Development

Onstage started off as a possible software piece which would help users build up their self-confidence by use of some kind of simulation. The idea of simulating an experience is to reduce the threat associated with doing certain actions in real life. For example, a flight simulator simulates the experience of flying a plane without the threat of crashing it or running out of fuel.

Research was carried out into both self confidence and into simulators and the original idea was to create an interactive experience in Flash which, by using carefully edited video footage and Flash programming, would test users through a range of simulated situations from everyday life where their self confidence would be challenged, such as meeting new people for the first time at a party or conference or in a conflict situation.

After some research and discussion, it was clear that such a project would be too broad in scope and it would be difficult to assess any kind of result, as self-confidence is very difficult to measure. So it was decided the project should simply focus on one area of building confidence and one of those situations was giving an oral presentation to a group of people, as this is a big area in putting a person's self confidence to the test, and one that could be achieved slightly more easily than some of the others and have more noticeable results.

The user research and the background research on presentations formed the basis of the "OnStage" project. The original idea was to have a virtual audience respond to the user's voice in many different ways, predominantly by their volume, but other ideas were to have it react to the speed of the users voice and also to have some form of motion detection to react to any gestures the user may make during the course of their presentation. The prototype model hasn't strayed too far from the original plan. The audience was filmed with various different reactions (shown below) to the users voice volume.

Fig. 1 shows a snapshot of the audience looking engaged with the user. This is the kind of image the user would really want to see on screen as it shows that they are speaking at a suitable volume.

Fig 1. Engaged Audience

Fig. 2 shows the audience getting slightly restless if the user has gone silent for an uncomfortably long period of time.

Fig 2. Restless Audience

Fig. 3 shows the audience reacting to a user who is speaking at an inaudible level. In the system the audience will also give audio notification that the user is not speaking loudly enough

Fig 3. Audience having difficulty hearing

Fig. 4 shows the audience feeling quite intimidated by a user who is shouting or speaking at an uncomfortably high volume.

Fig 4. Intimidated Audience