• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.207-228
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• 2023

After COVID-19, organizations have widely adopted platforms such as zoom or developed their proprietary online real-time systems for remote work, with recent forays into incorporating the metaverse for meetings and publicity. While ongoing studies investigate the impact of avatar customization, expansive virtual environments, and past virtual experiences on participant satisfaction within virtual reality or metaverse settings, the utilization of the metaverse as a dedicated workspace is still an evolving area. There exists a notable gap in research concerning the factors influencing the performance of the metaverse as a workspace, particularly in non-immersive work-type metaverses. Unlike studies focusing on immersive virtual reality or metaverses emphasizing immersion and presence, the majority of contemporary work-oriented metaverses tend to be non-immersive. As such, understanding the factors that contribute to the success of these existing non-immersive metaverses becomes crucial. Hence, this paper aims to empirically analyze the factors impacting personal outcomes in the non-immersive metaverse workspace and derive implications from the results. To achieve this, the study adopts the Embodied Social Presence (ESP) model as a theoretical foundation, modifying and proposing a research model tailored to the non-immersive metaverse workspace. The findings validate that the impact of presence on task engagement and task involvement exhibits a moderating effect based on the metaverse platform used. Following interviews with participants engaged in non-immersive metaverse workplaces (specifically Gather Town and Ifland), a survey was conducted to gather comprehensive insights.

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.12-23
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• 2024

The Metaverse industry is developing rapidly, and related technologies are being actively improved. Tools such as controllers, keyboards, and mouses are used to interact in the Metaverse, but they are not natural and intuitive interfaces to resemble real-world interactions. Immersive interaction in a Metaverse space requires the engagement of various senses such as vision, touch, and proprioception. Moreover, in terms of body senses, it requires a sense of body ownership and agency. In addition, eliciting cognitive and emotional empathy based on non-verbal expression, which cannot be suitably conveyed to the digital world, requires higher-level technologies than existing emotion measurement solutions. This diversity of technologies can converge to build an immersive realistic Metaverse environment. We review the latest research trends in technologies related to immersive interactions and analyze future development prospects.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.67-73
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• 2023

Under the influence of COVID-19, as a measure of social distancing for about two years and one month, non-face-to-face services using ICT element technology are expanding not only to the education sector but to all fields. In particular, as educational programs using the Metaverse platform spread to various fields, educators, and learners have more learning experiences using Edutech, but problems through non-face-to-face learning such as reduced immersion or concentration in education are raising In this paper, to overcome the problems raised through non-face-to-face learning and develop metaverse immersive media digital contents to improve the educational environment, we utilize VR (Virtual Reality) based on an immersive metaverse to provide education / Training contents and the educational environment was established. In this paper, we presented a system to increase immersion and concentration in educational contents in a virtual environment using HMD (Head Mounted Display) for learners who are put into military education/training. Immersion was further improved.

• Journal of Korea Game Society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.65-76
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• 2022

What difference does the metaverse experience have from the real world? This study investigated the effect of space size and dialogue topic on metaverse user experience. The results from a 3(space size: reality vs. metaverse in an open room vs. metaverse in a closed room) x 2(dialogue topic: positive vs. negative) mixed factorial design experiment (N = 75) revealed statistically significant effects of space on responsiveness, and dialogue topic on closeness. This result implies that designing metaverse for non-immersive devices should include careful considerations regarding the characteristics of the user's real space.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.93-100
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• 2022

Korea's ancestral culture has limited travel and contact due to Corona (COVID-19). In addition, Korean ancestral culture meets in person to commemorate the deceased. In this paper, we propose a non-face-to-face metaverse memorial platform service that can commemorate the deceased and perform ancestral rites in the cyber world (virtual reality) by applying the metaverse technology. The services proposed in the study consisted of a remembrance hall that displays the life story of the deceased, a ancestral hall that conducts ancestral rites for the deceased, and a deceased pavilion that checks the remains and wills of the deceased. In addition, the virtual reality device (HMD: Head Mounted Display) set the teleportation and content resolution to 4K to minimize dizziness. In particular, the priests applied interaction technology to provide an immersive service for ancestral rites between family members. The researched memorial hall metaverse service is a metaverse-based platform service that allows anyone to commemorate the deceased as a family unit in a non-face-to-face state rather than face-to-face.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.287-294
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to find out consumers' perceptions of "metaverse," a newly spotlighted technology, through big data analysis as a non-face-to-face society continues after the outbreak of COVID-19. This study conducted a big data analysis using text mining to analyze consumers' perceptions of metaverse before and after COVID-19. The top 30 keywords were extracted through word purification, and visualization was performed through network analysis and concor analysis between each keyword based on this. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that the non-face-to-face society continued and metaverse emerged as a trend. Previously, metaverse was focused on textual data such as SNS as a part of life logging, but after that, it began to pay attention to virtual reality space, creating many platforms and expanding industries. The limitation of this study is that since data was collected through the search frequency of portal sites, anonymity was guaranteed, so demographic characteristics were not reflected when data was collected.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.175-201
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• 2023

In the midst of going through a non-face-to-face society, most of human activities narrowed down to the platform, restrictions on external activities are bringing the internal scalability of digital technology. Metaverse is virtually shifting reality and increasing the possibility of utilization in various areas. However, researches linked to the educational effects of metaverse, especially students with disabilities, are still an unknown area that lacks exploration. This paper focuses on the fact that metaverse-education is widening educational fields that meets the various needs of disabled students to realize social good and inclusive education, and communication effects such as resolving barriers to interaction are prominent. As a research method, examining literature research papers linked to AR/VR, metaverse with communication skills, interviews, articles, and columns by experts, and policy suggestions and implications for the special education was conducted. Although the limitations of research are confirmed, significant results are found on inclusive education, which provides educational maximizing effects and realizing human rights through direct immersive experience reflecting the Cone of Experience Theory. Hopefully follow-up studies on meta-edu for disabled students will be carried out in the future, and various interdisciplinary discussions are needed to carefully observe inclusive policies and benefits so that the socially vulnerable are not excluded from technologies in ICT society.

• Informatization Policy
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.32-52
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• 2024

This study investigates the effectiveness of virtual reality agents as foreign language instructors with focus on the impact of different native language backgrounds and instructional roles. The agents were first distinguished as native or non-native speakers treated as a between-subject factor, and then assigned roles as either teachers or salespersons considered within-subject factors. An immersive virtual environment was developed for this experiment, and a 2×2 mixed factorial design was carried out. In an experimental group of 72 university students, statistically significant interactions were found in learning satisfaction, memory, and recall between the native/non-native status of the agents and their roles. With regard to learning confidence and presence, however, no statistically significant differences were observed in both interaction effects and main effects. Contextual learning in a virtual environment was found to enhance learning effectiveness and satisfaction, with the nativeness and the role of agents influencing learners' memory; thus highlighting the effectiveness of using virtual reality agents in foreign language learning. This suggests that varied approaches can have positive cognitive and emotional impacts on learners, thereby providing valuable theoretical and empirical implications.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.500-507
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• 2021

The virtual reality industry has an opportunity to take another leap forward with the surge in demand for non-face-to-face content and interest in the metaverse after Covid-19. Therefore, in order to popularize virtual reality content along with this trend, high-quality content production and storytelling research suitable for the characteristics of virtual reality should be continuously conducted. In order for content to which virtual reality characteristics are applied to be effectively produced through user feedback, a quantitative index that can evaluate the content is needed. In this study, the process of viewing virtual reality contents was analyzed and head movement was set as a quantitative indicator. Afterwards, the experimenter watched five animations and analyzed the correlation between recorded head movement information and immersion. As a result of the analysis, high immersion was shown when the head movement speed was relatively slow, and it was found that the head movement speed can be used significantly as an index indicating the degree of content immersion. The result derived in this way can be used as a quantitative indicator that can verify the validity of the storytelling method applied after the prototype is produced when the creator creates virtual reality content. This method can improve the quality of content by quickly identifying the problems of the proposed storytelling method and suggesting a better method. This study aims to contribute to the production of high-quality virtual reality content and the popularization of virtual reality content as a basic research to analyze immersion based on the quantitative indicator of head movement speed.