• Smart Media Journal
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.9-17
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• 2022

In the COVID-19 pandemic era, non-contact services were demanded and the use of extended reality and metaverse services increased rapidly in various applications. In this paper, we analyze Gather.town, ifland, Roblox, and ZEPETO metaverse platforms in terms of user interaction, avatar-based interaction, and virtual world authoring. Especially, we distinguish interactions among user input techniques that occur in the real world, avatar representation techniques to represent users in the virtual world, and interaction types that create a virtual world through user participation. Based on this work, we highlight the current trends and needs of human-metaverse interaction and forecast future opportunities and research directions.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.707-718
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• 2022

The metaverse is emerging as the next digital environment for people not only to interact and collaborate with others, but also to have virtual consumption experiences. In this study, virtual fashion items for the consumer's digital self are deemed significant products with consumption value. Drawing from the regulatory focus theory, this study examines how consumers' promotion and prevention focus influence value perception and buying behaviors of virtual fashion items in the metaverse context. The data were collected through an online survey. A total of 546 consumers in their twenties who are aware of the metaverse responded to a self-administered questionnaire. The results showed that promotion focus influenced all the perceived consumption values of virtual fashion items such as the economic, visual authority, hedonic, and social value, whereas prevention focus influenced only the visual authority value. Visual authority value negatively affected both purchase intention and willingness to pay premium price, while others had a positive effect. The findings provide theoretical evidence that consumers' regulatory focus is critical in buying virtual fashion items and suggest that marketers devise effective strategies to stimulate consumers' regulatory focus and to emphasize the economic, hedonic, and social value of the items in the metaverse context.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.36-49
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• 2023

This study investigated effects of metaverse experience on avatar fashion item benefit sought and the impact of fashion item benefit sought on fashion item purchase behavior. An online survey was carried out in the last year targeting male and female consumers aged 15 to 39 years who had purchased avatar fashion items from 'Zepeto'. A total of 363 responses were analyzed in this study. Results are as follows. First, four factors of metaverse experience were derived: 'entertainment experience', 'escape experience', 'adventure experience', and 'relationship experience'. Four factors of avatar fashion item benefit sought were derived: 'trend/brand sought', 'situation suitability sought', 'individuality sought', and 'ideal appearance sought'. Second, all four factors of metaverse experience were found to significantly affect the benefit of trend/brand sought. It was found that entertainment, adventure, and relationship experiences, excluding escape experiences, had significant effects on situational suitability sought. In addition, it was confirmed that entertainment and adventure experiences had significant effects on individuality sought and ideal appearance, respectively. Third, it was found that the trend/brand sought had a significant effect on metaverse usage time and purchase amount and that the situational suitability sought influenced the number of avatar fashion items purchased.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.441-447
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• 2022

Despite many discussions on the metaverse, there has been little concrete evidence and predictions about how firms use the metaverse, what determines firm competitiveness, and who will lead the industry. This paper attempts to answer these questions by conducting and examining a custom-designed survey of employees serving in the metaverse business. The survey results indicate that firms do not have strategic models for metaverse business yet, but they will become more affordable and widely used in the next three to five years. It is expected that many firms would coexist in the contents area, while the influence of global companies and large domestic companies with market dominance will be significant in the platform and software area.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.303-321
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• 2023

Metaverse shopping has emerged as a new phenomenon in social commerce. This study aims to investigate the user experience of metaverse stores shopping based on the S-O-R model. The results of the study show that telepresence, entertainment, personalized recommendation, and social interaction have significant positive effects on flow experience and satisfaction in metaverse shopping. Additionally, satisfaction and flow experience are shown to have significant positive effects on user intentions. This study provides valuable implications for the design and management of metaverse stores to improve user experience and increase user intention.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.560-576
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• 2023

Drawing on gamification affordance theory, this study examines the relationships among key affordances of avatar fashion styling, perceived enjoyment, and engagement behavior intentions-defined as the intention to share content on avatars in the metaverse platform-and the moderating role of metaverse familiarity. Based on survey data collected from 198 Korean ZEPETO users with avatar fashion styling experience, the hereby proposed research model was tested with structural equation modeling. The results demonstrated that self-expression and competition positively influenced perceived enjoyment, which subsequently affected customers' engagement behavior intention. Furthermore, metaverse familiarity as a moderating effect intensified the positive association between affordances and perceived enjoyment as well as between perceived enjoyment and engagement behavior intentions. The individual interaction effect of each affordance dimension on perceived enjoyment was different, with self-expression having a greater influence on enjoyment among the high-familiarity group and competition having a greater influence on enjoyment among the low-familiarity group. Considering that users with low metaverse familiarity might have higher needs for social interaction for adaptation, competition, being more socially triggering, might have affected these users more crucially.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.109-117
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• 2023

Recently, interest in metaverse, which creates new value in the real world, has increased. In order to make it easy to experience such a metaverse, we have developed an experiential metaverse AR game in which users take the lead in exploring the environment and enjoying content based on landmarks. Important features of the metaverse include connectivity with the real world, interactivity, and digital currency. The game seeks to extend daily life through AR and satisfies interaction through real-time chat and team competition. Finally, digital currency is built through a store system. It is implemented as a mobile game and can be accessed at any time if there is a smartphone, increasing accessibility.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.79-85
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• 2023

This study aims to verify the impact of a metaverse-based safety education program on the fire safety awareness of elementary school students. Utilizing the National Fire Agency's 119 metaverse program, an educational program was implemented for two months, and the experimental group was examined using paired-sample t-tests, while comparisons with the control group were made using independent-sample t-tests. The results revealed statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups in the area of fire prevention. Although no statistically significant differences were observed over time within each group, the overall average scores for the entire class improved across all areas. Based on these findings, the effectiveness of metaverse-based safety education is suggested; however, a significant difference compared to traditional education was not detected. The study concludes by exploring implications for considerations in the implementation of metaverse safety education in the future.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information Security & Cryptology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.493-503
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• 2024

This paper addresses the issue of continuous user authentication within the metaverse environment. Recently, the metaverse plays a vital role in personal interaction, entertainment, education, and business, bringing forth significant security concerns. Particularly, vulnerabilities related to user identity verification have emerged as a major issue. This research proposes a novel method to verify identities by analyzing users' character movements in the metaverse through a pose estimation model. This method uses only video data for authentication, allowing flexibility in limited environments, and investigates how character movements contribute to user identification through various experiments. Furthermore, it explores the potential for extending this approach to other digital platforms. This research is expected to significantly contribute to enhancing security and innovating user identity verification methods in the metaverse environment.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.377-388
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• 2022

Metaverse, realistic virtual space technology has become a hot topic. However, due to the lack of an institutional system to the metaverse environment, concerns are rising over the leakage of industrial confidentiality, including digital assets produced, stored, processed, and transferred within the metaverse. Digital forensics, a technology to defend against hacking attacks in cyberspace, cannot be used in metaverse space, and there is no basis for calculating the extent of damage and tracking responsibility, making it difficult to respond to human resources leakage and cyberhacking effectively. In this paper, we define the scope of industrial confidentiality information and leakage scenario and propose policy and institutional measures based on problems in each metaverse scenario. As a result of the study, it was necessary to prepare a standardized law on Extra-territorial search and seizure issues and a system for collecting cryptocurrency evidence to respond to industrial confidentiality leaks in the metaverse. The study expects to contribute to industrial technology development by preparing in advance for problems that may arise in metaverse technology.