Visual Transition of Avatars Improving Speech Comprehension in Noisy VR Environments

In order to construct a comfortable communication in the VR space, it is important to improve the speech comprehension in environmental noise. Although there have been many reports on the interaction between vision and acoustic, few studies using noisy VR spaces. In this study, sixteen Japanese male and female were tested to listen to a some sentence in a VR space with environmental noise, to evaluate the effect of the visual stimulus to the avatar speech comprehension against the environmental noise, with using the up-and-down method. The results showed that the cocktail party effect was also observed in the VR avatars, and the cocktail party effect continued even if the avatar vanished visually. In addition, it was suggested that the cocktail party effect was enhanced if the lip of the avatar synchronized correctly.