In human interaction, people will keep different distances from each other depending on their gender. For example, males will stand further away from males and closer to females. Previous studies in virtual reality (VR), where people were interacting with virtual humans, showed a similar result. However, many other variables influence proximity, such as appearance characteristics of the virtual character (e.g., attractiveness). Our study focuses on proximity to virtual walkers, where gender could be recognised from motion only, since previous studies using point-light displays found walking motion is rich in gender cues. In our experiment, a walking wooden mannequin approached the participant embodied in a virtual avatar using the HTC Vive Pro HMD and controllers. The mannequin animation was motion captured from several male and female actors and each motion was displayed individually on the character. Participants used the controller to stop the approaching mannequin when they felt it was uncomfortably close to them. Based on previous work, we hypothesised that proximity will be affected by the gender of the character, but unlike previous research, the gender in our experiment could only be determined from character’s motion. We also expected differences in proximity according to the gender of the participant. We additionally expected some motions to be rated more attractive than others and that attractive motions would reduce the proximity measure. Our results show support for the last two assumptions, but no difference in proximity was found according to the gender of the character’s motion. Our findings have implications for the design of virtual characters in interactive virtual environments.

中文翻译：

---

性别和运动吸引力对虚拟现实中接近度的影响

在人际交往中，人们会根据性别保持不同的距离。例如，男性会离男性更远，离女性更近。以前在虚拟现实 (VR) 中的研究（人们与虚拟人互动）也显示了类似的结果。然而，许多其他变量会影响接近度，例如虚拟角色的外观特征（例如吸引力）。我们的研究侧重于与虚拟步行者的接近程度，其中性别只能从运动中识别，因为之前使用点光显示器的研究发现步行运动富含性别线索。在我们的实验中，一个行走的木制人体模型使用 HTC Vive Pro 头戴式显示器和控制器接近了体现在虚拟化身中的参与者。人体模型动画是从几位男性和女性演员身上捕捉到的动作，每个动作都单独显示在角色身上。当参与者感到不舒服地靠近他们时，参与者使用控制器阻止接近的人体模型。基于之前的工作，我们假设接近度会受到角色性别的影响，但与之前的研究不同，我们实验中的性别只能通过角色的动作来确定。我们还期望根据参与者的性别在接近度上存在差异。我们还期望某些动作被评为比其他动作更具吸引力，并且有吸引力的动作会降低接近度。我们的结果显示支持最后两个假设，但根据角色动作的性别没有发现接近度的差异。