kth.sePublications KTH
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Synthetically Expressive: Evaluating gesture and voice for emotion and empathy in VR and 2D scenarios
Technological University Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6153-3797
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Computer Science, Computational Science and Technology (CST).ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7414-845X
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Computer Science, Computational Science and Technology (CST).ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7257-0761
Technological University Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0445-108X
Show others and affiliations
2025 (English)In: Proceedings of the 25th ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2025, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) , 2025Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

The creation of virtual humans increasingly leverages automated synthesis of speech and gestures, enabling expressive, adaptable agents that effectively engage users. However, the independent development of voice and gesture generation technologies, alongside the growing popularity of virtual reality (VR), presents significant questions about the integration of these signals and their ability to convey emotional detail in immersive environments. In this paper, we evaluate the influence of real and synthetic gestures and speech, alongside varying levels of immersion (VR vs. 2D displays) and emotional contexts (positive, neutral, negative) on user perceptions. We investigate how immersion affects the perceived match between gestures and speech and the impact on key aspects of user experience, including emotional and empathetic responses and the sense of co-presence. Our findings indicate that while VR enhances the perception of natural gesture–voice pairings, it does not similarly improve synthetic ones—amplifying the perceptual gap between them. These results highlight the need to reassess gesture appropriateness and refine AI-driven synthesis for immersive environments.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) , 2025.
National Category
Computer Systems
Research subject
Computer Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-374598DOI: 10.1145/3717511.3747074ISI: 001612582300016Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105021351441OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-374598DiVA, id: diva2:2023288
Conference
25th ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2025, Berlin, Germany, September 16-19, 2025
Note

Best Paper Award: https://www.acm.org/conferences/best-paper-awards

Project: https://hydu0016.github.io/

Part of ISBN 979-8-4007-1508-2

QC 20251219

Available from: 2025-12-19 Created: 2025-12-19 Last updated: 2025-12-19Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(11499 kB)193 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 11499 kBChecksum SHA-512
e93265d57507873fe8803b28c42ffd8a576a6e1a2889aa25606ebe4903c1665948ce24eb034fd6f23db82c6a605f05c2933da8ed9fde2e5cc99c67054a46a5f2
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Chhatre, KiranPeters, Christopher

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Du, HaoyangChhatre, KiranPeters, ChristopherKeegan, BrianMcDonnell, RachelEnnis, Cathy
By organisation
Computational Science and Technology (CST)
Computer Systems

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 1118 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf