Hello,everyone,this is the presentation for the paper
"Performing with Me: Enhancing Audience-Performer Interaction in An Immersive Virtual Play"
Authored by Shuo yan,Saixi Ge,Jinhui Wang,Xukun Shen.
from School of New Media Art and Design，Beihang University.
and State Key Laboratory of Virtual Reality Technology and Systems
My name is Saixi Ge and I will be presenting the paper on behalf of my co-authors.
Immersive theater in virtual reality (VR) has been increasingly popular in recently years.
However, it is difficult for the audience to immerse in the play
while interacting with the performer who usually presented as virtual avatars.
In this paper, we present a novel approach for enhancing audience-performer interaction based on the theory of immersive theater.
We integrated three types of interaction into a virtual play.
and We reported the findings of a pilot qualitative study
and identified three design recommendations.
These recommendations could be adapted for future VR theater experience.
The immersive virtual play is created based on the novel “Letter from an Unknown Woman” by Zweig as its theme.
We recreated it in a drama version and designed the theater performance in VR.
We divided the virtual play into three scenarios according to the narrative structure.
The scenes were implemented by using Unity3D.
We also created the virtual avatar of the performer.
We used Noitom Perception Neuron 2.0 to capture the performer’s body movements
and used iFacialMocap plug to capture facial expression.
The play was displayed on HTC VIVE.
The system enabled performer to observe the virtual scenes from audience’s view,
which could help her to adjust the position.
We set up the experiment in a 20 square meter testing place of our laboratory,
the avatar which represented the performer would interact with the audience in three scenarios in real-time.
This is the system design.
Our main goal in this play was to create an immersive virtual space that provided audience different types of interaction
with the real performer and the freedom to explore in virtual scenes.
So we proposed three behavioral augmentations for audience-performer interaction.
1.Individual-based Interaction.
The expression of individual opinions, emotions or comments is the key factor affecting interactive experience for the audience.
Individual-based Interaction (IBI) which is augmented with natural communications (such as free talk and physical contact).
The IBI appears six times in both "Whisper of the heart" and "Back to Vienna".
We also proposed scenario-based interaction (SBI)
that enables audience to play directly with virtual stage props under the guidance of the performer.
The SBI appears five times in all scenarios.
For example, in "Whisper of the heart", the performer will ask the audience to turn on the light at the beginning of the play.
The audience will touch the switch on the wall with the hand controller, then the scene turns bright
Narrative-based Interaction which is augmented with multiple story line.
it only appears once in "Back to Vienna".
The performer’s avatar will provide two options for the audience when communicating with them,
and the audience's option will determine the final of the story.
After the experiment, each of the six audiences was being semi-structured interviewed for an average duration of about 20 minutes.
They were asked about their understandings and feelings of the play. There were 13 questions in the interview.
As a result,three specific design recommendations were formed after discussion.
(1) Letting the audience decide how the scenario goes;
(2) Making clear the identity of the audience;
(3) Increasing the audience’s freedom to explore in VR space.
In the future, we plan to conduct deeper research in the following three aspects:
(1) Improving the quality of scenario design and the virtual avatar for a delicate VR theater experience,
(2) Collaborating with theater professionals to apply the prototype in practical applications,
(3) Evaluating audience experience by integrating behavior study and biometric measurements.
This is our work, thanks for listening!