虛擬角色外觀與微笑來源組合之設計對情緒感染之影響

Abstract

隨著虛擬人像在沉浸式體驗與互動情境中日益普及，虛擬角色的臉部外觀與情緒表情對觀者情緒反應的影響逐漸受到重視。本研究旨在釐清虛擬角色外觀與微笑來源表情的不同組合在何種條件下最能引發正向情緒感染（emotional contagion），並進一步分析虛擬場景配置對情緒感染效果之調節作用。

本研究共分為兩個階段。第一階段著重於實驗刺激之系統化建構，透過主觀評分程序蒐集參與者對微笑來源影片、虛擬角色外觀圖片與爆笑影片之評價，據此篩選出感染力高低不同之微笑來源、具差異化情緒特質之外觀圖片，以及適合後續 VR 呈現之爆笑影片。第二階段運用基於 Gaussian Splatting 的動畫生成技術，將選定之微笑來源重演於不同虛擬角色外觀上，建立外觀與微笑來源之交叉組合，並於虛擬實境中呈現以進行使用者評估。此外，本階段亦建置爆笑影片之共觀情境，以比較個別觀看與共觀觀看條件下正向情緒感染之差異。

本研究結果深化了對虛擬臉部外觀、微笑來源與虛擬場景呈現形式在情緒感染中所扮演角色之理解，並為沉浸式虛擬互動之情緒導向設計提供重要的理論基礎與實務貢獻。

As virtual humans become increasingly prevalent in immersive environments and interactive systems, the influence of virtual characters’ facial appearance and affective expressions on users’ emotional responses has gained growing scholarly attention. This study aims to clarify the conditions under which different combinations of virtual character appearance and smile-source expressions elicit the strongest positive emotional contagion, and further examines the moderating role of virtual scene configuration on contagion outcomes.

The research is divided into two main stages. The first stage focuses on the systematic construction of experimental stimuli. Through structured subjective evaluation procedures, participants rated smile-source videos, virtual character appearance images, and humorous video clips. These evaluations informed the selection of smile sources with varying levels of perceived contagion, appearance images associated with distinct affective characteristics, and humorous videos appropriate for subsequent VR presentation. The second stage employs a Gaussian Splatting–based animation framework to reenact the selected smile sources onto different virtual character appearances, generating a set of appearance–smile combinations for immersive presentation and user evaluation. This stage also incorporates a VR co-viewing scenario featuring the selected humorous videos, enabling comparison between individual and co-viewing conditions in eliciting positive emotional contagion.

The findings advance understanding of how virtual facial appearance, smile-source expressions, and VR presentation configurations jointly contribute to emotional contagion, and provide important theoretical and practical implications for emotion-oriented design in immersive virtual interactions.