Effectiveness of VR immersive applications for public speaking enhancement

Augmented and Virtual Reality (VR) technology has recently proved to be useful in many learning and training scenarios. VR applications designed to practice communication skills (also known as Public Speaking Training or PST) are currently among the newest and still-unexplored solutions whose effectiveness is still to be tested. The current paper evaluates the Quality of Experience for a public speaking VR system where speakers can experience a talk session in front of a wide audience that actively reacts to their statements. A double stimulus experiment (with a real and virtual audience) was carried out in order to measure the visual quality, the immersiveness and the effectiveness of the approach. Objective evaluations, users’ feedback and public speaking metrics showed that the VR set-up enhanced speakers’ gesture and speech control when compared to performing in front of a real audience.