Article
The role of audiovisual plausibility and social presence in the evaluation of virtual communication scenarios (en)
* Presenting author
Abstract:
This paper is concerned with the perceptual evaluation of a technical setup to realize communication scenarios in a virtual environment. In the context of developing an audiovisual social VR system, we discuss the definition and relevance of Audiovisual Plausibility and Social Presence, based on literature from the audio and visual Virtual Reality domains.While Social Presence can help to evaluate social aspects of VR applications, measurements of social presence can be affected by external factors that do not relate to the system itself. Plausibility is typically defined without directly addressing communication scenarios. However, recent work on plausibility characterizes it as a central factor that determines the extent to which sensory input yields subjective constructs, such as social presence.A first related pilot study suggests that Audiovisual Plausibility and Social Presence might be less related than expected.In this paper, both constructs, their value in the perceptual evaluation of social VR realizations as well as their limitations are discussed. Furthermore, the role of the specific social interaction scenario is pointed out. Engaging in social tasks, focused attention and high audiovisual complexity might influence the evaluation of social VR systems.