Shop 'til You Hear it Drop - Influence of Interactive Auditory Feedback in a Virtual Reality Supermarket

In this paper we describe an experiment aiming to investigate the impact of auditory feedback in a virtual reality supermarket scenario. The participants were asked to read a shopping list and collect items one by one and place them into a shopping cart. Three conditions were presented randomly, where audio feedback was (1) absent, (2) had impact sounds for collisions including when grasping, (3) had impact sounds as well as continuous sounds when moving the products. The subjects experience of the simulation during the three experimental conditions were studied using a questionnaire where ratings on presence, body ownership, awareness of own movements, usability and enjoyment were collected. The results are presented and discussed.