Sensing the Intentions to Speak in VR Group Discussions

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 24; no. 2; p. 362
• Main Authors: Chen, Jiadong, Gu, Chenghao, Zhang, Jiayi, Liu, Zhankun, Konomi, Shin'ichi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.01.2024; MDPI
• Subjects: Analysis; deep learning; group work; human–computer interaction; Meetings; Neural networks; sensor; Sensors; Social interaction; Verbal communication; Virtual reality; group work; deep learning; virtual reality; sensor; human–computer interaction
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s24020362

While virtual reality (VR) technologies enable remote communication through the use of 3D avatars, it is often difficult to foster engaging group discussions without addressing the limitations to the non-verbal communication among distributed participants. In this paper, we discuss a technique to detect the intentions to speak in group discussions by tapping into intricate sensor data streams from VR headsets and hand-controllers. To this end, we developed a prototype VR group discussion app equipped with comprehensive sensor data-logging functions and conducted an experiment of VR group discussions (N = 24). We used the quantitative and qualitative experimental data to analyze participants' experiences of group discussions in relation to the temporal patterns of their different speaking intentions. We then propose a sensor-based mechanism for detecting speaking intentions by employing a sampling strategy that considers the temporal patterns of speaking intentions, and we verify the feasibility of our approach in group discussion settings.