Presenting Sense of Loud Vocalization Using Vibratory Stimuli to the Larynx and Auditory Stimuli

Abstract

In recent years, technologies related to virtual reality (VR) have continued to advance. As a method to enhance the VR experience, we focused on loud vocalization. This is because we believe that loud vocalization can enable us to engage with the VR environment in a more interactive way. Also, as loud vocalization is an action that is thought to be closely related to stress reduction and a sense of exhilaration, the stress reduction through VR with loud vocalization is also expected. But loud vocalization itself has disadvantages for physical, mental, and social reasons. Then, we hypothesized that loud vocalization itself is not necessary for such benefits; but the sense of loud vocalization plays an important role. Therefore, we focused on a method of substituting experience by presenting sensory stimuli. In this paper, we proposed a way to present the sense of loud vocalization through vibratory stimuli to the larynx and auditory stimuli to users who are actually vocalizing quietly with the expectation for the sense of loud vocalization. Our user study showed that the proposed method can extend the sense of vocalization and realize pseudo-loud vocalization. In addition, it was also shown that the proposed method can cause a sense of exhilaration. By contrast, excessively strong vibratory stimuli spoil the sense of loud vocalization, and thus the intensity of the vibration should be appropriately determined.