England (Commonwealth Union) – Technology continues to advance and make further inroads to our everyday lives. While some advances like cyber bullying, spending excessive time on smart phones and privacy concerns have been the negative side of these advances which need to be addressed, the positive advances continue to build up.
Researchers have formed a virtual reality choir to learn if virtual singing can have the same health and wellbeing advantages as group singing in real life.
When physically present group singing activities were stopped on account of COVID-19, people made efforts in a variety of ways to keeping their choir activities alive, including ‘zoom choirs’.
Researchers at the University of York evaluated more than 3000 members of choirs across the UK after the first lockdown to learn the missing factors from their usual choir experience. What they discovered was that virtual choirs delivered a lifeline for many by maintaining social connections.
However, there was a unanimous sense of absence of the collective process of making music in real time due to the technical restrictions of the internet. To bridge this gap, the team at the University’s AudioLab produced a virtual reality atmosphere to permit participants to feel fully immersed within the choir experience.
Professor Helena Daffern, from the University of York’s AudioLab, stated that according to prior studies that have tested physiological responses, such as heart rate variability, and sweat levels, that positive emotions are aroused with singing in a group. She noted that it can enhance people’s sense of wellbeing, particularly as it links people socially and creates their sense of community.
“We wanted to recreate singing together in a virtual environment for those that had barriers to accessing this type of activity in ‘real life’. The pandemic was one such barrier, but post-Covid we found that we could also apply this thinking to those who struggle to access this type of leisure activity due to health or age-related problems,” she said.
