Establishment and Implementation of Guidelines for Narrative Audio-based Room-scale Virtual Reality using Practice-based Methods

Room-scale Virtual Reality (VR) presents sound designers with new challenges to tell stories with audio in games with player-driven narratives. These challenges arise from the player moving in and interacting with the virtual environment. The paper performs a small scoping review of VR/non-VR games and associated literature to identify issues and solutions to the placement of speech-based audio using practice-based research methods. The review leads to the proposition of design guidelines and strategies for their implementation. The paper advocates that each instance of speech-based audio should be short, interactive, and complemented by non-speech audio. Furthermore, each instance’s spatial, interactive, visual, aural, and narrative representation should be considered in combination. The paper also suggests that 3D-binaural audio informed by physics can aid storytelling and make virtual environments player-responsive

Speech Intelligibility Versus Congruency : User Preferences of the Acoustics of Virtual Reality Game Spaces

3D audio spatializers for Virtual Reality (VR) can use the acoustic properties of the surfaces of a visualised game space to calculate a matching reverb. However, this approach could lead to reverbs that impair the tasks performed in such a space, such as listening to speech-based audio. Sound designers would then have to alter the room’s acoustic properties independently of its visualisation to improve speech intelligibility, causing audio-visual incongruency. As user expectation of simulated room acoustics regarding speech intelligibility in VR has not been studied, this study asked participants to rate the congruency of reverbs and their visualisations in 6-DoF VR while listening to speech-based audio. The participants compared unaltered, matching reverbs with sound-designed, mismatching reverbs. The latter featured improved D50s and reduced RT60s at the cost of lower audio-visual congruency. Results suggest participants preferred improved reverbs only when the unaltered reverbs had comparatively low D50s or excessive ringing. Otherwise, too dry or too reverberant reverbs were disliked. The range of expected RT60s depended on the surface visualisation. Differences in timbre between the reverbs may not affect preferences as strongly as shorter RT60s. Therefore, sound designers can intervene and prioritise speech intelligibility over audio-visual congruency in acoustically challenging game spaces

Creating Audio Object-focused Acoustic Environments for Room-Scale Virtual Reality

Abstract: Room-scale Virtual Reality (VR) affordance in movement and interactivity causes new challenges in creating virtual acoustic environments for VR experiences. Such environments are typically constructed from virtual interactive objects that are accompanied by an Ambisonic bed and an off-screen ("invisible") music soundtrack, with the Ambisonic bed, music, and virtual acoustics describing the aural features of an area. This methodology can become problematic in room-scale VR as the player cannot approach or interact with such background sounds, contradicting the player’s motion aurally and limiting interactivity. Written from a sound designers perspective, the paper addresses these issues by proposing a musically inclusive novel methodology that reimagines an acoustic environment predominately using objects that are governed by multimodal rule-based systems and spatialized in six degrees of freedom using 3D-binaural audio exclusively while minimizing the use of Ambisonic beds and non-diegetic music. This methodology is implemented using off-the-shelf, creator-oriented tools and methods and is evaluated through the development of a standalone, narrative, prototype room-scale VR experience. The experience’s target platform is a mobile, untethered VR system based on head-mounted displays, inside-out tracking, head-mounted loudspeakers or headphones, and hand-held controllers. The authors apply their methodology to the generation of ambiances based on sound-based music, sound effects, and virtual acoustics. The proposed methodology benefits the interactivity and spatial behavior of virtual acoustic environments but may be constrained by platform and project limitations

Povezanost polimorfizma rs1437396 gena CCDC88A s poremećajem zloporabe alkohola

Girdin is a protein involved in neuronal migration and hippocampal development. It is encoded by the coiled-coil domain-containing 88A (CCDC88A) gene, located on the short arm of chromosome 2 (2p). The CCDC88A gene is modulated by the intergenic single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the rs1437396, situated 9.5 kb downstream from its transcription stop site. As recent genome-wide research has associated the T allele of the SNP with increased risk of alcohol use disorder (AUD), we wanted to validate this finding in an independent cohort and to test further for an association with comorbid major depressive disorder (MDD). The study included 226 AUD patients (AUD group), 53 patients with comorbid MDD, and 391 controls selected randomly. The participants were genotyped for the rs1437396 polymorphism using the real-time polymerase chain reaction. The association between the rs1437396 polymorphism and increased risk of AUD and AUD+MDD was tested with logistic regression. Our results show significantly higher frequency of the T risk allele in the AUD group (p=0.027) and even higher in the AUD+MDD group (p=0.016). In conclusion, this is the first study that has validated the association between the rs1437396 polymorphism of the CCDC88A gene and AUD with or without MDD. Studies on larger samples of patients are needed to further investigate the mechanism of this association.Girdin je protein koji sudjeluje u neuronskoj migraciji i razvoju hipokampusa, a kodira ga gen 88A koji sadržava domenu sa smotanom zavojnicom (eng. coiled-coil domain-containing 88A gene, krat. CCDC88A) koja se nalazi na kraćem kraku kromosoma 2 (2p). Gen CCDC88A mijenja se s međugenskim jednonukleotidnim polimorfizmom (eng. single-nucleotide polymorphism, krat. SNP) na mjestu rs1437396, 9,5 kb nizvodno od svojega transkripcijskog završetka. Budući da je u nedavnom istraživanju na razini genoma zamijećena povezanost alela T ovoga polimorfizma s povećanim rizikom od poremećaja zloporabe alkohola (eng. alcohol use disorder), htjeli smo provjeriti tu povezanost u neovisnoj kohorti randomiziranih ispitanika i dodatno ispitati je li polimorfizam povezan i s popratnim povratnim depresivnim poremećajem (eng. major depressive disorder). Ispitivanje je obuhvatilo 226 bolesnika s poremećajem zloporabe alkohola, 51 bolesnika s popratnim povratnim depresivnim poremećajem i 391 kontrolnog ispitanika. Ispitanici su genotipizirani radi utvrđivanja onih koji imaju polimorfizam rs1437396 pomoću polimerazne lančane reakcije u stvarnom vremenu (eng. real-time polymerase chain reaction) te je logaritamskom regresijskom analizom utvrđena povezanost polimorfizma rs1437396 s rizikom od poremećaja zloporabe alkohola s popratnim povratnim depresivnim poremećajem ili bez njega. Naši podatci upućuju na značajno veću učestalost alela T u bolesnika s poremećajem zloporabe alkohola (p=0,027) te na još značajniju učestalost u bolesnika s obama poremećajima (p=0,016). Ovo je prvo istraživanje koje je potvrdilo povezanost između polimorfizma rs1437396 gena CCDC88A i poremećaja zloporabe alkohola s popratnim povratnim depresivnim poremećajem ili bez njega. Daljnja istraživanja mehanizama ove povezanosti potrebno je provesti na većim uzorcima

Defining a sustainable development target space for 2030 and 2050

With the establishment of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), countries worldwide agreed to a prosperous, socially inclusive, and environmentally sustainable future for all. This ambition, however, exposes a critical gap in science-based insights, namely on how to achieve the 17 SDGs simultaneously. Quantitative goal-seeking scenario studies could help explore the needed systems' transformations. This requires a clear definition of the "target space." The 169 targets and 232 indicators used for monitoring SDG implementation cannot be used for this; they are too many, too broad, unstructured, and sometimes not formulated quantitatively. Here, we propose a streamlined set of science-based indicators and associated target values that are quantifiable and actionable to make scenario analysis meaningful, relevant, and simple enough to be transparent and communicable. The 36 targets are based on the SDGs, existing multilateral agreements, literature, and expert assessment. They include 2050 as a longer-term reference point. This target space can guide researchers in developing new sustainable development pathways

Defining a Sustainable Development Target Space for 2030 and 2050

With the establishment of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), countries worldwide agreed to a prosperous, socially inclusive, and environmentally sustainable future for all. This ambition, however, exposes a critical gap in science-based insights, namely on how to achieve the 17 SDGs simultaneously. Quantitative goal-seeking scenario studies could help explore the needed systems' transformations. This requires a clear definition of the "target space." The 169 targets and 232 indicators used for monitoring SDG implementation cannot be used for this; they are too many, too broad, unstructured, and sometimes not formulated quantitatively. Here, we propose a streamlined set of science-based indicators and associated target values that are quantifiable and actionable to make scenario analysis meaningful, relevant, and simple enough to be transparent and communicable. The 36 targets are based on the SDGs, existing multilateral agreements, literature, and expert assessment. They include 2050 as a longer-term reference point. This target space can guide researchers in developing new sustainable development pathways