Description:

We want to isolate and evaluate the effect that sound has on presence experienced in a virtual environment (using established methods for measuring presence).

Plan

We currently have all resources we will need other than test subjects. These resources include an oculus rift, a variety of VR software experiences supporting sound (we haven’t decided which we will use yet), hardware capable of supporting a seamless experience for the user, and a nondescript, neutral space to conduct the experiments. The most significant time factor will be the time it takes to acquire the IRB approval and to recruit participants.

Outcome

When the experiment phase has been completed for all the participants, we will run statistical analysis on a number of factors, primarily the relationship of presence to sound. The number of participants will be determined by the amount we will need to make a confident conclusion from the statistical analysis (if one emerges). The total outcome will be design of the study, completed experiments, and results written up. If we achieve significant results will write this up in an official paper that we will submit for publication.

Motive

Sam and Max both have a strong interest in virtual reality and sound. Sam is excited to program some stuff. Max is happy to run some psychological tests. They are looking forward to this project because it offers the opportunity to contribute relevant experimentation in VR and because it opens the door to numerous future research topics.