Investigating Sign Language Interpreter Rendering and Guiding Methods in Virtual Reality 360-Degree Content

Abstract

As sign languages are often the native languages for members of the Deaf community, text captioning can be inaccessible, highlighting the importance of sign language interpretation. This research explores sign language in virtual reality 360-degree three degrees of freedom videos, exploring two rendering modes, fixed-position and always-visible, and two visual guiding methods, arrows and radar. Findings from testing with eight participants indicates that fixed-position rendering provides participants with a greater sense of presence than always-visible rendering, whilst always-visible rendering produces less of a blocking effect. Arrows appear more usable than radar for visually guiding participants to active speakers, including providing a higher level of sign language understanding. Future research is needed to validate these findings with six degrees of freedom content.