Development and Evaluation of VR Catching Training System Using Voice Instructions

Abstract

For inexperienced baseball players, it is difficult to predict the landing spot of an outfield fly ball and to quickly enter the catching spot. VR is generally focused on the presentation of visual information, we thought that audio presentation, which does not depend on what a person is looking at, is most effective for the catching motion. The purpose of this study was to develop a VR training system for inexperienced baseball players using voice and pitch instructions (instructions using different pitch keyboard sounds). In this experiment, a training menu was devised and compared between a group that received the training menu (with instructions) and a group that did not receive the training menu (without instructions). As a result, the group with instructions was able to catch the ball at the catching point (in front of the face, which is generally considered to be an easy position to catch the ball), and the group without instructions was able to make higher quality catching movements than the group with no instructions. On the other hand, the group with no instructions also improved their ability to judge where they should move to when looking at the trajectory of the fly ball.