Social facilitation with virtual jogging companion on smartglasses

摘要

Jogging is a fundamental activity integrated various sports. It is known familiarly as one of daily exercises. Being able to do alone anytime and anywhere is important, and motivation is a key issue for initiating and maintaining such exercise. Presence of others tends to affect physical activity. It is called Social Facilitation. Individuals perform better on simple or well-rehearsed task with the social facilitation. Presence of attentive spectator makes the jogger's pace faster than no-spectator condition [Strube et al. 1981]. Furthermore, competition with a superior partner causes the jogger to get motivated and increase effort, which is called Köhler effect. Presence of others is effective for exercise; however, it is difficult to find such partner. Some virtual reality exercises have been researched to overcome this gap between individual and pair/group exercise. Software-generated virtual partners have already applied for stationary bike, plank exercise, rowing exercise with an immersive head-mounted or mere stationary display. People prefer change in their surroundings while jogging. Mueller et al. tried to realize outdoor jogging experience with a drone [Mueller and Muirhead 2015] and a distant jogger felt through his/her voice [Mueller et al. 2010]. Jogging with an autonomous robot and a runner participating from other place could connect with appropriate partner anytime and anywhere. However, whole control of the drone in crowded environment with people and buildings is difficult and voice communication gets much attention from the environment.