A Mixed Reality Based Social Interactions Testbed: A Game Theory Approach

This paper describes a Mixed Reality (MR) based testbed and a framework for studying social interactions using a game theory approach. MR technology enables moving and interacting naturally with the real and virtual world in three dimensions, thereby using affordances for a better sense of presence. That, in turn, provides a unique opportunity to create a realistic but controlled interaction scenario to stimulate the natural response of a subject, making it an efficient platform for studying situated interactions. The users are engaged with digital characters in repetitive social interactions where the behavior of the characters is modeled using game theory. Game theory interaction models stimulate behavioral gestures in subjects that can be studied to explore psychopathological traits or other behavioral aspects of subjects. A proof of concept MR application is presented that provides exposure therapy for treatment of individuals with Social Anxiety Disorder. A case study for exposure therapy treatment using the proposed testbed is also presented. The small pilot study demonstrates the feasibility of the developed approach for studying social situations as well as the influence of the facial expressions displayed by 3D avatars on the user's perception of realism in an MR environment.