Samenvatting

Strukton Rail is interested in facilitating training and increasing employee safety awareness through a VR simulation. In this paper it is discussed in how far audio can be used in order to increase the immersion of the simulation. Besides the well-known means of spatial audio, there are other means that can be used to increase user presence in a VR simulation. In this thesis, theoretical principles of achieving realistic audio are gathered and implemented in the VR simulation. In order to evaluate to what extend spatial audio helps to immerse the user into a simulation, a set of audio evaluation attributes are gathered. The attributes are used to develop a research method in which two versions of the VR simulation are tested by Strukton employees and evaluated comparatively. The results indicate that spatial audio improves user presence as well as perceived realism in a VR simulation, leading to a higher level of immersion.