• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.103-117
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of internet usage among 5th and 6th grade of elementary school children and to elucidate the path model and the relative effects of various factors on internet addiction in the internet addiction tendency group. According to our results, the normal internet user group exhibit higher educational levels in fathers, secure attachment to mother, and warm friendship when compared to the internet addiction tendency group. At the same time, internet addiction group exhibit longer internet use time, a greater numbers of avatars in use, and higher avatars decoration costs. The research model suggested here was supported by the results. Attachment to mother appears to affect friendship which in turn affects avatars image decoration needs and avatars identification which in turn then has an impact upon internet addiction tendency. These results were then discussed in relation to previous research and theories.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.109-121
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aims to verify whether avatars that embody different brand concepts offer different experiences to users. Furthermore, this study explores the relationship between user identification with avatars and their actual brand purchase intentions. Research design, data and methodology: The research design employed a between-subjects approach, with two independent variables: brand concept and avatar. The measured dependent variables were brand experience in extended reality (XR) and purchase intention. Additionally, brand attitude served as a control variable. Results: First, in virtual brand spaces with symbolic benefits, ideal avatars were found to elicit higher levels of brand experience than actual avatars. Specifically, participants reported elevated levels of entertainment and relational assembly experiences in symbolic brand spaces. Second, this research reveals that the relationship between users' identification with avatars and their intention to make actual brand purchases is mediated by brand experience in XR. Conclusions: The findings suggest that ideal avatars evoke higher levels of brand experience within symbolic brand spaces, particularly in entertainment, relational connection, and a sense of community. Furthermore, this study establishes the role of brand experience in XR as a mediator between avatar identification and purchase intentions.

• The Journal of Information Technology
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.45-51
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• 2003

The purposes of this study were to identify Avatar benefits and characteristics of Avatar users. Avatars are imaginary characters that people use to represent themselves in the Cyber. The number of Netizens who want to consume avatars is increasing. It is necessary to understand about the consumption behavior of the Netizens who use Avatars. These data comes from Pollever Research Company in Korea on Oct. 2003. The factor Analysis of the data resulted in five factors that contribute to Avatar Benefits: uniqueness, response, assurance, self-expression, proxy satisfaction and affirmative. And we have found out meaningful themes, showing psychological experiences, purchasing strategies and repurchasing behavior of Avatars in the process of the consumption. The results showed a significant affect on each factor of the benefits and multiful regression analysis. Affirmative response was affected by self-esteem, fashion leadership and conspicuous value. So many Netizens were using unlimited purchasing coupons, exchanging Avatars and buying-selling-buying. Strategies for obtaining involved purchasing Avatars in order to get game points. The reason why Hangame site was No.1 of Avatar site in Korea. We have found out that Netizens needed to repurchase Avatars. Because they wanted to maintain positive psychological experiences in Avatar consumption.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.91-112
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• 2008

Recently, the virtual world where avatars are playing crucial roles in connecting users with each other receives much attention from practioners as well as academicians. Especially, Second Life is one of the most prevailing website where 3-D avatars can be easily designed in line with for users' personal tastes. However, there are no studies showing how the selling agents designed in 3-D avatars can affect customer trust and purchase intention in the context of virtual world. This study is concerned with suggesting the empirical results to fill in the research void like this. Results reveal that the proposed hypotheses are proven with statistical significance.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.153-173
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• 2009

Virtual world typically characterized by Second Life (www.secondlife.com) has been successfully drawing a great deal of potential users all around the world. Attention towards 3D avartars has been increasing exponentially especially in the electronic commerce world. 3D avatars have firm position in the virtual world. This study is launched to explore this research void in which trust transference from 3D-avatars-sales representative to customers purchase intention will be especially analyzed on. To perform experiments, a research model was built in a form of path analysis. Two types of 3D avatars were designed and implemented-at-tractive type and professional type. Questionnaire survey was adopted, and empirical analysis results were obtained from the research model. Results reveal that the proposed hypotheses are proven with statistical significance.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.421-428
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• 2015

This research is to understand customer satisfaction with virtual fitting based on a 3D body scanner and avatars as well as differences between avatars and the 'real me'. To this end, this research examined Korean college students to facilitate 3D body scanning, avatar generation and surveys. The author used 3D body scan data with direct measurements to identify differences between the 3D body scan data-based 'my avatar' and 'real me' in the virtual dress fitting system. The survey results on 'the level of customer awareness on 3D body scanner' found that the majority of both genders did not know about it and indicated a lower usability to incorporate IT technology into the fashion industry. The question in the 3D body scanning and avatar found an affirmative attitude. Satisfaction levels on the 3D avatars' similarity with 'own body' and garment fitting were positive and indicated a need for further technological improvements to express the avatars identical to customers' own body. More research is necessary for the accuracy of sizes for 3D body scanning that measure body sizes while wearing clothes. Avatars based on such datamay be less similar to 'own body' and cause customer dissatisfaction. Thus, further technology development is required to narrow gaps using data to make avatars that provide more accurate virtual fitting simulation services to customers.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.3121-3144
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• 2023

As interest in the metaverse has grown, there has been a demand for avatars that can represent individual users. Consequently, research has been conducted to reduce the time and cost required for the current 3D human modeling process. However, the recent automatic generation of 3D humans has been focused on creating avatars with a realistic human form. Furthermore, the existing methods have limitations in generating avatars with imbalanced or unrealistic body shapes, and their utilization is limited due to the absence of datasets. Therefore, this paper proposes a new framework for automatically transforming and creating stylized 3D avatars. Our research presents a definitional approach and methodology for creating non-realistic character avatars, in contrast to previous studies that focused on creating realistic humans. We define a new shape representation parameter and use a deep learning-based method to extract character body information and perform automatic template mesh transformation, thereby obtaining non-realistic or unbalanced human meshes. We present the resulting outputs visually, conducting user evaluations to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method. Our approach provides an automatic mesh transformation method tailored to the growing demand for avatars of various body types and extends the existing method to the 3D cartoon stylized avatar domain.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.149-176
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• 2009

In the recent e-learning environment, avatars are often used to help learners get familiar with the contents, which is ultimately to motivate them to study more. Therefore, it is important to investigate whether avatars have actually the desirable effect on users of e-learning materials. Surprisingly, however, no extensive study has been conducted on this crucial issue Accordingly, main objectives this study are summarized as follows. First, we need to gain better understanding of how much learners' trust towards avatars (termed as "avatar trust") is transferred to learners' trust towards e-learning contents (termed as "contents trust"). Second, we need to investigate how much learners' personal relationships with avatars as well as learning behaviors change depending on avatar types (attractive vs. professional) and contents complexity (easy vs. difficult). As described in the study objectives, in order for us to analyze empirical data more systematically, we classified avatar types into two: "attractive" and "professional;" the contents are categorized as either "easy" or "difficult." Therefore, it is essential for this study to build a prototype e-learning website on which our research purpose can be realized and tested effectively with proper avatar types and e-learning contents. For this purpose, we built a prototype e-learning website, in which avatars are invited from currently working avatar instructors used in real-world e-learning websites, and e-learning contents are adapted from real-world contents about Java programming topic, which have been proved to have shown high quality and reliability. Our research method includes questionnaire survey by inviting a number of valid respondents comprised of office workers who are believed to have high demands for the e-learning contents as well as those who have previous experience with avatar instructors. Respondents were given one of the four e-learning experiment conditions (2 avatar types x 2 contents types) on a random basis. Each experimental e-learning condition is framed to have the same quality but different avatar type and content complexity. Then the respondents are asked to fill out the survey form which has questions about avatar trust, contents trust, personal relationships with avatar, and learning behavior, among others. Regarding the constructs used in research model, we based them rigorously on previous studies. For example, we used six constructs such as behavior to give information (BGI), behavior to obtain information (BOI), need for inclusion wanted, need for control wanted, contents trust, and avatar trust. To measure them, 7-Likert scales were used in the questionnaire. E-learning performance was measured indirectly through two constructs such as BGI and BOI. Six constructs used in the research model were adopted and revised from the FIRO-B model suggested by Schutz. Empirical results are as follows: First, professional avatars are more effective for difficult contents, while attractive avatars were not as effective for easy contents. Second, our study results ascertained that avatar trust transfers to contents trust regardless of avatar types and contents complexity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.631-640
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• 2012

This research project investigates the differences of various body locations (between 3D body models) and drapes garments digitally onto 3D body models. Three different subject models will be given explication. It consisted of (1) data collection of three-dimensional scans (2) creation of 3D body representations (3) comparison of avatar shapes and measurements (4) visualization and assessment of 3D body models and their 3D virtual garments. The study tests a theory of impact by differences in avatars by pattern design. A visual inspection of avatars showed clear differences between the six avatar types (in the generating process); however, there was notably less difference between 3D garment simulations based upon the six avatars produced. This demonstrated that there was less influence on the 3D garments than was predicted after a visual inspection of the avatars.

• Journal of Korea Society of Digital Industry and Information Management
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.183-192
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• 2010

Digital communities' spaces have been very popular through communication contents provide entertainment and usability. Emoticons provide simply emotional expressions and intension, so they weakly convey a realistic sense as they are designed by 2D graphics. However, 3D Avatars presented by 3D Computer Graphics make users interesting because of delivering senses of reality and three-dimension and amuse users because of representing their characters. It is the purpose of this study to analyze design examples of emoticons and avatars applying to personal messengers and propose the development of them. In addition, this paper researches various characteristics of emoticons and avatars for web and mobile phones, and suggests a strategy to usefully and properly apply emoticons and avatars to design.