How Late is Too Late? Effects of Network Latency on Audio-Visual Perception During AR Remote Musical Collaboration

Abstract

Networked Musical Collaboration requires near-instantaneous net-work transmission for successful real-time collaboration. We studied the way changes in network latency affect participants' auditory and visual perception in latency detection, as well as latency tolerance in AR. Twenty-four participants were asked to play a hand drum with a prerecorded remote musician rendered as an avatar in AR at different levels of audio-visual latency. We analyzed the subjective responses of the participants from each session. Results suggest a minimum noticeable delay value between 160 milliseconds (ms) and 320 ms, as well as no upper limit to audio-visual delay tolerance.