The Effect of Prior Virtual Reality Experience on Locomotion and Navigation in Virtual Environments

VirtualReality(VR) is becoming more accessible and widely utilized in crucial disciplines like training, communication, healthcare, and education. One of the important parts of VR applications is walking through virtual environments. So, researchers have broadly studied various kinds of walking in VR as it can reduce sickness, improve the sense of presence, and enhance the general user experience. Due to the recent availability of consumer Head Mounted Displays (HMDs), people are using HMDs in all sorts of different locations. It underscores the need for locomotion methods that allow users to move through large Immersive Virtual Environments (IVEs) when occupying a small physical space or even seated. Although many aspects of locomotion in VR have received extensive research, very little work has considered how locomotive behaviors might change over time as users become more experienced in IVEs. As HMDs were rarely encountered outside of a lab before 2016, most locomotion research before this was likely conducted with VR novices who had no prior experience with the technology. However, as this is no longer the case, itis important to consider whether locomotive behaviors may evolve over time with user experience. This proposal specifically studies locomotive behaviors and effects that may adjust over time. For the first study, we conducted experiments measuring novice and experienced subjects’ gait parameters in VR and real environments. Prior research has established that users’ gait in virtual and real environments differs; however, little research has evaluated how users’ gait differs as users gain more experience with VR. We conducted experiments measuring novice and experienced subjects’ gait parameters in VR and real environments. Results showed that subjects’ performance in VR and Real World was more similar in the last trials than in the first trials; their walking dissimilarity in the start trials diminished by walking more trials. We found the trials a significant variable affecting the walking speed, step length, and trunk angle for both groups of users. While the main effect of expertise was not observed, an interaction effect between expertise and the trial number was shown. The trunk angle increased over time for novices but decreased for experts. These cond study reports the results of an experiment investigating how users’ behavior with two locomotion methods changed over four weeks: teleportation and joystick-based locomotion. Twenty novice VR users (no more than 1 hour prior experience with any form of walking in VR) were recruited. They loaned an Oculus Quest for four weeks on their own time, including an activity we provided them with. Results showed that the time required to complete the navigation task decreased faster for joystick-based locomotion. Spatial memory improved with time, particularly when using teleportation (which starts disadvantaged to joystick-based locomotion). Also, overall cyber sickness decreased slightly overtime; two dimensions of cyber sickness (nausea and disorientation) increased notably over time using joystick-based navigation. The next study presents the findings of a longitudinal research study investigating the effects of locomotion methods within virtual reality on participants’ spatial awareness during VR experiences and subsequent real-world gait parameters. The study encompasses two distinct environments: the real world and VR. In the real world setting, we analyze key gait parameters, including walking speed, distance traveled, and stepcount, both pre and post-VR exposure, to perceive the influence of VR locomotion on post-VR gait behavior. Additionally, we assess participants’ spatial awareness and the occurrence of simulator sickness, considering two locomotion methods: joy stick and teleportation. Our results reveal significant changes in gait parameters associated with increased VR locomotion experience. Furthermore, we observe a remarkable reduction in cyber sickness symptoms over successive VR sessions, particularly evident among participants utilizing joy stick locomotion. This study contributes to the understanding of gait behavior influenced by VR locomotion technology and the duration of VR immersion. Together, these studies inform how locomotion and navigation behavior may change in VR as users become more accustomed to walking in virtual reality settings. Also, comparative studies on locomotion methods help VR developers to implement the better-suited locomotion method. Thus, it provides knowledge to design and develop VR systems to perform better for different applications and groups of users

Improving spatial orientation in virtual reality with leaning-based interfaces

Advancement in technology has made Virtual Reality (VR) increasingly portable, affordable and accessible to a broad audience. However, large scale VR locomotion still faces major challenges in the form of spatial disorientation and motion sickness. While spatial updating is automatic and even obligatory in real world walking, using VR controllers to travel can cause disorientation. This dissertation presents two experiments that explore ways of improving spatial updating and spatial orientation in VR locomotion while minimizing cybersickness. In the first study, we compared a hand-held controller with HeadJoystick, a leaning-based interface, in a 3D navigational search task. The results showed that leaning-based interface helped participant spatially update more effectively than when using the controller. In the second study, we designed a "HyperJump" locomotion paradigm which allows to travel faster while limiting its optical flow. Not having any optical flow (as in traditional teleport paradigms) has been shown to help reduce cybersickness, but can also cause disorientation. By interlacing continuous locomotion with teleportation we showed that user can travel faster without compromising spatial updating

Movement in cluttered virtual environments

Imagine walking around a cluttered room but then having little idea of where you have traveled. This frequently happens when people move around small virtual environments (VEs), searching for targets. In three experiments, participants searched small-scale VEs using different movement interfaces, collision response algorithms, and fields of view. Participants' searches were most efficient in terms of distance traveled, time taken, and path followed when the simplest form of movement (view direction) was used in conjunction with a response algorithm that guided ("slipped") them around obstacles when collisions occurred. Unexpectedly, and in both immersive and desktop VEs, participants often had great difficulty finding the targets, despite the fact that participants could see the whole VE if they stood in one place and turned around. Thus, the trivial real-world task used in the present study highlights a basic problem with current VE systems

Measuring user experience for virtual reality

In recent years, Virtual Reality (VR) and 3D User Interfaces (3DUI) have seen a drastic increase in popularity, especially in terms of consumer-ready hardware and software. These technologies have the potential to create new experiences that combine the advantages of reality and virtuality. While the technology for input as well as output devices is market ready, only a few solutions for everyday VR - online shopping, games, or movies - exist, and empirical knowledge about performance and user preferences is lacking. All this makes the development and design of human-centered user interfaces for VR a great challenge. This thesis investigates the evaluation and design of interactive VR experiences. We introduce the Virtual Reality User Experience (VRUX) model based on VR-specific external factors and evaluation metrics such as task performance and user preference. Based on our novel UX evaluation approach, we contribute by exploring the following directions: shopping in virtual environments, as well as text entry and menu control in the context of everyday VR. Along with this, we summarize our findings by design spaces and guidelines for choosing optimal interfaces and controls in VR.In den letzten Jahren haben Virtual Reality (VR) und 3D User Interfaces (3DUI) stark an Popularität gewonnen, insbesondere bei Hard- und Software im Konsumerbereich. Diese Technologien haben das Potenzial, neue Erfahrungen zu schaffen, die die Vorteile von Realität und Virtualität kombinieren. Während die Technologie sowohl für Eingabe- als auch für Ausgabegeräte marktreif ist, existieren nur wenige Lösungen für den Alltag in VR - wie Online-Shopping, Spiele oder Filme - und es fehlt an empirischem Wissen über Leistung und Benutzerpräferenzen. Dies macht die Entwicklung und Gestaltung von benutzerzentrierten Benutzeroberflächen für VR zu einer großen Herausforderung. Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Evaluation und Gestaltung von interaktiven VR-Erfahrungen. Es wird das Virtual Reality User Experience (VRUX)- Modell eingeführt, das auf VR-spezifischen externen Faktoren und Bewertungskennzahlen wie Leistung und Benutzerpräferenz basiert. Basierend auf unserem neuartigen UX-Evaluierungsansatz leisten wir einen Beitrag, indem wir folgende interaktive Anwendungsbereiche untersuchen: Einkaufen in virtuellen Umgebungen sowie Texteingabe und Menüsteuerung im Kontext des täglichen VR. Die Ergebnisse werden außerdem mittels Richtlinien zur Auswahl optimaler Schnittstellen in VR zusammengefasst

Freehand-Steering Locomotion Techniques for Immersive Virtual Environments: A Comparative Evaluation

Virtual reality has achieved significant popularity in recent years, and allowing users to move freely within an immersive virtual world has become an important factor critical to realize. The user’s interactions are generally designed to increase the perceived realism, but the locomotion techniques and how these affect the user’s task performance still represent an open issue, much discussed in the literature. In this article, we evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of, and user preferences relating to, freehand locomotion techniques designed for an immersive virtual environment performed through hand gestures tracked by a sensor placed in the egocentric position and experienced through a head-mounted display. Three freehand locomotion techniques have been implemented and compared with each other, and with a baseline technique based on a controller, through qualitative and quantitative measures. An extensive user study conducted with 60 subjects shows that the proposed methods have a performance comparable to the use of the controller, further revealing the users’ preference for decoupling the locomotion in sub-tasks, even if this means renouncing precision and adapting the interaction to the possibilities of the tracker sensor