We conducted an experiment with 20 students in an attempt to recognize and determine emotions in virtual world avatars. A pilot study using eye-tracking technology was earlier carried out to ascertain how we perceive the avatar as a whole. Results showed that we tend to focus more in detail at the unusual parts of fictive characters as opposed to the human like, where we look more upon face. For this study we followed the question if we could recognize emotions from avatars as efficient and in the same way we do from digital photos of people. Second focus of the study was to determine where and how on the face do we look to gather the information.
The results showed that we correctly identify specific emotions in the images of people by viewing the eyes and sometimes the mouth, but struggled with the images of avatars. This was further compounded by the introduction of non-human avatars. However, the eye tracking data showed that all participants struggled to ascertain any emotional perception from avatars, human or non-human. While the majority of human subjects were viewed by looking at the eyes only, or the eyes and then the mouth, the avatars were scanned for other facial and explicable features. When an object such as a hand or jewelry was introduced into the foreground, this was ignored in human images but always viewed in the images of avatars. Detail results of this study can be seen in the publication listed below.
Pivec M. & Pivec P. (2009) Misconceptions about being Digital. Chapter in Robert Zheng. (Eds.): Adolescent Online Social Communication and Behavior: Relationship Formation on the Internet. (IGI Global Publishing, in Press, 2009)