Perception and Presence in Virtual Reality for Simulated Aircraft Noise

The Virtual Community Noise Simulator, an immersive virtual reality simulator including binaural audio, is used to inform communities on the effects of aircraft noise on their environment. In this study, the effectiveness of the simulator is examined by looking at the level of presence in the virtual environment. Two experiments were conducted to test whether the expected size and the expected sound level of an airplane in the simulated world corresponds with the same characteristics in the physical world. We expected, due anecdotal evidence, that airplanes are expected larger than in the physical world. For explorative purposes we included sound level. We expect that a virtual environment which matches with the expected perceptual characteristics enhances the reported presence. Results indicate that airplanes are, as hypothesised, expected to be significantly larger in the virtual environment than airplanes in the physical world. A significantly lower expected sound level with an airplane that is relatively close contributes to the level of presence. Although airplanes expected to be larger in the virtual environment, this does not influence the presence when presented larger to the participant. An explanation for this finding could be that there is no stable and validated measure of presence.