A framework for businesses using avatars

An associate professor of marketing at The University of Texas at Arlington says digital avatars can replace a sales force and customer service employees at a fraction of the cost.

Avatar marketing: Moving beyond gimmicks to results

Researchers from University of Texas-Arlington, University of Virginia, Sun Yat-Sen University, and University of Washington published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that seeks to advance the discipline of avatar-based ...

Monkeys appreciate lifelike animation

Monkeys can overcome their aversion to animated monkeys through a more realistic avatar, according to research recently published in eNeuro.

Learning in virtual spaces

Wuerzburg students of teacher training who like to try something new can look forward to the coming semesters. They will have the chance to try-out ViLeArn, a recently developed social-VR platform targeting virtual embodied ...

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Avatar

In Hinduism, an avatar (English: /ˈæv.ə.tɑːr/, from Sanskrit avatāra, अवतार in the Devanagari script, meaning "descent") is a deliberate descent of a deity to earth, or a descent of the Supreme Being (i.e., Vishnu for Vaishnavites) and is mostly translated into English as "incarnation," but more accurately as "appearance" or "manifestation".

The term is most often associated with Vishnu, though it has also come to be associated with other deities. Varying lists of avatars of Vishnu appear in Hindu scriptures, including the ten Dashavatara of the Garuda Purana and the twenty-two avatars in the Bhagavata Purana, though the latter adds that the incarnations of Vishnu are innumerable. The avatars of Vishnu are a primary component of Vaishnavism. An early reference to avatar, and to avatar doctrine, is in the Bhagavad Gita.

Shiva and Ganesha are also described as descending in the form of avatars. The various manifestations of Devi, the Divine Mother principal in Hinduism, are also described as avatars or incarnations by some scholars and followers of Shaktism. The avatars of Vishnu carry a greater theological prominence than those of other deities, which some scholars perceive to be imitative of the Vishnu avatar lists.

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