• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.511-523
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• 2022

This study attempts an appropriate Christian understanding and application of the metaverse. To this end, the general concept, type, and utilization of the metaverse were examined, and the main characteristics of the metaverse were analyzed in three main categories by the association of the concepts and the common factors. Based on this, the main focus of the Christian understanding of the metaverse found in this study is, first, the "transcendental worldview" of the metaverse. Applications include restructuring the Christian worldview and creating a Christian metaverse environment for future generations. Second, it is a "fusion and composite on- and offline" understanding of the metaverse. An integrated on- and off-line understanding of the church, worship, mission, and the missional acceptance of the metaverse are its applications. Third, in the metaverse, it is an "extension of the functionality of the avatar." This presents its application tasks, such as establishing human identity, expanding the concepts of empathy and communication, and expanding Christian ethics and economic views. At the heart of the Christian understanding of the metaverse is worldview, mission, and understanding on human being.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.121-133
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• 2022

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the efficacy and future potential of a newly-emerging concept of a metaverse in online education environment. In order to achieve this goal, this paper showcases various scenes that happened in the metaverse classes using the ifland app. Through an in-depth analysis of theoretical grounds and preliminary survey findings of 32 university students, this study suggests that as students in a metaverse space are engaged in the interactive learning process and environment with an avatar that projects oneself, it can be an effective educational platform coming from the benefits of gamification and edutainment. In addition, a metaverse space provides existential encounters and hands-on experiences, which in turn increases the level of 3D learning immersion. It may overcome the shortcomings of online live streaming platforms such as Zoom or Webex that provide 2D experiences. Based on the findings, this paper further suggests a blueprint for online education suitable for the transition to a digital society.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.33-49
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• 2022

In the metaverse, it is important to embellish aesthetics of user with a character called 'Avatar', a virtual representation of the user. This study provides basic data related to the fashion trend of the metaverse by studying 'Zepeto', a representative Korean platform. For empirical research, Zepeto's "Best Items" section were investigated and analyzed in the first pre-survey. Based on this, the second and main survey was conducted using a questionnaire to investigate users' style-specific preferences and purchasing behaviors for virtual fashion, comparing style preferences between virtual and real, brand preferences, and purchasing behaviors of virtual fashion. The survey found that most users were teenage girls with a high preference for pastel-toned, feminine, and cute casual styles who had a much higher interest in brands bearing idol names than in real-world luxury brands. Many responded that they felt burdened by purchasing items that had to be purchased for cash. The same can be assumed to be the reason why they preferred a suit of items that were fully coordinated rather than individual items. These results seem to reflect characteristics of teenage girls who lack cash with a high preference for idols and feminine-cute casual styles. This study suggests considerations when creating virtual fashion items. By providing basic information, more effects and developments in creating virtual fashion items that reflect consumer preferences and reactions are expected in the future.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.418-430
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• 2022

This study aims to analyze consumers' purchase decision-making process of buying avatar fashion items on the Metaverse platform. Drawing on the connection between the self-expression tendency of the MZ generation and that of avatars in the Metaverse, this study uses a qualitative research method to analyze how consumers express their self-image through the appearance of their avatars. Unlike previous studies on the clothing purchase decision-making process, this study shows that purchasing and consumption behavior involve the following six stages: recognizing desire, collecting information, evaluating alternatives, making purchases, evaluating the consumption, and post-purchase action-taking. In the first stage of the purchase decision-making process, consumers' desire arises with self-image expression and confirmation. In the second stage, consumers have a high tendency to shop in the best item category. In the alternative evaluation stage, consumers tend to seek items that match their highest standard while considering their personal preferences. In the fourth stage, when making actual purchases, unplanned purchase behavior often occurs along with an active practice of alternative evaluation. In the fifth stage, the evaluation of the consumption shows that consumers achieve satisfaction by applying a style to their avatars that they are unable to try in the real world. In the last stage, consumers often use their purchases to communicate their various styles with other online consumers. Therefore, we conclude that the online purchase decision-making process differs from the offline process as it is divided into six stages.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.1-13
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• 2022

Metaverse has been encountering in our daily lives, and it has dynamically changed people's way of working, educating, and entertaining. During the Covid-19, people has been more immersed with virtual world. For example, the virtual environments have created new form and features of our remote work, online education, entertainment, and so on. Also, some people make a strong tie with their avatar to live in a virtual world. Indeed, it became a new normal life now. With this radical social and technological change, the metaverse has become a core issue for the communities of researchers and practitioners as well, and a variety of meaningful research and products have been conducted so far. Nevertheless, it still is lack of diverse theoretical, empirical, and practical studies, dealing with this huge socio-technical shift with the metaverse. Therefore, in this special issue commentary, we suggest potential metaverse research issues and topics, which highlight how management, organization, and information systems researchers could dance with the ongoing metaverse ecosystem for creating more productive research performances.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.583-589
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• 2022

Due to COVID-19, which has thrown the whole world into chaos, it has become an era where many technologies and contents are made non-face-to-face. At the same time, the popularity of the metaverse service is also increasing day by day, and the virtual costume (avatar) industry, one of the sub-industries, is also growing. In this study, we designed and developed a system for creating virtual costumes to be uploaded to ZEPETO, a mobile metaverse service. Unlike the existing service that requires a program that operates in a PC environment, it can be produced only by shooting and simple operation through a mobile device. With the advantage of being able to process all tasks of this system in a mobile environment, small businesses and individual operators who are not familiar with external programs will be able to more easily access the 3D virtual clothing industry.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2021.05a
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• pp.298-300
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• 2021

The Ministry of National Defense decided to build a realistic combat simulation training system based on virtual reality and augmented reality in accordance with the expansion of the scientific training system of "Defense Reform 2.0". The realistic combat simulation training system should be able to maximize the tension and training effect as in actual combat through engagement between trainers. In addition, it should be possible to increase the effectiveness of survival training at the same time as shooting training similar to actual combat through cover training. Previous studies are suitable techniques to improve the shooting precision of the trainee, but it is difficult to practice bilateral engagement like in actual combat, and it is particularly insufficient for combat shooting training using cover. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a S/W algorithm for generating a virtual avatar by recognizing the shooting posture of the opponent on the screen of the virtual shooting trainer. This S/W algorithm can recognize the trainer and the cover based on the depth information acquired through the depth sensor and estimate the trainer's posture.

• Journal of the Korea Computer Graphics Society
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.1-11
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• 2022

The Skinned Multi-Person Linear Model (SMPL) is the most widely used parametric 3D Human Model optimized and learned from CAESAR, a 3D human scanned database created with measurements from 3,800 people living in United States in the 1990s. We point out the lack of racial diversity of body types in SMPL and propose K-SMPL that better represents Korean 3D body shapes. To this end, we develop a fitting algorithm to estimate 2,773 Korean 3D body shapes from Korean body measurement data. By conducting principle component analysis to the estimated Korean body shapes, we construct K-SMPL model that can generate various Korean body shape in 3D. K-SMPL model allows to improve the fitting accuracy over SMPL with respect to the Korean body measurement data. K-SMPL model can be widely used for avatar generation and human shape fitting for Korean.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.793-805
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• 2023

This study analyzes the body shapes of lower-body obese female adolescents and proposes a slacks pattern suitable for their body type. Lower-body obesity is a prevalent type of teenage obesity, and our proposals aim to improve consumer satisfaction in ready-to-wear clothes across this demographic. We first observe characteristics of obese lower bodies, noting significantly above-average thigh and hip circumference. These figures indicate a high degree of curvature in obese lower bodies, along with a large drop value. Leveraging this data, we develop a novel slacks pattern using 3D avatars in a virtual simulation system. The formulas for the main areas of the pattern are as follows: front waist girth W/4+0.75cm+0.5cm, back waist girth W/4+0.5cm-0.5cm, front hip girth H/4+1.25cm-0.5cm, back hip girth H/4+2cm+0.5cm, front crotch extension H/16+0.5cm, back crotch extension H/8+1cm. Results from appearance evaluations show that this pattern minimizes strain rate on the waist and hips, and its average score is significantly higher than that of an alternative pattern that was also evaluated. The minimized strain rate and high average score indicate that our pattern assigns a sufficient amount of space to the appropriate areas. Based on these results, we expect our research to inform slacks pattern development and production for obese consumers of all types.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.549-559
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• 2023

Along with the transition to the fourth industrial revolution, the possibility of metaverse-based innovation in the fashion field has been confirmed, and various applications are being sought. Therefore, this study performs meaning structure analysis and discusses the prospects of meta fashion using big data. From 2020 to 2022, data including the keyword "metaverse + fashion design" were collected from portal sites (Naver, Daum, and Google), and the results of keyword frequency, N-gram, and TF-IDF analyses were derived using text mining. Furthermore, network visualization and CONCOR analysis were performed using Ucinet 6 to understand the interconnected structure between keywords and their essential meanings. The results were as follows: The main keywords appeared in the following order: fashion, metaverse, design, 3D, platform, apparel, and virtual. In the N-gram analysis, the density between fashion and metaverse words was high, and in the TF-IDF analysis results, the importance of content- and technology-related words such as 3D, apparel, platform, NFT, education, AI, avatar, MCM, and meta-fashion was confirmed. Through network visualization and CONCOR analysis using Ucinet 6, three cluster results were derived from the top emerging words: "metaverse fashion design and industry," "metaverse fashion design and education," and "metaverse fashion design platform." CONCOR analysis was also used to derive differentiated analysis results for middle and lower words. The results of this study provide useful information to strengthen competitiveness in the field of metaverse fashion design.