Researchers develop a new way to instruct dance in Virtual Reality

From tai chi to exaggerated movements

A total of 36 people took part in the one-minute dance test, comparing the new WAVE visualization to a traditional virtual version in which there was only one model dancer to follow. The differences between the techniques were clear.

'This implementation is at least suitable for slow-paced dance styles. The dancer can just jump in and start dancing without having to learn anything beforehand. However, in faster movements, the visuals can get confusing, and further research and development is needed to adapt and test the approach with more dance styles' says Hämäläinen.

In addition to virtual dance games, the new technique may be applicable to music videos, karaoke, and tai chi

'It would be optimal for the user if they could decide how to position the model dancers in a way that suits them. And if the idea were taken further, several dancers could send each other moves in social virtual reality. It could become a whole new way of dancing together', says Laattala.

'Current mainstream VR devices only track the movement of the headset and handheld controllers. On the other hand, machine learning data can sometimes be used to infer how the legs move,' says Hämäläinen.

'But in dance, inference is more difficult because the movements are stranger than, for example, walking,' adds Laattala.

On the other hand, if you have a mirror in the real dance space, you can follow the movement of your feet using machine vision. The dancer's view could be modified using a virtual mirror.

'A dancer's virtual performance can be improved by exaggeration, for example by increasing flexibility, height of the jumps, or hip movement. This can make them feel that they are more skilled than they are, which research shows has a positive impact on physical activity motivation,' says Hämäläinen.

The virtual dance game has been developed using the Magics infrastructure's motion capture kit, where the model dancer is dressed in a costume with sensors. These have been used to record the dance animation.

The WAVE dance game can be downloaded for Meta Quest 2 and 3 VR devices here. The github repository also includes the open source code that anyone can use to develop the game further.

Reference:

Laattala, M., Piitulainen, R., Ady, N., Tamariz, M., & Hämäläinen, P. (2024). Anticipatory Movement Visualization for VR Dancing. ACM SIGCHI Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

PDF of the study available here

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