Publication . Bala, Paulo; Masu, Raul; Nisi, Valentina; Nunes, Nuno
Orientation is an emerging issue in cinematic Virtual Reality
(VR), as viewers may fail in locating points of interest. Recent
strategies to tackle this research problem have investigated
the role of cues, specifically diegetic sound effects. In this
paper, we examine the use of sound spatialization for orien tation purposes, namely by studying different spatialization
conditions ("none", "partial", and "full" spatial manipulation)
of multitrack soundtracks. We performed a between-subject
mixed-methods study with 36 participants, aided by Cue
Control, a tool we developed for dynamic spatial sound edit ing and data collection/analysis. Based on existing literature
on orientation cues in 360◦
and theories on human listening,
we discuss situations in which the spatialization was more ef fective (namely, "full" spatial manipulation both when using
only music and when combining music and diegetic effects),
and how this can be used by creators of 360◦ videos.
