TY - JOUR A1 - Glémarec, Yann A1 - Lugrin, Jean-Luc A1 - Bosser, Anne-Gwenn A1 - Buche, Cédric A1 - Latoschik, Marc Erich T1 - Controlling the stage: a high-level control system for virtual audiences in Virtual Reality JF - Frontiers in Virtual Reality N2 - This article presents a novel method for controlling a virtual audience system (VAS) in Virtual Reality (VR) application, called STAGE, which has been originally designed for supervised public speaking training in university seminars dedicated to the preparation and delivery of scientific talks. We are interested in creating pedagogical narratives: narratives encompass affective phenomenon and rather than organizing events changing the course of a training scenario, pedagogical plans using our system focus on organizing the affects it arouses for the trainees. Efficiently controlling a virtual audience towards a specific training objective while evaluating the speaker’s performance presents a challenge for a seminar instructor: the high level of cognitive and physical demands required to be able to control the virtual audience, whilst evaluating speaker’s performance, adjusting and allowing it to quickly react to the user’s behaviors and interactions. It is indeed a critical limitation of a number of existing systems that they rely on a Wizard of Oz approach, where the tutor drives the audience in reaction to the user’s performance. We address this problem by integrating with a VAS a high-level control component for tutors, which allows using predefined audience behavior rules, defining custom ones, as well as intervening during run-time for finer control of the unfolding of the pedagogical plan. At its core, this component offers a tool to program, select, modify and monitor interactive training narratives using a high-level representation. The STAGE offers the following features: i) a high-level API to program pedagogical narratives focusing on a specific public speaking situation and training objectives, ii) an interactive visualization interface iii) computation and visualization of user metrics, iv) a semi-autonomous virtual audience composed of virtual spectators with automatic reactions to the speaker and surrounding spectators while following the pedagogical plan V) and the possibility for the instructor to embody a virtual spectator to ask questions or guide the speaker from within the Virtual Environment. We present here the design, and implementation of the tutoring system and its integration in STAGE, and discuss its reception by end-users. KW - virtual reality KW - virtual agent KW - behavior perception KW - public speaking KW - education Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-284601 SN - 2673-4192 VL - 3 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Landeck, Maximilian A1 - Alvarez Igarzábal, Federico A1 - Unruh, Fabian A1 - Habenicht, Hannah A1 - Khoshnoud, Shiva A1 - Wittmann, Marc A1 - Lugrin, Jean-Luc A1 - Latoschik, Marc Erich T1 - Journey through a virtual tunnel: Simulated motion and its effects on the experience of time JF - Frontiers in Virtual Reality N2 - This paper examines the relationship between time and motion perception in virtual environments. Previous work has shown that the perception of motion can affect the perception of time. We developed a virtual environment that simulates motion in a tunnel and measured its effects on the estimation of the duration of time, the speed at which perceived time passes, and the illusion of self-motion, also known as vection. When large areas of the visual field move in the same direction, vection can occur; observers often perceive this as self-motion rather than motion of the environment. To generate different levels of vection and investigate its effects on time perception, we developed an abstract procedural tunnel generator. The generator can simulate different speeds and densities of tunnel sections (visibly distinguishable sections that form the virtual tunnel), as well as the degree of embodiment of the user avatar (with or without virtual hands). We exposed participants to various tunnel simulations with different durations, speeds, and densities in a remote desktop and a virtual reality (VR) laboratory study. Time passed subjectively faster under high-speed and high-density conditions in both studies. The experience of self-motion was also stronger under high-speed and high-density conditions. Both studies revealed a significant correlation between the perceived passage of time and perceived self-motion. Subjects in the virtual reality study reported a stronger self-motion experience, a faster perceived passage of time, and shorter time estimates than subjects in the desktop study. Our results suggest that a virtual tunnel simulation can manipulate time perception in virtual reality. We will explore these results for the development of virtual reality applications for therapeutic approaches in our future work. This could be particularly useful in treating disorders like depression, autism, and schizophrenia, which are known to be associated with distortions in time perception. For example, the tunnel could be therapeutically applied by resetting patients’ time perceptions by exposing them to the tunnel under different conditions, such as increasing or decreasing perceived time. KW - passage of time KW - illusion of self-motion KW - vection KW - virtual tunnel KW - therapeutic application KW - virtual reality KW - extended reality (XR) Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-301519 SN - 2673-4192 VL - 3 ER -