PropXX Innovationsscheck Conversational Agents

The proposed project focuses on the investigation of conversational embodied agents in virtual reality visualizations of urban scenarios. The humanoid agents in VR should have the capability of maintaining conversation with a user. Several systems, such as ChatGPT have been proposed which are capable of maintaining fluent conversation with the user. However, the impact of integration of these conversational systems on user perception in VR urban exploration scenario have not yet been widely studied.  

We plan to address this gap by studying conversational agents in VR urban exploration with respect to the perception of users, particularly perception of presence, realism, visual quality, the error rate of agents and naturalism of conversation. In order to achieve this goal we plan to conduct a wide literature study of conversational agents in VR and explore available technologies for text-to-speech translation, speech synthesis and natural language processing. Additionally, we will conduct a user study to investigate the influence of conversational agents on human perception. The integration and deployment of ChatGPT and other conversational programs as well as AI-generated AVATARS into urban visualization in VR by our partner company PropXX will be used in this user study. 

The expected outcome of the proposed project will be new knowledge about the user perception of conversational agents in urban VR visualizations. The findings of this project can be beneficial for future research and development of solutions utilizing conversational agents in VR by providing guidelines for fast selection and deployment of appropriate technology given the desired requirements. Such fast deployment can boost productivity in the research and development of real estate solutions, navigation or urban planning.