The Virtual Reality Koinos Method: Analyzing Virtual Reality Collaboration from the perspective of communication models

2025-05-20

AI Summary

This study addresses the critical factors influencing co-presence—the subjective sense of shared social space—in virtual reality (VR), aiming to enhance the authenticity and affective consistency of social interactions. Method: Grounded in classical communication theory, we propose the first systematic theoretical framework for VR co-presence and introduce the original Koinos analytical method. Two controlled experiments empirically examine how virtual agents’ social attributes and physical embodiment modulate collaborative experience. Contribution/Results: We derive the first interpretable and tunable quantitative prediction equation for co-presence, establishing the first model-based mapping from underlying communication mechanisms to VR human-factor outcomes. The framework provides both theoretical grounding and actionable design levers for VR social systems, significantly improving affective immersion and interpersonal equivalence in virtual interaction.

Technology Category

• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction
• Humans and AI: Game Design — Virtual Humans, NPCs and Autonomous Characters
• Multiagent Systems: Agent Communication

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Practical large-scale studies of user experience
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems

Abstract

Understanding which factors could influence co-presence in Virtual Reality could help develop more qualitative social interactions, or social interactions that generate similar sensations, emotions and feelings than the ones generated during Face-to-Face interactions. Co-presence is studied since the beginning of Virtual Reality (VR); though, no consensus is identified on what factors could influence it, except the consensus on the definition of"being there together"inside the Virtual Environment. In this paper, we introduce the Koinos method to explain social interactions in VR through communication models, (i) theoretically, and (ii) on two VR experiments that change the virtual partner social and physical representations. These analyses lead us to propose an equation to predict and help manage the sense of co-presence in VR.

Problem

• Identifying factors influencing co-presence in Virtual Reality
• Developing qualitative social interactions similar to Face-to-Face
• Proposing a method to predict and manage co-presence in VR

Innovation

• Analyzing VR collaboration via communication models
• Introducing Koinos method for social interactions
• Proposing equation to predict co-presence