Correlations between vocal input and visual response apparently enhance presence in a virtual environment

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality Studies
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Traditional virtual environment (VE) interaction methods can be complex.
• Exploring intuitive, cross-sensory interaction modalities is crucial for enhanced user experience.
• Vocal utterances offer a potential avenue for novel interface control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the learnability and effectiveness of using vocal prosody for interaction in a VE.
• To establish a correlation between interface control, learning, and the sense of presence.
• To assess user adaptation to abstract tasks within a novel VE.

Main Methods:

• Development of an application mapping vocal prosodic features to virtual object manipulation.
• Conducting single-user and multi-user studies to evaluate interaction and learning.
• Utilizing presence questionnaires to quantify user immersion.

Main Results:

• Users demonstrated the ability to learn and gain control over the intuitive voice-based interface.
• High presence scores were reported, even in abstract virtual environments.
• Adaptation to new and unseen tasks within the VE was observed.

Conclusions:

• Vocal prosody is a viable and intuitive method for interacting with virtual objects.
• This approach effectively enhances the sense of presence in virtual environments.
• The developed interface facilitates learning and adaptation in VEs.