A multidimensional measurement of photorealistic avatar quality of experience
A study that measures how people experience photorealistic avatars on ten human dimensions, including realism, trust, comfort and creepiness, using an open crowdsourced test. It finds that the more realistic an avatar is, the more people like and trust it, with no uncanny-valley dip in video-call settings.
- Publisher
- arXiv (preprint)
- Authors
- Ross Cutler, Babak Naderi, Vishak Gopal, Dharmendar Palle
- Published
- 2024-11-13
- Versions
- Preprint. Version 3 of April 5, 2025 is current. Not yet peer-reviewed in a journal.
- Research area
- Embodied AI & Decision Support
- Type
- paper
- Original
- arxiv.org
- DOI
- 10.48550/arXiv.2411.09066
- Tags
- PsychologyPerformanceAI embodiment
- Keywords
- trust, uncanny valley, realism, user experience, crowdsourced testing, avatars
Key points
In our own words. These are the only statements our AI presenters cite from this source.
- kp-1Standard technical image-quality scores say little about how people actually experience an avatar; nine of the ten human ratings correlated only weakly with them.
- kp-2The test rated 19 avatar models against real video on realism, trust, comfort using and interacting, suitability for work, creepiness, formality, affinity, resemblance and emotion accuracy.
- kp-3Avatars that look less real than real video were rated lower on trust, comfort and suitability for work, and higher on creepiness.
- kp-4Affinity rose steadily with realism, so the authors found no uncanny valley for photorealistic avatars in video calls; they note it may still appear in other settings.
- kp-5Some photorealistic avatars are approaching real video on these measures, while cartoon-like avatars score far lower.
Summary prepared by Blue Ocean Labs and pending source review. Always rely on the original text.
Our notes
Why it matters for embodied AI in decision support: trust and comfort are measurable, and they track realism. For an advisor with a face, that cuts both ways. Higher realism can earn trust, which makes clear disclosure that the advisor is an AI more important, not less. The study covers video calls; other settings may differ.
Cite this source
Ross Cutler, Babak Naderi, Vishak Gopal, Dharmendar Palle (2024). A multidimensional measurement of photorealistic avatar quality of experience. arXiv (preprint). https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2411.09066
Library reference: BOL-R-0007 · https://blueoceanlabs.io/papers/photorealistic-avatar-quality-of-experience