Auditory-visual perception of room size in virtual environments

It is generally believed that the effectiveness of Virtual Environments (VEs) relies on their ability of faithfully reproducing the multisensory experience of the physical world. An important aspect of this experience is the perception of size and distance. In e.g. an architectural application it is of course of great interest that the user gets the correct impression of room size. However, considering visual perception VE it is yet not fully understood what system parameters control room size. Some investigations on auditory distance perception have been carried out, but there is also an obvious lack of research concerning auditory room size perception. In addition, it is far from understood how audition and vision interact when sensing an indoor environment. The current paper reviews an experiment aimed at exploring aspects of auditory, visual and auditory-visual room size perception in VEs. In line with previous research, it is found that people in general seem to underestimate room size when exposed to a visual VE. It is also shown that there seems to be a tendency to overestimate room size in auditory VEs, and finally that the combination of auditory and visual stimuli allows for a more accurate room size perception