​​Evaluating the Impact of Virtual Agents with Responsiveness and Awareness in VR Museum Experience​

We explored how responsiveness (i.e., the ability to answer questions) and awareness (i.e., the ability to navigate toward the user is in the virtual environment) of virtual agents acting as a tour guide influence study participants in a VR museum environment. We followed a 2 (responsiveness: non-responsive vs. responsive virtual agent) × 2 (awareness: unaware vs. aware virtual agent) within-group study design and evaluated our experimental conditions on 29 participants to examine the impact on several variables concerning user several measures spanning various categories: agent credibility and intelligence (i.e., perceived intelligence, perceived knowledge), social interaction and presence (i.e., co-presence, rapport), human-likeness and psychological responses (i.e., uncanny valley, anthropomorphism), awareness dimensions (private, public, and surrounding awarenesses), desire for future interaction, and behavioral responses (i.e., distance travelled, dwell gazes). We found that the responsive virtual agent's positively impacted participants' perceived intelligence, perceived knowledgeability, co-presence, rapport, anthropomorphism, surrounding awareness, desire for future interaction, and dwell gaze on surroundings. However, an aware agent, on its own, did not impact our participants. Instead, we found responsiveness × awareness interaction effects on distance travelled, dwell gaze on the virtual agent, and dwell gaze on surroundings. These findings offer valuable insights into designing more engaging and effective intelligent and conversational agents that act as museum tour guides, enhancing user experience in virtual museum settings.