Guiding the viewer in cinematic virtual reality by diegetic cues

Abstract

Cinematic Virtual Reality has been increasing in popularity the last years. Watching 360° movies with a Virtual Reality device, viewers can freely choose the viewing direction, and thus the visible section of the movie. In order to ensure that the viewer observes all important details, we investigated three methods of implicitly guiding the attention of the viewer: lights, movements, and sounds. We developed a measurement technique to obtain heat maps of viewing direction and applied statistical analysis methods for spatial data. The results of our work show that the attention of the viewer can be directed by sound and movements. New sound induces the viewer to search for the source of the sound, even if not all participants paid attention to the direction of the sound. In our experiments, lights without movements did not draw more attention than other objects. However, a moving light cone changed the viewing direction considerably.