Was I There? Impact of Platform and Headphones on 360 Video Immersion

Virtual reality industries claim that 360 videos are a powerful tool for creating empathy because they are an immersive medium, and wearing headphones is encouraged for the full immersive experience. To investigate these claims, we carried out a 2x2 between subjects lab study (n=40) to explore whether 360 viewing platform (magic window / google cardboard) and headphone use (with / without) have an effect on Film-Immersion for the 360 video Fire Rescue. Our results reveal a significant interaction effect: headphones increased immersion for google cardboard, but decreased immersion for magic window. However, not all dimensions of the immersive experience were affected. This suggests that head-mounted displays increase presence, but do not necessarily lead to more empathy and greater interest in the 360 video. Thematic analysis of interview data suggests contributing factors such as fear of missing out (FOMO). These findings have implications for film makers and researchers of 360 videos

Telepresence, soundscapes and technological expectation: putting the observer into the equation

In an experiment exploring the impact of sound on sensations of telepresence, 126 participants watched a video clip using either headphones or speakers. The results illustrate that sound is an important factor in stimulating telepresence responses in audiences. Interactions between soundscape and screen size were also revealed. A traverse interaction between aural/visual congruency and soundscapes was evident. A second data set of 102 participants was collected to illuminate the effect of technological expectation that emerged in the first study. Expectations had been mentioned in other studies, and the data support the notion that people have an expectation of the technological quality of a presentation. The results suggest that examining expectations could assist in future conceptualizations of telepresence

The Past Has Ears (PHE): XR Explorations of Acoustic Spaces as Cultural Heritage

Hearing is one of our most pervasive senses. There is no equivalent to closing our eyes, or averting our gaze, for the ears. When we think about great architectural achievements in European history, such as ancient amphitheatres or Gothic cathedrals, their importance is strongly tied to their acoustic environment. The acoustics of a heritage site is an intangible consequence of the space's tangible construction and furnishings. Inspired by the project's namesake (Phe, for the constellation Phoenix), and the relatively recent res at Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Paris and Teatro La Fenice opera hall, the PHE project focuses on virtual reconstruction of heritage sites, bringing them back from the ashes. In addressing the intangible acoustic heritage of architectural sites, three main objectives have been identied for this research project: Documentation, Modelling, and Presentation. In parallel, three heritage sites are participating as case studies: Tindari Theatre (IT), Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral (FR), and The Houses of Parliament (UK). The acoustics of a space is immersive, spatial, and due to the nature of auditory perception egocentric, in contrast to visual perception of an object, which can be observed from outside". Consequently, presentation methods for communicating acoustic heritage must represent the spatially immersive and listener-centric nature of acoustics. PHE will lead development of a museum grade hardware/software prototype for the presentation of immersive audio experiences adaptable to multiple platforms, from on-site immersive speaker installations, to mobile XR via smartphone applications

dis/cord

dis/cord is an experiment in reading sound. Embarking from Karen Barad’s early work on agential realism, it diffracts quantum physics through sound art, finding the sympathetic resonances that allow them to speak together. dis/cord believes in the materialism of sound, and strives not to understand it, but to become entangled with it. It asserts that impartial observation is impossible and understands immersion as a participatory and collaborative act. Sound art pieces provide the backdrop for a series of reflections on space, time, and matter. They trace the “marks on bodies” that sound leaves behind in its ephemeral vibration, finding new forms of sensation and interpretation through the pain and hearing loss that a life devoted to sound can cause. Drifting between sound studies, artistic research, musicology, and craftsmanship, dis/cord uses agential realism as a platform to approach thinking with, through, and about sound. Following Barad’s commitment to diffraction as a form of critique, it superposes a variety of sounds and ideas in the hope that their consonances and dissonances can provoke new ways of engaging with sound as a cultural and material agent. It is neither an appeal to scientist positivism nor a mystical immersion in listening. Rather, it builds from the intertwined physical and metaphysical curiosities that characterize Barad’s work, proposing a corporeal engagement with the disjointed temporal and spacial (dis)continuities that sonic materialism helps to build, understand, and create

An experimental test proposal to study human behaviour in fires using virtual environments

Producción CientíficaHuman behavior in an emergency situation is the starting point for all evacuation planning projects. A better understanding of the decisions made by the occupants during an emergency can help to develop calculation tools that can create more efficient forms of visual and audio communication and implement better procedures for evacuating people. The difficulty in studying human behavior lies in the very nature of emergencies, as they are unpredictable, somewhat exceptional and not reproducible. Fire drills play a role in training emergency teams and building occupants, but they cannot be used to collect real data on people’s behavior unless the drill is so realistic that it could endanger the occupants’ safety. In the procedure described here, through the use of a Virtual Reality device that encompasses all critical phases, including user characterization data before the virtual experience, building design parameters and fire scenario, key variables of human behavior can be recorded in order to evaluate each user’s experience satisfactorily. This research shows that the average delay in starting an evacuation is greater than one minute, that anxiety levels and heart rates increase during a fire and that people do not pay attention to evacuation signals. Further analysis of the quantitative data may also provide the causes for decision-making. The use of devices that create realistic virtual environments is a solution for conducting “what if” tests to study and record the decisions taken by the users who undergo the experience in a way that is completely safe for themFundación MAPFRE y ETSII-Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) de España (2020/ICF01)

Player Relationships as Mediated Through Sound in Immersive Multi-player Computer Games

This essay examines the relationship between player and diegetic sound FX in immersive computer game environments and how this relationship leads, in large part, to the contextualization of the player within the virtual world of the game. This contextualization presupposes a primarily sonically-based perception of objects and events in the world and, in a multi-player game, this ultimately leads to communication between players through the medium of diegetic sound. The players’ engagement with, and immersion in, the game’s acoustic environment is the result of a relationship with sound that is technologically mediated. The game engine, for example, produces a range of environmental or ambient sounds and almost every player action has a corresponding sound. A variety of relevant theories and disciplines are assessed for the methodological basis of the points raised, such as film sound theory and sonification, and, throughout, the First-Person Shooter sub-genre is used as an exemplar. Such games include the «Doom» and «Quake» series, the «Half-Life» series and derivatives and later games such as «Left 4 Dead». The combination of the acoustic environment, the interactive placement of the player – as embodied by his virtual, prosthetic arms – in the environment and the sonic relationships between players produces the acoustic ecology. An exposition of this multi-player communication and the resultant acoustic ecology and player immersion, is the main objective of the essay

Perceptual Information or Informed Perception? Synesthesia and Sound-Art

PERCEPTUAL INFORMATION OR INFORMED PERCEPTION? SYNESTHESIA AND SOUND-ART    RONIT GHOSH -  St Stephen’s College, Delhi, Indi

Exploring cultural heritage through acoustic digital reconstructions

The fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 2019 and the one at Gran Teatro La Fenice opera hall in Venice in 1996 are reminders of the fragile nature of humanity’s cultural heritage. Fortunately, acoustic measurements, numerical simulations, and digital reconstructions can recover— and to some extent preserve— the sound of humanity’s great architectural sites. What’s more, those techniques provide a way for archaeologists, historians, musicologists, and the general public to experience the lost acoustics of damaged or destroyed places

EXPLORING AND UNDERSTANDING PATTERNS OF EMOTIONS IN THE OVERALL SOUND ENERGY OF THE HUMAN VOICE IN A NATURAL ENVIRONMENT WITH AND THROUGH AN INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION AND VR IMMERSIVE VIDEOS

In today’s era we can say that human reality is often reliant on or intersected with computers. The need of improved communication with devices in a natural way has arisen and led to development of interactive systems. The new channel for detecting emotions presented in this thesis is not so much important for humans as it is for computers that still don’t have human capabilities of recognising emotions. The vision that drives this research project is of an interactive kind of art through which it is possible to implement and enhance our knowledge of emotions in relation to sound, assisted by new technologies. My research concerns the relation between sound and emotions. This research was carried out within two art installations. Research goals • Discover and outline the patterns in the overall sound energy of the human voice, set in a natural environment, that reflect one or more basic emotion (I.e. anger, happiness, sadness); • Use artistic instruments and environment (interactive installation) to carry out this research; and • Represent the collected data and results of the research using virtual reality (VR ). My original contribution to knowledge lies, on the one hand, within the function that both Sounding Out and Seams have on a person’s ability to gain a better understanding of how emotions reflect on sound energy and how sound energy analysis makes the computer able to recognise what we are feeling without understanding the contents we are expressing. On the other hand, this thesis forms a valuable tool of analysis, as well as the installations that I created: Sounding Out is an effective setting for the live detection of emotions, it allows the use of normal persons instead of trained ones. The innovative contribution to the research in the field is making the process of analysis faster and the recognition of emotions in a real-life setting is possible. The installation Seams is innovative in the way it is used to present academic research data. Seams is original in its intentions as it aims to make data more accessible and intuitive and particularly disseminate the study not only to researchers but to a broader audience