Training Comic Dialog in VR to Improve Presentation Skills

Abstract

Manzai is traditional style of comedy in Japanese culture, in which two comedians—a straight man tsukkomi and a funny man boke—engage in humorous conversation to make the audience laugh. We developed a VR application that simulates Manzai using first-person VR to improve the public speaking skills and gain confidence while exchanging opinions. This system was created based on body movements and conversations recorded in advance by motion capture and the user’s performance was evaluated in terms of multiple factors. In this system, the user dons the avatar of a human tsukkomi of a famous Japanese comic duo and performs Manzai with the VR image of his boke partner. The Manzai performance is evaluated based on several axes and presented to the user after the completion of Manzai. The evaluation axes include measurements of pauses, movements, and smoothness, and the index is the degree of deviation from the movements of a professional comic actor, which serves as the ground truth. These factors are also important when exchanging opinions and speaking in front of an audience. We aim to enhance the user experience and abilities by enabling the users to objectively control these factors.