Acoustic Virtual Reality as a Learning Framework for Built Environment Students

Virtual Reality (VR) technologies allow to experience the effects of different design configurations with strong immersion and are therefore also suitable to learn about different acoustic design configurations. The Eindhoven Acoustic Virtual Reality (EAVR) platform is a Unity application designed to experiment with different combinations of acoustic materials and room sizes while listening to these changes in real time. The application can be used with the Head Mounted Display (HMD) or from a computer screen. The scene acoustic properties can be edited and saved with observations on the current state, to be later recalled and compared while being in the room. The application makes use of a modified version of Resonance Audio, edited to make visible the absorption coefficients of the acoustic materials and the calculated reverberation time for educational purposes. The paper illustrates the design process leading to the first version of the application, and the main offered functionalities.