We present VR Rehearsal, a mobile VR application to assist general\u00a0public to practice presentation in an innovative and convenient\u00a0way. It is able to create immersive presentation environment as well\u00a0as provide various types of feedback, both real-time reaction from\u00a0simulated virtual audience and non real-time statistics visualization.\u00a0The application assists presenters to self-evaluate and self-improve\u00a0their skills efficiently.
\nKeywords: virtual reality, public speaking, transformational game<\/p>\n
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- 1 Purpose<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Public speaking and delivering presentation are familiar challenges\u00a0for most people, if not everyone. From student to businessman, people\u00a0frequently face the situations where it is crucial to prepare for\u00a0the upcoming presentation. Given the importance of well preparation\u00a0for successful delivery, current methods adopted by presenters\u00a0remain traditional, such as rehearsing in front of mirror. However,\u00a0traditional methods are limited in terms of reproducing an immersive\u00a0environment. Moreover, traditional methods cannot evaluate\u00a0presenters\u2019 performance quantitatively in aspects of eye contact and\u00a0speech fluency.\u00a0To address the above limitations, we introduce VR Rehearsal: a mobile\u00a0VR application where presenters are able to self-improve presentation\u00a0skill conveniently with their mobile devices and low-cost\u00a0Google cardboard. Through the usage of VR Rehearsal, presenters\u00a0are expected to improve themselves on the following aspects\u00a0which we believe are the keys of successful presentation: proper\u00a0loudness, eye contact, clear pronunciation, good time management\u00a0and fluency.<\/p>\n
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- 2 Approach<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
VR Rehearsal provides an interactive virtual presentation environment\u00a0which is open to customization to fit the presenters practice\u00a0need. Before practice, the presenter is able to configure a practice\u00a0session on PC via network, including uploading slides, selecting\u00a0various types of environment (e.g. small classroom or large auditorium)\u00a0and audience (e.g. students in casual wears and businessmen\u00a0in suit and ties). When the VR Rehearsal application is launched, it\u00a0would synchronize the customization and be ready to use.<\/p>\n
VR Rehearsal intends to provide the presenter immersive environment\u00a0with visual fidelity and useful real-time feedback. To achieve\u00a0the two above goals, 3D crowd is generated and simulated so that\u00a0they react based the presenters performance. Two major types of\u00a0inputs from the presenters are tracked: head motion input for computing\u00a0the approximated looking direction, and speech input for analyzing\u00a0the presenters volume and fluency. In particular, speech\u00a0fluency is evaluated by detecting self-interruption points and distinguished\u00a0them from normal gaps between words. An agent-based,\u00a0discrete simulation model takes the following input into account to\u00a0generate audience behavior in a state-based manner. In each simulation\u00a0step, the weights of all states would be computed before the\u00a0final behavior is sampled and blended from the states. To efficiently\u00a0generate crowd models suitable for mobile platforms, we combined\u00a0existed character generation tool and level-of-detail generation tool.\u00a0Finally, character animations are generated by motion capture.<\/p>\n
VR Rehearsal is also able to generate post-session feedback after\u00a0each session to assist the presenter to better self-observe the performance.\u00a0A spherical gaze \u201cheat map\u201d where each pixel indicates the\u00a0\u201cfrequency\u201d of user looking at each direction would be generated to visualize the presenters eye contact pattern. A speech performance\u00a0graph would also be generated to demonstrate the presenters\u00a0speech volume and fluency. By combining both real-time feedback\u00a0from audience simulation and visualized post-session feedback, the\u00a0presenter is expected to assess the performance easily, which leads
\nto efficient self-improvement.<\/p>\n![\"VR_Rehearsal_Siggraph\"](\"https:\/\/projects-old.etc.cmu.edu\/vr-rehearsal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/VR_Rehearsal_Siggraph.png\")
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- 2 Approach<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n