{"id":232733,"date":"2026-03-07T03:40:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T09:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/multiply-and-subtract-your-way-to-more-lifelike-vr-avatars"},"modified":"2026-03-07T03:40:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T09:40:37","slug":"multiply-and-subtract-your-way-to-more-lifelike-vr-avatars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/multiply-and-subtract-your-way-to-more-lifelike-vr-avatars","title":{"rendered":"Multiply and subtract your way to more lifelike VR avatars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/x6w9DkZUo8U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>POSTECH\u2019s (Pohang University of Science and Technology) Professor Inseok Hwang\u2019s team has developed ArithMotion, a mobile virtual reality (VR) system that enables anyone to express a wide range of avatar motions with ease. Using simple arithmetic-like controls, users can scale an avatar\u2019s motion up or down and reverse it into an opposite response, allowing more natural nonverbal communication without expensive equipment.<\/p>\n<p>On social VR platforms such as VRChat, people communicate through their avatars\u2019 movements, facial expressions, and gestures. In particular, bodily motions are a key channel for building emotional connections between users and enhancing immersion and a sense of agency. However, because most users do not have access to expensive full-body tracking equipment, they are often limited to repeating preset motions\u2014making natural, spontaneous communication difficult.<\/p>\n<p>In this study, the team focused on a natural form of social behavior known as \u201cpeer relativity\u201d\u2014the way people instinctively mirror others\u2019 actions or respond in the opposite direction. They brought this phenomenon directly into VR avatars: when another player celebrates a win with an excited gesture, your avatar can respond in the same way, while threatening behavior from others can trigger a more defensive, protective reaction\u2014preserving a more lifelike sense of social realism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>POSTECH\u2019s (Pohang University of Science and Technology) Professor Inseok Hwang\u2019s team has developed ArithMotion, a mobile virtual reality (VR) system that enables anyone to express a wide range of avatar motions with ease. Using simple arithmetic-like controls, users can scale an avatar\u2019s motion up or down and reverse it into an opposite response, allowing more [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1879],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-virtual-reality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232733\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}