Construction of a VR music live performance system to support improved sense of presence

Abstract

Entertainment such as live music performances (live performances) and events are often held in urban centers for reasons such as transportation accessibility and venue size, resulting in regional disparities in entertainment. On the other hand, recent years have seen the emergence of virtual reality (VR)-based live performances, which could solve regional disparities in entertainment. VR live performances can provide many opportunities for people who are unable to attend live performances due to location and time constraints.However, the quality of the experience is expected to deteriorate due to the sense of realism and other sensations that are difficult to reproduce in Reality live performances. However, few studies have compared real-life live performances with VR live performances and examined the effects of factors such as the sense of presence on the audience. In this study, an experiment was conducted with the aim of constructing a system to support the improvement of the sense of presence in VR live music performances. In the experiment, we experienced an on-demand VR live performance and investigated the degree of realism and the differences from a real live performance. From the results, we analyzed the factors that are important for improving the realism of VR live performances. The system is then constructed and evaluated.Ten male participants (23.6±1.8 years old) who had participated in a live concert in the past and remembered the sensation were asked to experience a VR music concert in a standing position for 5 minutes, and a post-experience questionnaire was administered to compare the realism of the actual concert and the VR concert.The post-experience questionnaire consisted of a subjective questionnaire and open-ended questions regarding the sense of presence and the five senses. The subjective questionnaire used a 5-point Likert scale. The items related to the sense of presence consisted of 13 items, which were added by the researcher based on previous studies that have analyzed the sense of presence. 3 was used as the standard for the 5-point scale, based on the comparison with previous real-live experiences. The higher the value, the higher the evaluation of each element in the VR experience.According to the results of the post-experience questionnaire, the vibration and communication elements were rated low. The VR live experience and its components in this experiment did not reproduce the vibrations from the large speakers and communication with other people, such as the performers and the surrounding audience, that are felt in a real live performance. Therefore, the experience tended to feel like a one-way live performance, and the quality of the experience was considered to be compromised. In addition, factor analysis of the questionnaire results showed that among the body perception factors with the highest contribution rate, the values of dynamism, vibration, and sense of self-presence were the most significant, and thus had a large impact on the sense of presence in the live performance.

Keywords: Virtual reality, Music, Live

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1006068