gms | German Medical Science

To better meet the needs of hearing device users in their every-day life, modern signal processing strategies aim for better performance in acoustically complex communication environments. Realistic, yet controllable measurement conditions may be provided by virtual audio-visual environments. Recently developed scenes have been reported to be similar to real life regarding self-motion[1], [2]. Yet, a further increase of experienced involvement and natural participant behaviour might be beneficial. In our work, we implemented the transmission of head movements from remote conversation partners to virtual animated characters in the lab in real time, to achieve an interactive triadic conversation scenario in a distributed virtual environment. Level of animation details and diffuse noise level served as independent variables. The participants movement behaviour, gaze, facial expressions and speech contributions as well as a questionnaire were used as measures of involvement. Preliminary results show that a low-delay transmission of head movements on virtual characters is possible, and indicate a more natural perception of the virtual representation of conversation partners. Additionally, the perceived ease to listen improved with animation level towards a video reference condition. Therefore, the implementation of natural head movement of virtual characters may be beneficial in virtual interactive scenarios.