Communication services in developed worlds are becoming increasingly omnipresent through the development of internet applications. Commercial email services, such as Google Mail™, and real-time chat applications, such as MSN® Messenger, annihilate “distance” factors as an impediment for communication. And now, for the past decade internet developments have been focusing on the “immersive” factor of communication through the use of virtual worlds. One such virtual world is Second Life® (SL™). The makers, Linden Lab®, describe it as “a 3-D virtual world entirely created by its [users]” (Second Life®, 2008). Users can even customize their own avatars, a 3-D representation of themselves. Communication in SL™ is largely based on type chat, but voice chat is also available. Users can also animate their avatars to exhibit certain behaviours such as dancing. Avatar movements and in-world interactions are largely mouse-driven.

            It may seem as if such 3-D graphical interfaces increase the immersive nature of internet communication. However, “avatars have been criticized as mere place holders and not contributing meaningfully to the communication process” (Garau). Currently, SL™ avatars only exhibit random “liveliness,” or repetitive avatar movements that are programmed through a script object. This research explores such issues while utilizing SL™ as its main apparatus.

            Also, for this research a bodily behaviour of special interest is gaze. Gaze is a very informative and highly powerful form of bodily communication. It serves at least five communication functions: regulating conversation flow, providing feedback, communicating emotional information, communicating the nature of interpersonal relationships and avoiding distraction by restricting visual input (Argyle, Kendon). Due to the nature of this informative behaviour, this research also explores the potential uses of this behaviour on virtual avatars.