Evaluation of navigation interfaces in virtual environments

Daniel R. Mestre

doi:10.1117/12.2042141

28 February 2014 Evaluation of navigation interfaces in virtual environments

Daniel R. Mestre

Proceedings Volume 9012, The Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality 2014; 901207 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2042141
Event: IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging, 2014, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

When users are immersed in cave-like virtual reality systems, navigational interfaces have to be used when the size of the virtual environment becomes larger than the physical extent of the cave floor. However, using navigation interfaces, physically static users experience self-motion (visually-induced vection). As a consequence, sensorial incoherence between vision (indicating self-motion) and other proprioceptive inputs (indicating immobility) can make them feel dizzy and disoriented. We tested, in two experimental studies, different locomotion interfaces. The objective was twofold: testing spatial learning and cybersickness. In a first experiment, using first-person navigation with a flystick ®, we tested the effect of sensorial aids, a spatialized sound or guiding arrows on the ground, attracting the user toward the goal of the navigation task. Results revealed that sensorial aids tended to impact negatively spatial learning. Moreover, subjects reported significant levels of cybersickness. In a second experiment, we tested whether such negative effects could be due to poorly controlled rotational motion during simulated self-motion. Subjects used a gamepad, in which rotational and translational displacements were independently controlled by two joysticks. Furthermore, we tested first- versus third-person navigation. No significant difference was observed between these two conditions. Overall, cybersickness tended to be lower, as compared to experiment 1, but the difference was not significant. Future research should evaluate further the hypothesis of the role of passively perceived optical flow in cybersickness, but manipulating the virtual environment’sperrot structure. It also seems that video-gaming experience might be involved in the user’s sensitivity to cybersickness.

Citation Download Citation

Daniel R. Mestre "Evaluation of navigation interfaces in virtual environments", Proc. SPIE 9012, The Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality 2014, 901207 (28 February 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2042141

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