Developing an online VR tool for participatory evaluation of animal vocal behaviours

ABSTRACT

Animal vocal behaviour represents a certain meaning, which is the explicit expression of animal emotions, needs and communication. Different from human language, animal vocal behaviour is very abstract, and the learning material of animal vocal behaviour is also more difficult to obtain. It is hard for college students to recognize vocal behaviours of animals accurately. Using virtual reality (VR) to describe them is an innovation in outdoor practice. Zoology teaching can be further enhanced by VR online application. However, current online VR application is mostly restricted as visualization tools, and the application in virtual sound environment is rarely supported. An online VR demonstrator tool was developed by integrating affordable visualization and auralization components. The tool could be published in mainstream web browsers with users’ own devices. Sichuan golden monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana) of Shennongjia Nature Reserve in Hubei province, China was used as the case site to create the virtual environment. A participatory evaluation was performed to test and evaluate the effect of the online VR tool. The result was analysed and discussed on the usability and potential of the VR tool in animal vocal behaviours.

KEYWORDS:

• Online
• virtual reality
• VR tool
• participatory evaluation
• vocal behaviours

Acknowledgement

We are also grateful to the people and institutions that helped us to obtain the material. In addition, we would like to express our gratitude to all those who helped us during the writing of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant number 2018YFB 1004504), so we are deeply grateful to the project.

Notes on contributors

Zheng Zhong

Dr Zheng Zhong, Associate Professor, National Engineering Research Center for E-learning, Central China Normal University, China. His research area is in virtual reality technology, mobile augmented reality.

Weidong Chen

Dr Weidong Chen, Doctoral candidate, National Engineering Research Center for E-learning, Central China Normal University, China. His research area and interests are in education technology, e-learning for the promotion of achievement and performance of students.

Yue Zhang

Ms. Yue Zhang, National Engineering Research Center for E-learning, Central China Normal University, China. She is experienced in Internet technology and modern educational media.

Jing Yang

Ms. Jing Yang, National Engineering Research Center for E-learning, Central China Normal University, China. She is experienced in programming, web design and educational game development.

Zhicheng Dai

Dr Zhicheng Dai, Associate Professor, National Engineering Research Center for E-learning, Central China Normal University, China. His research area is in educational information technology, campus Internet of things, embedded system and wireless network.