当一部分人口每天花费数小时通过数字表示（例如，手机上的声音、在线游戏中的角色、Facebook等社交网站上的个人资料），了解这一现象的后果至关重要。 例如，影响持续多久，以及哪些参数起作用（例如，交互性、相似性等）大多数？ 目前的提议有可能改变我们对彼此在线版本交互影响的思考方式，因此涉及通信，心理学，教育和计算机科学领域。 总之，在人们在数字空间中拥有身份的世界中，理解这些数字表征如何与物理自我相关联是至关重要的。

In many communication, education, and entertainment contexts, people interact with others via some type of digital representations of themselves. This research project examines two types of such representations: 1) virtual humans that behave like a specific individual but looks different from that individual on a specific dimension, and 2) virtual humans that look like a specific individual but perform some novel action which that individual has never done. In the first category, pilot work has demonstrated that people's behavior conforms to the visual features of their representations. In the second category, pilot work has demonstrated that people model the behavior of digital representations more when the representation looks like them than when it does not. The current project explores the strength, duration, and processes behind this effect in terms of interactivity. Specifically, the project will develop the technical aspects of making oneself appear to change in real-time?get older, younger, taller, more attractive, as well as the psychological implications of seeing oneself change shape or social category. This work is risky because a) it is unclear if a human will respond in a natural way to an altered version of the self, b) the computer algorithms that take a three-dimensional face modeled after a specific user have never been tested in terms of changing the age, gender, and attractiveness of a specific face, and c) no researchers have ever tested the implications of being in virtual reality weeks after the exposure to a digital model.Humans have relied upon abstract representations of themselves for centuries?painted portraits and statues have been one of the cornerstones of historical art. However in the digital age, representations are much more dynamic and transformable than their physical counterparts. Given that a substantial portion of the population are spending literally hours per day interacting via digital representations (e.g., voices on cell phones, characters in online games, profiles on social network web sites such as Facebook), understanding the ramifications of this phenomenon is crucial. For example, how long do the effects last, and what parameters contribute (e.g., interactivity, similarity, etc.) most? The current proposal has the potential to change the way we think about the implications of interacting with online versions of one another, and consequently relates to the fields of communication, psychology, education, and computer science. In sum, in the world in which people have identities in digital space, understanding how those digital representations relate to the physical self is paramount.