Introducing VAIFU: A Virtual Agent for Introducing and Familiarizing Users in VR

Abstract

This paper introduces VAIFU, a Virtual Agent for Introducing and Familiarizing Users in Virtual Reality. VAIFU is an interactive embodied conversational agent that allows for both speech interaction and physical interactions in Virtual Reality. The goal of VAIFU is to introduce and familiarize new users with the landscape of virtual reality. The paper discusses the system design, agent development, interaction methods, and natural language processing techniques that may be used in order to develop such an agent for immersive human-like social interactions and how these social features may be beneficial to users. The paper concludes with a pilot study and future work for further iterations of the project.