Kwansei Gakuin University
Report of Research Outcome
2021/09/26

To President
Department：
Position：
Name：

Graduate School of Humanities
Postdoctoral fellow
Robin Orthey

I report the outcome of the research as follows.
□Sabbatical leave with grantName of theFund/Prog ra m

□KGU Joint Research☑ Postdoctoral□Sabbatical leave with no grant□Individual Special Researchf ellow※ Please report by desi gnated f orm as f or “Inte rnational ResearchCollaboration”.

ResearchThe meResearchSite/Venue

Research
periodDevelop ment of eff ective image p rocessing techniques f or AVATARapplication（アバター技術の画像処理に関する脳・心理への影響に関する研究開発）

Center f or Applied Psyc hological Science

2021/04/01

2021 /09/26 （～6 month）◆ Summary of the research outcome （ appr ox . 2 ,5 00 wo r ds）
Please write down the outcomes in detail regarding the research theme above.
In this pr oject we evaluate the use of AVATAR applic ations for rem ote contr olled task s andexperienc es, in particular tourism related activities. AVATAR technology has to thepotential to tr ansform tourism in several ways. Firstl y, in extr em e events that s everely lim it
travel opportunities, e.g. the CO VID 19 pandem ic, AVATAR tour ism applications can s erve
as a substitute to lim it the effects of the crisis . On the one hand, consum er would still beable to s atisf y their need for exploration and engagem ent, and on the other hand AVATAR
applic ations c ould r educe the econom ic im pact on service providers. Tourist attr actions
with poor accessibilit y or lim ited space are another exam ple that would benefit fromAVATAR tour ists, as the AVATAR would elim inate both problem s. Sim ilarly, AVATARtour ist applications can also attract new groups of people that are c urrently no par t of thetour ist population. For exam ple, old or bed-ridden people m ay be unable to travel for healthreasons and therefore never vis it the attractions.

1Another exam ple are potential tourists with low social-ec onom ic bac k grounds, who m ay
refrain from visiting due to the excessive costs of travel itself. A rem ote contr olled AVATAR
could easil y bypass these constr aints. Finall y, AVATAR applications c an als o be useful fortour ists that are still unsure whether they want to visit the destination or not. B y getting an
imm ersive first im pression thr ough an AVATAR, these tour ists can get a feel of thedestination and allows for a m ore inform ed decision m ak ing process.
There are m any advantages to AVATAR c ontr olled experiences, but also c hallenges.
Although the qualit y of cam eras, rem ote controlled tools, and screens is graduall y
im proving, difficulties rem ain in the interaction between the hum an operator and them achine. A particular problem is accurate depth perception from a cam era video feed. Innorm al vision depth c an be perceived due to binocular disparity. Additional cues for depth
perception are overlapping of k nown objects, shadows, relative size of objects, or m otion
parallax. A pr oblem with AVATAR controlled vision is that the operator receives a flat 2D
representation captur ed b y the AVATAR’s cam era. Consequently, there is no binoculardisparit y as the im age is displa yed on a flat screen. Second, the other cues rely onassum ptions that are not necessaril y m et by c am era-controlled vis ion. Sim ilarl y, due to thezoom of the cam era it m ay be im possible/difficult for the pr ofessional to accuratel y estim ate
the s ize and position of reference objects to m ak e inferences about the rest of theenvironm ent. Other potential challenges involved in AVATAR controlled perform ance
include slower task reaction tim es, unfam iliar ity with the c ontrols, and lack of other sensor y
inform ation s uch as sm ell of feelings of a breeze that ar e part of the r eal experience.

Our latest efforts are aim ed at developing tec hniques to evaluate em otional states in reallife situations. This is ver y challenging due to var ious c onfounding variables that ar e
typicall y elim inated in labor ator y r esearch. Still, we developed experim ental des igns to findeffective techniques to be em ployed in future stages of the project when we evaluate theAVATAR technolog y in real life tourism settings.

Deadline： W ithin two months af ter f inishing the research pe riod.
Sabbatical leave with grant: Sub mit this report t o President with conf irmation by the dean ofschool you belong to.
※ Postdoctoral f ellow is required to sub mit this report with conf irmation by the de an of graduate

school bef ore the end of emplo yment pe riod.
W here to submit： Orga nization f or Research a nd Develop ment and Ou treach (N UC)◆ W e put this report on t he web of KGU. If there is any proble m abo ut it because of diff iculties on
your research, please le t us know.
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