Background The lack of social activities among the elderly due to physical limitations can result in loneliness and depression. The spread of COVID-19 has made it difficult for the elderly to conduct stable social act...Background The lack of social activities among the elderly due to physical limitations can result in loneliness and depression. The spread of COVID-19 has made it difficult for the elderly to conduct stable social activities, increasing feelings of loneliness. The metaverse is a virtual world that mirrors reality. This allows the elderly to overcome the constraints of reality and perform social activities stably and continuously, providing new ideas for alleviating loneliness. Methods By analyzing their needs, a virtual social center framework for the elderly was proposed in this study. In addition, a prototype system was designed according to this framework. The elderly can socialize in virtual reality with metaverse-related technologies and human–computer interaction tools. Additionally, a test was conducted jointly with the chief physician of the geriatric rehabilitation department of a tertiary hospital. Results The results demonstrated that the mental state of the elderly who had used the virtual social center was significantly better than that of those who had not used it. Conclusions Thus, virtual social centers can help relieve loneliness and depression among the elderly with increasing global epidemics and an aging society. Hence,they have promotional value.展开更多
With the penetration of the Internet, virtual groups have become more and more popular. The reliability and accuracy of interpersonal perception in the virtual environment is an intriguing issue. Using the Social rela...With the penetration of the Internet, virtual groups have become more and more popular. The reliability and accuracy of interpersonal perception in the virtual environment is an intriguing issue. Using the Social relations model (SRM) [1], this paper investigates interpersonal perception in virtual groups from a multilevel perspective. In particular, it examines the following three areas: homophily, identification, and individual attraction, and explores how much of these directional and dyadic relational evaluations can be attributed to the effect of the actor, the partner, and the relationship.展开更多
Two artificial agents(a humanoid robot and a virtual human) are enriched with various similar intelligence,autonomy, functionalities and interaction modalities. The agents are integrated in the form of a cyber-physica...Two artificial agents(a humanoid robot and a virtual human) are enriched with various similar intelligence,autonomy, functionalities and interaction modalities. The agents are integrated in the form of a cyber-physical-social system(CPSS) through a shared communication platform to create a social ecology. In the ecology, the agents collaborate(assist each other) to perform a real-world task(search for a hidden object)for the benefits of humans. A robot-virtual human bilateral trust model is derived and a real-time trust measurement method is developed. The role of taking initiative in the collaboration is switched between the agents following a finite state machine model triggered by bilateral trust, which results in a mixedinitiative collaboration. A scheme is developed to evaluate the performance of the agents in the ecology through the CPSS.The results show that the robot and the virtual human perform satisfactorily in the collaboration through the CPSS. The results thus prove the effectiveness of the real-world ecology between artificial agents of heterogeneous realities through a shared platform based on trust-triggered mixed-initiatives. The results can help develop adaptive social ecology comprising intelligent agents of heterogeneous realities to assist humans in various tasks through collaboration between the agents in the form of a CPSS.展开更多
基金Supported by Supported by the″Jie Bang Gua Shuai″Science and Technology Project of the Henan Province (211110110500)the Scientific and Technological Project in Henan Province,China (No. 222102210030)。
文摘Background The lack of social activities among the elderly due to physical limitations can result in loneliness and depression. The spread of COVID-19 has made it difficult for the elderly to conduct stable social activities, increasing feelings of loneliness. The metaverse is a virtual world that mirrors reality. This allows the elderly to overcome the constraints of reality and perform social activities stably and continuously, providing new ideas for alleviating loneliness. Methods By analyzing their needs, a virtual social center framework for the elderly was proposed in this study. In addition, a prototype system was designed according to this framework. The elderly can socialize in virtual reality with metaverse-related technologies and human–computer interaction tools. Additionally, a test was conducted jointly with the chief physician of the geriatric rehabilitation department of a tertiary hospital. Results The results demonstrated that the mental state of the elderly who had used the virtual social center was significantly better than that of those who had not used it. Conclusions Thus, virtual social centers can help relieve loneliness and depression among the elderly with increasing global epidemics and an aging society. Hence,they have promotional value.
文摘With the penetration of the Internet, virtual groups have become more and more popular. The reliability and accuracy of interpersonal perception in the virtual environment is an intriguing issue. Using the Social relations model (SRM) [1], this paper investigates interpersonal perception in virtual groups from a multilevel perspective. In particular, it examines the following three areas: homophily, identification, and individual attraction, and explores how much of these directional and dyadic relational evaluations can be attributed to the effect of the actor, the partner, and the relationship.
文摘Two artificial agents(a humanoid robot and a virtual human) are enriched with various similar intelligence,autonomy, functionalities and interaction modalities. The agents are integrated in the form of a cyber-physical-social system(CPSS) through a shared communication platform to create a social ecology. In the ecology, the agents collaborate(assist each other) to perform a real-world task(search for a hidden object)for the benefits of humans. A robot-virtual human bilateral trust model is derived and a real-time trust measurement method is developed. The role of taking initiative in the collaboration is switched between the agents following a finite state machine model triggered by bilateral trust, which results in a mixedinitiative collaboration. A scheme is developed to evaluate the performance of the agents in the ecology through the CPSS.The results show that the robot and the virtual human perform satisfactorily in the collaboration through the CPSS. The results thus prove the effectiveness of the real-world ecology between artificial agents of heterogeneous realities through a shared platform based on trust-triggered mixed-initiatives. The results can help develop adaptive social ecology comprising intelligent agents of heterogeneous realities to assist humans in various tasks through collaboration between the agents in the form of a CPSS.
