Effects of Augmenting Real-Time Biofeedback in An Immersive VR Performance

Currently, the most common form of Virtual Reality (VR) performance is that the performer wearing motion capture devices while the audience are immersed in a virtual environment remotely. Augmenting real-time biosignals provide the possibility of enhancing audience's perceptual experience in a collaborative virtual environment. In this research, we focus on exploring two different augmentation methods based on real-time biofeedback from the performer and the audience during a live VR performance. We propose a support system to investigate how performer's heart rate (HR) and audience's electroencephalogram (EEG) visualizations, and the corresponding auditory feedback, influence audience's sense of perception, immersion, and the narrative understanding. The results show that the performer's heart rate visual biofeedback significantly produced more concentration of the participants and the audience's EEG visual biofeedback significantly increased the participants' ability of narrative understanding.