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The New Era of Virtual Reality Locomotion: A Systematic Literature Review of Techniques and a Proposed Typology

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The latest technical and interaction advancements that took place in the Virtual Reality (VR) field have marked a new era, not only for VR, but also for VR locomotion. Although the latest advancements in VR locomotion have raised the interest of both researchers and users in analyzing and experiencing current VR locomotion techniques, the field of research on VR locomotion, in its new era, is still uncharted. In this work, VR locomotion is explored through a systematic literature review investigating empirical studies of VR locomotion techniques from 2014–2017. The review analyzes the VR locomotion techniques that have been studied, their interaction-related characteristics and the research topics that were addressed in these studies. Thirty-six articles were identified as relevant to the literature review, and the analysis of the articles resulted in 73 instances of 11 VR locomotion techniques, such as real-walking, walking-in-place, point and teleport, joystick-based locomotion, and more. Results showed that since the VR revival, the focus of VR locomotion research has been on VR technology and various technological aspects, overshadowing the investigation of user experience. From an interaction perspective, the majority of the utilized and studied VR locomotion techniques were found to be based on physical interaction, exploiting physical motion cues for navigation in VR environments. A significant contribution of the literature review lies in the proposed typology for VR locomotion, introducing four distinct VR locomotion types: motion-based, room scale-based, controller-based and teleportation-based locomotion.
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Multimodal Technologies
and Interaction
Review
The New Era of Virtual Reality Locomotion:
A Systematic Literature Review of Techniques and a
Proposed Typology
Costas Boletsis ID
SINTEF Digital, Forskningsveien 1, 0373 Oslo, Norway; konstantinos.boletsis@sintef.no
Received: 7 September 2017; Accepted: 25 September 2017 ; Published: 28 September 2017
Abstract:
The latest technical and interaction advancements that took place in the Virtual Reality
(VR) field have marked a new era, not only for VR, but also for VR locomotion. Although the latest
advancements in VR locomotion have raised the interest of both researchers and users in analyzing
and experiencing current VR locomotion techniques, the field of research on VR locomotion, in its new
era, is still uncharted. In this work, VR locomotion is explored through a systematic literature review
investigating empirical studies of VR locomotion techniques from 2014–2017. The review analyzes
the VR locomotion techniques that have been studied, their interaction-related characteristics and the
research topics that were addressed in these studies. Thirty-six articles were identified as relevant
to the literature review, and the analysis of the articles resulted in 73 instances of 11 VR locomotion
techniques, such as real-walking, walking-in-place, point and teleport, joystick-based locomotion,
and more. Results showed that since the VR revival, the focus of VR locomotion research has been on
VR technology and various technological aspects, overshadowing the investigation of user experience.
From an interaction perspective, the majority of the utilized and studied VR locomotion techniques
were found to be based on physical interaction, exploiting physical motion cues for navigation in
VR environments. A significant contribution of the literature review lies in the proposed typology
for VR locomotion, introducing four distinct VR locomotion types: motion-based, room scale-based,
controller-based and teleportation-based locomotion.
Keywords: human-computer interaction; literature review; locomotion; typology; virtual reality
1. Introduction
Over the last few years, Virtual Reality (VR) has undergone a major hardware-driven revival,
which has had significant effects on the ways users experience and use VR [
1
,
2
]. The introduction of the
Oculus Rift Development Kit 1 in 2013 is considered a significant milestone for VR, indicating when the
VR revival took place and when VR became accessible, up-to-date and relevant again [
1
,
3
5
].
The low
acquisition cost of VR hardware transformed VR into a widely-accessible and popular technology.
At the
same time, the quality of virtual environments increased rapidly, offering realistic graphics and
full immersion, while surpassing the lack of intuitive multi-user capabilities of the past, and pushing
the boundaries of next-generation social platforms [
6
8
]. From a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
perspective, the technological revival of VR has produced new and updated interaction metaphors,
designs and tools, thus affecting the resulting user experiences and the research of the field [
3
].
Overall, the VR
revival marked what has been characterized as the “new era of Virtual Reality” [
9
11
].
VR locomotion, an important interaction component that enables navigation in VR environments,
was heavily affected by the technological change [
12
,
13
]. Since the early days of VR, various locomotion
techniques have been developed and studied, targeting seamless and user-friendly navigation in
virtual environments [
12
,
14
], while key theoretical models and classifications were developed to
ground the constructive contributions of VR locomotion techniques, such as the taxonomies of
Multimodal Technologies and Interact. 2017,1, 24; doi:10.3390/mti1040024 www.mdpi.com/journal/mti
Multimodal Technologies and Interact. 2017,1, 24 2 of 17
Bowman et al. [15,16]
and Arns [
17
]. The latest technical and interaction advancements of VR marked
a new era for VR locomotion, as well. As a result, new VR locomotion techniques and related elements
have been developed, and past ones have been significantly updated. For instance, point-and-click
teleportation is now a mainstream VR locomotion technique, fully supported by commercial
Head-Mounted Displays (HMD), such as the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift [
12
], while motion-based
locomotion techniques, including swimming, climbing, flying and walking-in-place, have become
more robust and user-friendly [
18
,
19
]. Joystick-based locomotion now addresses virtual sickness with
effective dynamic field-of-view adjustments (blinders) [
20
], and the real-walking locomotion technique,
which was a cumbersome construction for the lab [
21
], now comes out-of-the-box with commercial
headsets [
22
,
23
]. Although the latest advancements in VR locomotion have raised the interest of both
researchers and users (e.g., [
24
,
25
]), in terms of understanding, developing, utilizing and experiencing
the VR locomotion techniques, the field of research on VR locomotion, in its new era, is still uncharted.
In this work, the focus is placed on the new era of VR locomotion by exploring the VR locomotion
techniques that have been studied since the VR revival milestone. To do so, a systematic literature
review is conducted, investigating empirical studies of HMD-based VR locomotion techniques from
2014–2017. The aim of the review is to (1) organize and map the VR locomotion research field
in its current form; (2) identify research gaps in the field that warrant further exploration; and
(3) construct new conceptual knowledge that provides the theoretical grounding for future VR
locomotion-related empirical and constructive work. The ultimate intention of this work is for VR
researchers,
developers and
users to have an overview of the current state-of-the-art techniques in the
VR locomotion research field, to be able to make sense of these techniques and, ultimately, to ground
their future contributions in the herein synthesized theoretical knowledge.
The paper is organized as follows. First, the literature review process is described, followed by an
overview of the reviewed papers (Section 2and Table 1). Next, the findings from the review process
are presented (Section 3). Finally, a discussion of the key findings and recommendations for future
research are presented, along with implications for the research (Section 4).
2. Method
This study has been undertaken as a systematic literature review based on the original guidelines,
as proposed by Kitchenham [
26
] and Brereton et al. [
27
] and implemented by Beecham et al. [
28
].
In accordance with the guidelines, the following steps were taken:
1. identify the need for a systematic literature review,
2. formulate the research questions of the review,
3. carry out a comprehensive, exhaustive search for primary studies,
4. assess and record the quality of included studies,
5. classify the data needed to answer the research questions,
6. extract data from each included study,
7. summarize and synthesize the study results (meta-analysis),
8. interpret the results to determine their applicability,
9. write-up the study as a report.
To ensure that no important material was overlooked, additional searches of key conference
proceedings, journals and authors were performed directly. Furthermore, secondary searches based on
references found in our primary studies were conducted.
2.1. Research Questions
To assess the current state of the research in the VR locomotion field, the literature review will
address three research questions. Since the VR revival:
RQ1: Which VR locomotion techniques have been studied?
Multimodal Technologies and Interact. 2017,1, 24 3 of 17
RQ2: Which are the interaction-related characteristics of the studied VR locomotion techniques?
RQ3: Which VR locomotion-related research topics are being addressed in the reviewed studies?
RQ1 is focusing on identifying the VR locomotion techniques that are directly studied or the
techniques whose elements are studied. To explore further and analyze the retrieved techniques,
their interaction aspects are important, and RQ2 examines those aspects. RQ1 and RQ2 focus on the
interaction of the reviewed techniques, while RQ3 examines the research on these techniques and the
topics it addresses.
2.2. Search Strategy
A systematic search of the literature was performed in the Scopus academic search engine.
For the
examined subject, the ACMand IEEE academic databases were considered the most relevant, due to
their focus on HCI issues and technical aspects, respectively. The Scopus engine searches through the
ACM and IEEE databases, along with the databases of other publishers, such as Elsevier, Springer,
Taylor & Francis, Sage, Emerald, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and many more.
Scopus was chosen from among other academic search engines (e.g., Google Scholar, Web of Science)
for the main search process due to its wider coverage of related journals, its flexible result-filtering
capabilities and the consistent accuracy of its results [29,30].
The search was focused on VR locomotion techniques, as supported by empirical studies,
published between the first complete publication year after the VR revival, i.e., January 2014, and the
date of this search, i.e., June 2017. The publications’ abstracts were utilized for the retrieval of relevant
articles, utilizing the following Scopus database advanced-search query string:
ABS ((“locomotion” OR “navigation technique”) AND (“empirical” OR “studied” OR “study”
OR “evaluation” OR “evaluate” OR “examination” OR “examine”) AND (“virtual reality” OR
“virtual environment”
OR “virtual world”)) AND (LIMIT-TO (PUBYEAR,2017) OR LIMIT-TO
(PUBYEAR, 2016) OR LIMIT-TO (PUBYEAR, 2015) OR LIMIT-TO (PUBYEAR, 2014)).
Finally, applicable articles were also identified through backward reference searching,
i.e., by screening
the reference lists of the retrieved publications [
31
]. Scopus, Google Scholar
and Web
of Science were utilized for the backward reference searching to run general searches of specific
references and to identify relevant articles.
2.3. Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
Peer-reviewed articles with the following characteristics, published between January 2014 and
June 2017, were included:
written in English,
including at least one VR locomotion technique,
including a user study that examines direct or indirect aspects of the VR locomotion technique(s),
having a fully-immersive VR setup, utilizing HMDs.
The peer-review process adds to the credibility and reliability of the publications. The evaluation
of VR locomotion techniques through user studies was considered a significant criterion to present
existing and usable systems beyond the conceptual level. HMD-based, fully-immersive VR was chosen
as the appropriate setup so that the results of the literature review are technologically up-to-date and,
at the same time, are of significance for researchers and for regular users, who now have access to
these low to medium cost solutions.
Multimodal Technologies and Interact. 2017,1, 24 4 of 17
Consequently, articles with the following characteristics were excluded:
utilizing exclusively projection-based, desktop-based or tablet-based virtual environments,
addressing solely conceptual matters of VR locomotion (theoretical models, frameworks, literature
reviews, etc.),
not including an empirical, user study,
utilizing VR locomotion techniques as a technological/research tool for studying a different,
unrelated topic.
2.4. Screening Process and Results
The screening process and its results are visualized in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Flowchart of included/excluded articles. HMD, Head-Mounted Display.
The initial search elicited 92 articles (which can be retrieved at
www.boletsis.net/mti2017/scopusresults.pdf), and the initial screening of studies was based
on their full text, excluding noticeably irrelevant studies. In total, 77 articles were identified as
appropriate for inclusion, and they were moved to the second screening round.
For the second round of screening, the full text of the articles identified as appropriate for
inclusion (
n
= 77) was again retrieved and reviewed. The author, along with an independent expert of
the field, examined a sample of 20 randomly-selected papers from the pool of extracted articles. A 95%
Multimodal Technologies and Interact. 2017,1, 24 5 of 17
inter-rater agreement on the inclusion/exclusion decision was recorded between the two reviewers.
Disagreements were discussed, and a decision was made. This high level of agreement provided
considerable confidence in the inclusion/exclusion decisions.
In total, 30 articles were identified as appropriate for inclusion after the second screening round.
Then, backward reference searching of the extracted articles’ references took place, resulting in
six articles that fulfilled the inclusion criteria.
Finally, 36 articles were identified as relevant to the current review. The author and the
independent expert reviewed all 36 articles independently. The categories and themes of the review
were conjointly shaped by the two reviewers, based on the data extraction process. The final validation
exercise of the review demonstrated a high level of agreement between the author and the independent
expert (88.8%), and disagreements were discussed and settled.
2.5. Data Collection
The screening process resulted in 36 articles that satisfied the inclusion criteria. The data extracted
from each article were:
the source and full reference,
the description and title of the VR locomotion technique(s),
the interaction aspects of the VR locomotion technique(s) (e.g., interaction type, movement type,
VR interaction space, devices, etc.),
the research topic of the empirical study.
If data were missing, the study authors were contacted. The two reviewers, i.e., the author and
the independent expert, jointly performed the data extraction process.
2.6. Data Analysis
The collected data were synthesized by identifying themes emanating from information reported
in each accepted paper and related to the research questions. The themes were classified into a
concept matrix to facilitate comparisons. A concept matrix makes the transition from an author- to
concept-centric literature review, provides structure and helps in clarifying the concepts of the review
for the reader [32]. Table 1shows the concept matrix of the literature review.
The main themes identified in the review and tabulated were:
the VR locomotion techniques (addressing RQ1),
the interaction aspects of the techniques (addressing RQ2),
the research topics of the empirical studies (addressing RQ3).
The identification of the VR locomotion techniques, their interaction aspects and the empirical
studies’ research topics were based on the description provided in the articles, as crosschecked
with other related and/or reviewed publications in the field to establish their scientific soundness,
mainly towards
nomenclature and interaction features. Then, the identified themes were normalized
and classified so they would be easily comparable and so they would fit into the concept matrix in a
valid and lossless way. Comparative studies that included two or more locomotion techniques were
tabulated in a respective number of rows.
Multimodal Technologies and Interact. 2017,1, 24 6 of 17
Table 1. The literature review.
ID and Article
VR Locomotion Empirical Study
Interaction Type
VR Motion Type
VR Interaction Space
VR Locomotion Technique
Research Topic
Physical
Artificial
Continuous
Non-Continuous
Open
Limited
Real-Walking
Walking-in-Place
Controller/Joystick
Gesture-Based
Point and Teleport
Redirected Walking
Arm Swinging
Reorientation
Head-Directed
Human Joystick
Chair-Based
Usability of Technique(s)
UX with Technique(s)
Effect on Perception
Technical Aspects
1. Grechkin et al., 2014 [33]X X X X X
X X X X
2. Skopp et al., 2014 [34]X X X X X
X X X X
3. Nilsson et al., 2014a [35] X X X X X X
4. Nilsson et al., 2014b [36] X X X X X X
5. Nilsson et al., 2014c [37] X X X X X
6. Bruder and Steinicke, 2014 [22] X X X X X
7. Caggianese et al., 2014 [38]X X X X X
X X X X
8. Harris et al., 2014 [39]
X X X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
9. Nescher et al., 2014 [40] X X X X X
10. Nabiyouni et al., 2015a [41] X X X X X X
11. Nabiyouni et al., 2015b [42]
X X X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
12. Bruder et al., 2015 [43] X X X X X X
13. Schmidt et al., 2015 [44] X X X X X X
14. Kruijff et al., 2015 [45] X X X X X X X
15. De la Rubia and Diaz-Estrella, 2015 [
46
]
X X X X X X
16. Zank and Kunz, 2015 [47] X X X X X
17. Langbehn et al., 2015 [48]X X X X X X X
X X X X
18. McCullough et al., 2015 [49]
X X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
19. Bozgeyikli et al., 2016a [23]X X X X X
X X X X
20. Borrego et al., 2016 [50] X X X X X X
21. Zank and Kunz, 2016 [51] X X X X X
22. Tregillus and Folmer, 2016 [52]X X X X X
X X X X
23. Sun et al., 2016 [53] X X X X X
24. Bozgeyikli et al., 2016b [54]
X X X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
25. Kruijff et al., 2016 [55]X X X X X X X
X X X X
26. Bozgeyikli et al., 2016c [12]
X X X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
Multimodal Technologies and Interact. 2017,1, 24 7 of 17
Table 1. Cont.
ID and Article
VR Locomotion Empirical Study
Interaction Type
VR Motion Type
VR Interaction Space
VR Locomotion Technique
Research Topic
Physical
Artificial
Continuous
Non-Continuous
Open
Limited
Real-Walking
Walking-in-Place
Controller/Joystick
Gesture-Based
Point and Teleport
Redirected Walking
Arm Swinging
Reorientation
Head-Directed
Human Joystick
Chair-Based
Usability of Technique(s)
UX with Technique(s)
Effect on Perception
Technical Aspects
27. Nishi et al., 2016 [56] X X X X X X
28. Ferracani et al., 2016 [18]
X X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
29. Argelaguet and Maignant, 2016 [57] X X X X X X
30. Wilson et al., 2016 [19]
X X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
31. Fernandes and Feiner, 2016 [20] X X X X X X
32. Cardoso, 2016 [58]
X X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
33. Paris et al., 2017 [59]
X X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
34. Xu et al., 2017 [60]
X X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
35. Fisher et al., 2017 [61] X X X X X
36. Kitson et al., 2017 [62]
X X X X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
3. Results
3.1. VR Locomotion Techniques
The literature review documented 73 instances of 11 locomotion techniques in the 36 reviewed
empirical studies. The main features of the 11 documented VR locomotion techniques are presented
as follows.
Real-walking: The user walks freely inside a limited physical space. The user’s position and
orientation are determined, usually by tracking the HMD’s position [
22
,
33
] or the user’s limb
movements [44,46,50].
Walking-in-place: The user performs virtual locomotion by walking in place, i.e., using step-like
movements while remaining stationary. The user’s limb movements can be tracked, or stepping
and treadmill-like input devices, such as the Stepper Machine [
54
] and VirtuSphere [
34
], can be
used to register the step-like movements and translate them into VR motion [48,52].
Controller/joystick: The user uses a controller to direct the movement in the virtual environment.
The kind of controller can range from a simple joystick [
42
,
54
] to a game controller [
20
,
34
,
42
],
a keyboard [57] or a trackball [54].
Gesture-based: The user makes gestures to direct virtual movement. The various gestures
(such as tap [18], push [18] and flying [54])
are tracked by input devices, such as the Leap Motion
or Microsoft Kinect, and translated into VR motion [18,54,58].
Multimodal Technologies and Interact. 2017,1, 24 8 of 17
Teleportation: The user points to where he/she wants to be in the virtual world, and the virtual
viewpoint is instantaneously teleported to that position. The visual “jumps” of teleportation result
in virtual motion being non-continuous [
54
]. The pointing can take place by using a
controller [60]
or making a pointing gesture [12,54].
Redirected walking: The user walks freely inside a limited physical space, while being able
to explore unlimited virtual environments by employing so-called redirection techniques.
These techniques try to introduce an unnoticeable mismatch between the user’s real and virtual
movements to compress the larger virtual environment into a limited tracking space [40,47].
Arm swinging: Users swing their arms while remaining stationary, and their arm movements are
translated into VR motion [
18
,
19
,
49
]. The arm movements can be tracked by body-tracking devices
(e.g., Microsoft Kinect [
18
]) or wearable and held devices
(e.g., armbands and controllers [19,49]).
Reorientation: The user walks freely inside a limited physical space, while being able to explore
unlimited virtual environments by employing so-called reorientation. The reorientation is
achieved by modifying the rotational gain of the users, so they physically turn around when they
meet the boundaries of the physical space, thus allowing for continued travel in both worlds [
59
].
Head-directed: The user uses head movements of the HMD to control movement. The VR
motion speed can be fixed or it can be controlled by the forward/backward pitching of the user’s
head [52,58,62].
Human joystick: The user stands and leans on a sensing board (e.g., Wii balance board) to
produce forward, backward and sideways (strafing) motions, as well as turning during forward
motion [39,55].
Chair-based: The user sits on a stool chair, which acts as an input device, and the stool rotation
and tilt are translated into VR forward/backward and turning motions [
62
]. The technique can
have various implementations (such as NaviChair, MuvMan, Swivel Chair [62]).
The walking-in-place locomotion technique was the most utilized (17 instances), followed by the
controller/joystick-enabled locomotion technique (15 instances). The 11 locomotion techniques and
their number of instances, as documented from the 36 reviewed articles, are visualized in Figure 2.
These results answer RQ1.
Figure 2.
The 11 locomotion techniques and their number of instances, as documented from the
36 reviewed articles.
Multimodal Technologies and Interact. 2017,1, 24 9 of 17
3.2. Interaction Aspects
To address RQ2, the interaction aspects of the reviewed locomotion techniques were extracted.
The resulted interaction-related themes were: the interaction type, the VR motion type and the VR
interaction space.
The interaction type of the VR locomotion technique describes the way in which the user triggers
VR navigation. Therefore, locomotion can be physical, i.e., exploiting physical motion cues for
navigation and translating natural movement to VR motion through some kind of body tracking, or it
can be artificial, i.e., utilizing input devices to direct VR motion and navigation [
63
]. The literature
review documented that 47 out of the 73 reviewed locomotion techniques implemented physical
interaction, whereas 26 were artificial.
The VR motion type assesses the nature of the user’s motions in the VR environment. It can be
characterized as continuous, supporting smooth, uninterrupted movement in the virtual environment,
or non-continuous, providing instantaneous, non-continuous movement transitions [
57
]. The majority
of the reviewed locomotion techniques (
n
= 68) implemented continuous VR motion, with only five
having implemented non-continuous motion.
Finally, VR locomotion techniques can operate in an open VR interaction space, supporting
navigation in a virtual environment that surpasses the limits of the real environment, or they can
provide limited interaction space capabilities due to the limitations that the physical environment
places on the size of the virtual one [
12
]. The majority of the reviewed locomotion techniques supported
open VR interaction spaces (n= 64), and nine of them supported limited ones.
3.3. Research Topics
To address RQ3, the research topics of the reviewed studies were extracted, resulting in the main
themes of usability, User Experience (UX), user perception and technical aspects.
Usability refers to the ease of use of the VR locomotion technique by the users, while UX
represents “a turn to experience” [
64
], focusing on the experience of the users with the VR locomotion
technique [65].
The effect of the VR locomotion technique on user perception is also a documented topic
that relates to physiological responses while using the VR locomotion technique and that addresses
such issues as object location memory, as well as motion, distance, time and speed perception in VR
environments [
66
]. Technical aspects refer to pure technical performances and objective measurements
from user sessions with the VR locomotion technique.
Of the 73 reviewed studies, 23 studied the usability of the techniques, 13 studied the UX with
the techniques, 14 focused on the effect of the VR locomotion techniques on user perception and
eight studied the technical performances of the techniques. Naturally, more than one topic could be
addressed in each study, leading to interesting observations that are analyzed further in Section 4.
4. Discussion
In the past, the field of VR locomotion has been quite diverse, with various hardware, software,
and environments combined to form VR locomotion techniques [
15
]. This diversity made the
conceptual contributions of the research field challenging, possibly because it was extremely difficult
for researchers to find a common ground on which to compare or review VR locomotion techniques
under an “umbrella” concept. That could be the reason there has not yet been a general VR locomotion
literature review. In general, the current systematic literature review showed that the VR revival and
the devices that were introduced recently offered a level of technical homogeneity for VR locomotion
techniques, thus providing a common ground and allowing for the comparison and analysis of
these techniques. Naturally, during the course of this review, a number of challenging issues had to
be dealt with (described in Section 4.4) to establish that the reviewed studies could be utilized for
meaningful results, while respecting and emphasizing the interaction-oriented nature of the review.
Nevertheless, the author’s
general feeling following this review is that the new era of VR locomotion
Multimodal Technologies and Interact. 2017,1, 24 10 of 17
finds the field mature and homogeneous enough for researchers to map it and to develop further
significant conceptual knowledge for the research community and the public.
4.1. VR Locomotion Techniques and Interaction Aspects
Several observations can be made from the reviewed and studied VR locomotion techniques.
First, walking-in-place and controller/joystick-based locomotion are the most studied techniques,
and they are are the main representatives of two different interaction types: physical vs. artificial.
Considering the sum of the reviewed locomotion techniques, physical interaction in VR locomotion
is much more utilized and studied, as it can trigger intuitive user responses, and it may not add an
extra cognitive load with motion instructions. On the other hand, artificial interaction allows for
a less physically-intense experience, with the user being stationary and simply using a controller;
however, it can
be cognitively intense, and it can lead more easily to VR sickness [
20
]. That may well
be the reason that artificial interaction is less utilized in the reviewed studies. The literature review also
showed an overwhelming preference for continuous VR motion in open VR environments,
which could
be explained by the fact that those conditions allow for a consistent VR presence, unconstrained by
visual disruptions (e.g., visual “jumps”) or space size limitations.
Another important observation is that the VR teleportation technique is not studied or utilized as
much. Bearing in mind that teleportation is one of the dominant VR locomotion techniques utilized in
many VR applications and games and that it comes out-of-the-box with current commercial systems,
such as the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift, one would expect more empirical studies utilizing and
studying the technique. However, this is not the case, and this represents a discovered gap that can be
addressed by future studies on VR locomotion.
Finally, even though the resulting interaction-related themes of the review (Section 3.2) concern
the new era of VR locomotion, similarities can be drawn between them and the previously established
conceptual work of the field. Bowman et al.’s taxonomy [
15
] introduced the components of virtual
traveling (direction, velocity and input conditions). The VR motion type shares common characteristics
with the component of input conditions, i.e., the way in which the technique specifies VR motion.
Moreover, in an expanded version of Bowman et al.’s framework [
16
], the size of the environment was
considered significant for the performance of the VR locomotion technique, a characteristic represented
in the theme of VR interaction space. Arns’ work [
17
] on extending Bowman et al.’s taxonomy
and introducing the concept of physical and virtual interaction regarding the rotation of the virtual
environment and the translation of the user’s viewpoint presents common elements with the interaction
type theme. Naturally, the resulting interaction-related themes only share common roots with the
conceptual works mentioned above, not only because of their different methodological approaches
(with the current work being a literature review and those being taxonomies and frameworks), but also
because those works took place decades ago; since then, VR locomotion has changed and advanced
significantly. Nevertheless, the interaction core of VR locomotion has remained, and three significant
elements were identified in this study, paving the way for further conceptual contributions
(Section 4.3).
4.2. Research Topics
The review of research topics revealed a strong focus on usability when it comes to VR locomotion.
However, the study of user experience and user perception when navigating VR environments seems
overlooked. In general, the results show a system-centric instead of a user-centric research approach
when it comes to the study of VR locomotion issues. The research topics of usability and technical
aspects can be considered to offer a system-centric research approach, examining the VR locomotion
technology itself, while user experience and user perception to provide a user-centric research approach,
investigating how users experience the VR locomotion systems. Under this categorization, 14 studies
adopted a system-centric research approach; seven studies were user-centric; and 15 followed a mixed
approach, combining both. Most of the studies were mixed, focusing their research on both the
technology and the user of the VR locomotion system. However, when it comes to pure system-centric
Multimodal Technologies and Interact. 2017,1, 24 11 of 17
vs. user-centric approaches, it is obvious that the main research focus is on the VR locomotion system
and technology, overshadowing the VR locomotion user. From this review, one could conclude that
the technology surrounding VR locomotion techniques is adequately studied, and it has matured
over these years. As a future suggestion, an outside-in approach could be adopted, shifting the focus
from the technology to the user and empirically studying his/her experience with VR locomotion
even further.
Another research-related observation has to do with the number of comparative, empirical studies
that were reviewed. Half of the reviewed empirical studies (18 of 36) were comparative. Judging by
the number and examining it in terms of what it means for the field, there could be a “glass being
half-empty or half-full” kind of argument. However, if this observation is combined with the need
for more user-centric research, then a future increase in the number of comparative, empirical studies
would potentially strengthen the field, allowing researchers to investigate several different forms of
VR locomotion and their effect on users at the same time.
4.3. VR Locomotion Typology
The results of the literature review allowed for the classification of the VR locomotion
techniques, which are supported by empirical studies that have been conducted since the VR revival.
The documentation
of the techniques’ interaction aspects led to the development of the classification
categories, i.e., interaction type, VR motion type and VR interaction space. Consequently, the
documented VR locomotion techniques were assigned to the classification categories, creating four
distinct VR locomotion types, which are visualized in Figure 3:
Motion-based: The VR locomotion techniques under this type utilize some kind of physical
movement to enable interaction, while supporting continuous motion in open VR spaces. This VR
locomotion type includes such techniques as walking-in-place, redirected walking, arm swinging,
gesture-based locomotion and reorientation.
Room scale-based: This VR locomotion type utilizes physical movement to enable interaction, and
it supports continuous motion (as with the motion-based type); however, the interaction takes
place in VR environments whose size is limited by the real environment’s size.
The nomenclature
for this locomotion type comes from the room-scale VR technology, which presents these
interaction features [67]. The real-walking locomotion technique falls under this type.
Controller-based: For this VR locomotion type, controllers are utilized to move the user
artificially in the VR environment. The VR interaction space is open, and the motion is
continuous.
This type
includes such techniques as joystick-based, human joystick, chair-based
and head-directed locomotion.
Teleportation-based: The VR locomotion techniques under this type utilize artificial interactions in
open VR spaces with non-continuous movement, as the user’s virtual viewpoint is instantaneously
teleported to a predefined position by utilizing visual “jumps”. Point and teleport is a VR
locomotion technique that falls under this type.
The proposed typology manages to present four distinct types of VR locomotion. Motion-based
locomotion differs from room scale-based in terms of the VR interaction space, while controller-based
locomotion differs from teleportation-based in terms of the VR motion type. Motion-based and room
scale-based locomotion differ from controller-based and teleportation-based locomotion in terms of
their interaction type. Furthermore, the analysis of the reviewed VR locomotion techniques showed that
techniques with physical interaction presented solely continuous VR motion, while artificial techniques
were exclusively facilitating navigation in open, unlimited VR environments. Naturally, this feature of
the proposed typology could be revised in future versions of the review, in case a new or updated VR
locomotion technique does not fit under the extracted typology categories.
Multimodal Technologies and Interact. 2017,1, 24 12 of 17
Figure 3. The VR locomotion typology.
The proposed typology can be a useful tool for researchers and users who want to present and
describe the features of a VR locomotion technique utilizing a standardized description that clearly
distinguishes one technique from another. The fact that the typology originates from the reviewed and
studied locomotion techniques of the last three years provides an up-to-date character to the proposed
VR locomotion types. These types can serve as a common ground for researchers of HCI and VR and
the public who uses these systems to communicate the interaction aspects and functionalities that
were previously difficult to describe and classify, thus enhancing the field’s social impact. At the same
time, the proposed VR locomotion typology, along with the systematic literature review,
can affect
positively the problem-solving capacity of HCI research in the VR field. Both works constitute a
part of the conceptual work that has been highly needed in the HCI-in-VR field since the VR revival,
addressing the
organization of existing knowledge and the creation of concepts that can facilitate
communication between research hypotheses and constructive work, i.e., designs [3].
4.4. Study Limitations
The diverse nature of the various VR locomotion techniques and their accompanying empirical
studies presented challenges, leading to a series of compromises and assumptions that could also be
perceived as limitations of this literature review.
First, a VR locomotion technique can integrate two or more locomotion techniques to facilitate
navigation. For instance, point and teleport [
12
] utilizes gesture-based interaction to point to where
the user wants to go, and the main motion takes place through teleportation. Naturally, these kinds of
integrations include a dominant interaction metaphor. In this review, the VR locomotion techniques
that integrate elements from other techniques were analyzed based on their dominant interaction
aspects. In the aforementioned example, point and teleport was categorized as a teleportation-based
technique, despite its gesture-based interaction aspects.
A second compromise has to do with the analysis of research topics. The categorization of a study
as a usability, user experience, user perception or technical study took place following a Boolean logic,
without examining the extent to which those topics were covered. For instance, even if only one aspect
of the user experience was examined in a study (e.g., the sense of a user’s VR presence [
46
]) along with
a series of usability issues, the study was registered as having both a user experience and usability
research topic. Naturally, it would be challenging, if not impossible or invalid, to quantify the extent to
which research topics are covered. However, the followed Boolean approach might be considered a
limitation of this systematic literature review.
Another limitation has to do with the normalization process that had to take place when shaping
the research topic themes. The topics stand at a high description level, covering the research from
a wide perspective, i.e., whether it is usability, user experience, etc. The main reason for that is
that during the analysis, the majority of studies were focusing on general usability or several forms
Multimodal Technologies and Interact. 2017,1, 24 13 of 17
of the user experience. Even if some studies where addressing specific research topics, acting at a
lower, more-focused level (e.g., reducing the unintended positional drift during walking-in-place
locomotion [35,37])
, the fact that many more studies were assessing topics at a higher level (e.g., [
42
])
led
the review
analysis of research topics to be performed at a normalized, high level, so that it covers
all studies equally.
Moreover, the results of the reviewed, empirical studies were not included in the review as part of
the research topics. The logic behind this decision was that the study results would completely move
the shift from the VR locomotion techniques and their interaction aspects to the studies themselves and
their characteristics (sample size, methodology, study design, etc.), while it would require a much more
complex normalization process so that all results are comparable. Undoubtedly, a future extension of
the review can move in that direction and extensively investigate the quality of research in the field.
Finally, the database query of the review is based on a predefined set of search terms.
The defined
search strategy conforms to the established procedures for systematic literature reviews [
26
],
breaking down
and addressing the research questions, while ensuring the reproducibility of the
search. However, with VR being a dynamic technical and research field, predefined sets of search
terms might not be able to cover the number of works that utilize new or unestablished terminology.
5. Conclusions
The presented systematic literature review shed more light on the new era of VR locomotion,
analyzing state-of-the-art VR locomotion techniques and their empirical studies. Results showed
that after the VR revival milestone, the focus of VR locomotion research is on physical interaction
for navigating open VR environments with continuous motion, which is a format that can be further
utilized in future studies or as a starting point for addressing and researching the field’s less-researched
areas, e.g., exploring artificial, teleportation-based techniques. Moreover, on the research side,
the literature review also revealed the need for more user-centric, empirical research approaches,
potentially under comparative settings.
Overall, the presented literature review provides researchers and developers with much
interaction-related information regarding the studied VR locomotion techniques, so they are able
to base their future designs on solid theoretical knowledge. This work, apart from organizing
the field and documenting the research around this significant VR-related topic, synthesizes new
conceptual knowledge, i.e., the proposed typology of VR locomotion techniques, which can be of
use for researchers and users, acting as a keystone on which interested parties can build using their
opinions and contributions.
Future work will address the quality of the research in the VR locomotion field, focusing further
on the studies’ characteristics (as stated in Section 4.4). Furthermore, the proposed typology will be
updated based on future advancements, always aiming at making VR locomotion research accessible
and useful to researchers and users.
Acknowledgments:
I would like to thank Dimitra Chasanidou (Department of Software and Service Innovation,
SINTEF Digital) for assisting with the literature review, being the independent expert, and also for providing
valuable feedback on the examined topics. This research is funded by the Norwegian Research Council through
the Centre for Service Innovation.
Conflicts of Interest: The author declares no conflict of interest.
Multimodal Technologies and Interact. 2017,1, 24 14 of 17
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... Therefore, this work contributes towards a better understanding of the implications of navigating large virtual cities, and our findings are expected to inform the design and development of future interactions for Metaverse use cases involving urban environments. A further gap in the existing literature is that the assessment of the efficiency and technical aspects of the navigation often overshadow the evaluation of the user experience (Boletsis, 2017). Moreover, an evaluation of individual components of a navigation technique, rather than the entire package, is difficult to find. ...
... Travel, also referred to as locomotion, is the motor component of the navigation and refers to techniques that allow the user to move from one location in the VE to another. Boletsis (2017) categorizes the existing travel methods based on different characteristics. The interaction type, for example, can be either physical, or artificial. ...
... Among the relevant empirical studies reviewed by Prithul et al. (2021), nearly all studies confirmed a higher performance of teleportation compared to other artificial locomotion techniques. Accordingly, the research interest in this method has grown noticeably in recent years, as evidenced by two reviews of common navigation techniques (Boletsis, 2017), and (Boletsis and Chasanidou, 2022), conducted 5 years apart. ...
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Navigation is the most prevalent interaction in large urban virtual environments (VEs). Any Metaverse application that foresees navigating or exploring virtual cities requires an effective and efficient navigation technique. These environments, however, have distinct characteristics that make the navigation more challenging and the design of the interactions more critical. We have conducted an empirical study to assess how enhancing the teleportation technique with additional capabilities affects the performance of navigating large urban VEs. For this purpose, three interactions have been developed that extend the conventional point-and-click teleportation. The first one is named Mini-Map and provides a top-down view of the user’s surroundings. Portal Preview provides a preview of the selected target location and allows users to choose their desired orientation at that location. The last technique, called X-Ray Vision, makes the buildings around the user translucent and allows teleporting to locations that would otherwise be obscured. A within-subject controlled lab study with twenty five participants has been conducted, where each extension is evaluated individually as well as in combination with others. Our results show that extending the teleportation can significantly improve its performance when navigating large urban VEs. Overall, the X-Ray Vision was the most successful extension with respect to both task metrics and usability measures. Mini-Map was able to improve some of the task metrics, but did not have a significant effect on most self-reported measures. Portal Preview was the least effective extension, however, multiple participants liked the fact that they could define their desired orientation with the controller. Combining all interactions together performed well with respect to the task metrics, but this option was not favored by the participants. Extending the teleportation with X-Ray Vision and Mini-Map was by far the most favored option.
... Many different classifications and categorizations exist for such artificial locomotion techniques for VR in the literature. However, a central criterion of distinction is typically the classification into 1) continuous or 2) discrete locomotion techniques [6,70]. ...
... In the following section, we present a more in-depth discussion of point&teleport. For a more detailed classification of general VR locomotion techniques, we refer to the excellent works of Boletsis [6] and Zayer et al. [70]. ...
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When we get lost in Virtual Reality (VR) or want to return to a previous location, we use the same methods of locomotion for the way back as for the way forward. This is time-consuming and requires additional physical orientation changes, increasing the risk of getting tangled in the headsets' cables. In this paper, we propose the use of undo actions to revert locomotion steps in VR. We explore eight different variations of undo actions as extensions of point\&teleport, based on the possibility to undo position and orientation changes together with two different visualizations of the undo step (discrete and continuous). We contribute the results of a controlled experiment with 24 participants investigating the efficiency and orientation of the undo techniques in a radial maze task. We found that the combination of position and orientation undo together with a discrete visualization resulted in the highest efficiency without increasing orientation errors.
... In recent years, many variable motion approaches have been used in research [5], [6] and in the game industry [7]. In particular, besides the techniques developed around the idea of natural walking in VR, there are also motion approaches that do not involve a physical movement of the player. ...
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This study contributes to our understanding of the Metaverse by presenting a case study of the implementation of brain-computer interface supported game-based engagement in a Virtual Environment (VE). In VE, individuals can communicate with anyone, anywhere, anytime, without any limits. This situation will increase the barrier-free living standards of disabled people in a more accessible environment. A virtual world of well-being awaits these individuals, primarily through gamified applications thanks to Brain-Computer Interfaces. Virtual environments in the Metaverse can be infinitely large, but the user's movement in a virtual reality (VR) environment is constrained by the natural environment. Locomotion has become a popular motion interface as it allows for full exploration of VE. In this study, the teleport method from locomotion methods was used. To teleport, the user selects the intended location using brain signals before being instantly transported to that location. Brain signals are decomposed into alpha, beta, and gamma bands. The features of each band signal in Time, frequency, and time-frequency domains are extracted. In this proposed method, the highest performance of binary classification was obtained in the frequency domain and the Alpha band. Signals in the alpha band were tested in the domains Time, Frequency, and Time-Frequency. Teleport operations are faster with Time and more stable with the frequency domain. However, the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) method used in the Time-Frequency domain could not respond adequately to real-time applications. All these analyses were experienced in the Erzurum Virtual Tour case study, which was prepared to promote cultural heritage with the gamification method.
... Интенсивно развивающимся направлением в области создания тренажерных и обучающих систем в последние годы стало применение в них технологий виртуальной реальности (VR) [1,2]. Такой подход подразумевает замену реальных объектов на виртуальные прототипы и выполнение тренировки путем погружения оператора в виртуальную среду. ...
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Virtual indoor environments provide a unique combination of indoor cartography, virtual reality, and virtual locomotion. So far however, the indoor aspect of such an environment seems to be neglected even though it may affect how the locomotion of users is conducted as well as how this affects their spatial behaviour. To get an idea about the state of the research, systematic review of peer-reviewed articles mainly from the Scopus database was conducted in this paper. It aims to get a broad idea about the interest in research of virtual locomotion and to figure out what type of research in the indoor environment was conducted. Special interest was put on the types of locomotion techniques, their interaction aspects and research topics. These characteristics were analysed and compared to earlier systematic reviews in this topic. To accommodate the indoor-related themes, environmental aspects (size) and the motivation for using an indoor environment were also obtained from the relevant articles analysed. This way, the paper tries to provide a basis for further research in using indoor environments in virtual reality.
Chapter
Extended Reality as a consolidated game platform was always a dream for both final consumers and game producers. If for one side this technology had enchanted and called the attention due its possibilities, for other side many challenges and difficulties had delayed its proliferation and massification. This paper intends to rise and discuss aspects and considerations related to these challenges and solutions. We try to bring some of the most relevant research topics and try to guess how XR games should look in the near future. We divide the challenges into 7 topics, based on extensive literature reviews: Cybersickness, User Experience, Displays, Rendering, Movements, Body Tracking and External World Information. We believe that this topics are a Grand Challenge, since the next generation of entertainment depends on adequately solving them in the near future.
Chapter
Globally, and across several sectors, the Industry 4.0 vision of smart, highly connected systems is starting to become reality. Amongst other key enabling technologies, Industry 4.0 relies on the advancement of Digital Twins (DTs) and Virtual Reality (VR). DTs are accurate virtual representations of the structure, behaviour, and state of physical systems. In recent years, the DT concept has received notable research attention in the field of manufacturing systems as a means to support data-led decision making, optimization and enhanced control. VR entails the creation of immersive virtual, simulated environments, which has great potential for visualization of—and interaction with—DT models and data. The paper describes the development of a VR experience that is integrated with the DT of a physical manufacturing system. The VR experience is developed using HTC Vive hardware and Unity3D software, and integrated with a Fischertechnik Learning Factory 4.0 miniature manufacturing system. The presented VR experience allows users to view, navigate and interact with the model of the physical manufacturing system. Furthermore, real-time production data of the physical system can be visualized in the virtual environment and the user can affect the operation of the physical system through control commands. Lastly, the paper discusses the possibilities and challenges for deploying such VR experiences in real manufacturing environments.
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In this paper, we investigate the use of a motorized bike to support the walk of a self-avatar in virtual reality (VR). While existing walking-in-place (WIP) techniques render compelling walking experiences, they can be judged repetitive and strenuous. Our approach consists in assisting a WIP technique so that the user does not have to actively move in order to reduce effort and fatigue. We chose to assist a technique called walking-by-cycling, which consists in mapping the cycling motion of a bike onto the walking of the user's self-avatar, by using a motorized bike. We expected that our approach could provide participants with a compelling walking experience while reducing the effort required to navigate. We conducted a within-subjects study where we compared “assisted walking-by-cycling” to a traditional active walking-by-cycling implementation, and to a standard condition where the user is static. In the study, we measured embodiment, including ownership and agency, walking sensation, perceived effort and fatigue. Results showed that assisted walking-by-cycling induced more ownership, agency, and walking sensation than the static simulation. Additionally, assisted walking-by-cycling induced levels of ownership and walking sensation similar to that of active walking-by-cycling, but it induced less perceived effort. Taken together, this work promotes the use of assisted walking-by-cycling in situations where users cannot or do not want to exert much effort while walking in embodied VR such as for injured or disabled users, for prolonged uses, medical rehabilitation, or virtual visits.
Conference Paper
Devices related to VR technology and applications using them are quite popular recently. The VR technology allows the users to perform various moving operations in the virtual space. Usually, the users use some controller devices to move in the virtual space. Since the field of vision is not linked to the physical movements of the user, only the scenes around the user changes without body movements. This mental gap between sights and bodies in the real world is said to lead VR sickness. In the previous study, we have implemented a user interface using to mitigate the VR sickness. The interface consists of a fitness device, which slides both feet to the left and right, provides moving feeling of up and down in the virtual space according to the user’s movements. In order to move forward, the users swing their arms back and forth with VR controller in both hands as if they were walking. To change direction, they swing only one arm. We have observed that this method reduces VR sickness while enhancing their immersive feeling. On the other hand, since the users’ operations are limited to gestures by legs and arms, the users cannot perform their moving operations as quick as operations using the buttons and sticks of controllers. In addition, it is hard to perform complex operations due to the nature of the fitness equipment and the acceleration of the controller held in their hands as input data. We have designed and implemented a new system that solves those problems while keeping a certain degree of immersive feeling by using a music game mat instead of fitness equipment. We have tried to extract more information from the foot movements. On the music game mat, arrows and symbols are drawn, and when the users perform stamping and apply certain pressure patterns, they can convey their wills to the system. For example, when the users want to move forward in the virtual space, they just perform stamping their right and left foot alternately on the forward-arrow symbols. The users can adjust their moving speed in the virtual space through changing the stamping frequency. If the users stamp right or left turn marks, they can change the moving directions. If the users stamp right and left initial position marks simultaneously by their feet and then release their feet after a few seconds, they can jump a certain height proportional to the stamped period. Thus, by inputting certain stamping patterns on the gaming mat, the users can perform various moving operations according to the patterns. To demonstrate the feasibility of our method, we have conducted numerical experiments on both our method and conventional methods in the same conditions. As preliminary experimental results, our method gives users more immersive feeling than conventional methods and equally excellent immersive feeling of our previous method, and to improves the response time greatly and to contribute the reduction of VR sickness as well.
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Research has shown that sensor data generated by a user during a VR experience is closely related to the user’s behavior or state, meaning that the VR user can be quantitatively understood and modeled. Eye-tracking as a sensor signal has been studied in prior research, but its usefulness in a VR context has been less examined, and most extant studies have dealt with eye-tracking within a single environment. Our goal is to expand the understanding of the relationship between eye-tracking data and user modeling in VR. In this paper, we examined the role and influence of eye-tracking data in predicting a level of cybersickness and types of locomotion. We developed and applied the same structure of a deep learning model to the multi-sensory data collected from two different studies (cybersickness and locomotion) with a total of 50 participants. The experiment results highlight not only a high applicability of our model to sensor data in a VR context, but also a significant relevance of eye-tracking data as a potential supplement to improving the model’s performance and the importance of eye-tracking data in learning processes overall. We conclude by discussing the relevance of these results to potential future studies on this topic.
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Resumo In this paper we describe an application of immersive technology to a specific learning context. In this case, a Virtual Reality environment was created for the purpose of delivering lesson content in a Computer Graphics discipline for students of engineering and architecture courses. The virtual environment was designed to demonstrate lighting model algorithms and aspects of 3D rendering techniques. An experiment was carried out in which students were divided in two groups that viewed the same lesson content in two versions: immersive and non-immersive version. In this pilot study we describe the application in details and discuss preliminary results based on analysis of the participants perceptions collected through presence questionnaire. Our results revealed that the experimental group using the immersive version showed higher levels of presence and involvement as compared with the control group.
Conference Paper
In this new era of virtual reality hardware and software, traditional prototyping methods have proven less than satisfactory for truly understanding how the interaction will feel in the virtual environment. As a result, designers have stepped back from table top paper prototypes and have started using physical prototyping to understand the virtual space. The difference being that physical prototypes fill actual space that the designers can walk around in. These prototypes utilize analog methods like cardboard boxes to physically represent objects in a game. While this method yields particularly good results the space required can be exceedingly high as compared to a table top prototype. There are however, many existing commercial games that can be leveraged as prototyping tools. This software is maturing at a rapid pace, and the developers of these tools are continuing to support and explore these environments. The money being invested in this space is astronomical and the possibilities of using these tools for prototyping is only touching the full potential of the technology. This paper will explore the current state of the art in analog prototyping in virtual reality and then break down the current options for prototyping applications in Virtual Reality Sandbox games.
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In this article, a virtual reality system for vocational rehabilitation of individuals with disabilities (VR4VR) is presented. VR4VR uses immersive virtual environments to assess and train individuals with cognitive and physical disabilities. This article focuses on the system modules that were designed and developed for the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) population. The system offers training on six vocational skills that were identified as transferrable to and useful in many common jobs. These six transferable skills are cleaning, loading the back of a truck, money management, shelving, environmental awareness, and social skills. This article presents the VR4VR system, the design considerations for the ASD population, and the findings with a cohort of nine neurotypical individuals (control group) and nine high-functioning individuals with ASD (experiment group) who used the system. Good design practices gathered throughout the study are also shared for future virtual reality applications targeting individuals with ASD. Research questions focused on the effectiveness of the virtual reality system on vocational training of high-functioning individuals with ASD and the effect of distracters on task performance of high-functioning individuals with ASD. Follow-up survey results indicated that for individuals with ASD, there was improvement in all of the trained skills. No negative effects of the distracters were observed on the score of individuals with ASD. The proposed VR4VR system was found by professional job trainers to provide effective vocational training for individuals with ASD. The system turned out to be promising in terms of providing an alternative practical training tool for individuals with ASD.
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Significant challenges currently prohibit expressive interaction in virtual reality (VR). Occlusions introduced by head-mounted displays (HMDs) make existing facial tracking techniques intractable, and even state-of-the-art techniques used for real-time facial tracking in unconstrained environments fail to capture subtle details of the user's facial expressions that are essential for compelling speech animation. We introduce a novel system for HMD users to control a digital avatar in real-time while producing plausible speech animation and emotional expressions. Using a monocular camera attached to an HMD, we record multiple subjects performing various facial expressions and speaking several phonetically-balanced sentences. These images are used with artist-generated animation data corresponding to these sequences to train a convolutional neural network (CNN) to regress images of a user's mouth region to the parameters that control a digital avatar. To make training this system more tractable, we use audio-based alignment techniques to map images of multiple users making the same utterance to the corresponding animation parameters. We demonstrate that this approach is also feasible for tracking the expressions around the user's eye region with an internal infrared (IR) camera, thereby enabling full facial tracking. This system requires no user-specific calibration, uses easily obtainable consumer hardware, and produces high-quality animations of speech and emotional expressions. Finally, we demonstrate the quality of our system on a variety of subjects and evaluate its performance against state-of-the-art real-time facial tracking techniques.
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In this paper we present a VR locomotion technique based on the Leap Motion device and compare it to other often-used locomotion techniques --- gaze-directed locomotion and gamepad-based locomotion. We performed a user experiment to evaluate the three techniques based on their performance (time to complete the task), comfort (through the ISO 9241--9 ssessment of comfort questionnaire), and simulation sickness (through the Simulation Sickness Questionnaire). Results indicate that the gamepad technique is both faster and more comfortable than either the Leap Motion-based or the gaze-directed techniques.
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Navigation in multi-scale virtual environments (MSVE) requires the adjustment of the navigation parameters to ensure optimal navigation experiences at each level of scale. In particular, in immersive stereoscopic systems, e.g. when performing zoom-in and zoom-out operations, the navigation speed and the stereoscopic rendering parameters have to be adjusted accordingly. Although this adjustment can be done manually by the user, it can be complex, tedious and strongly depends on the virtual environment. In this work we propose a new multi-scale navigation technique named GiAnt (GIant/ANT) which automatically and seamlessly adjusts the navigation speed and the scale factor of the virtual environment based on the user's perceived navigation speed. The adjustment ensures an almost-constant perceived navigation speed while avoiding diplopia effects or diminished depth perception due to improper stereoscopic rendering configurations. The results from the conducted user evaluation shows that GiAnt is an efficient multi-scale navigation which minimizes the changes of the scale factor of the virtual environment compared to state-of-the-art multi-scale navigation techniques.
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VR headsets and hand-held devices are not powerful enough to render complex scenes in real-time. A server can take on the rendering task, but network latency prohibits a good user experience. We present a new image-based rendering (IBR) architecture for masking the latency. It runs in real-time even on very weak mobile devices, supports modern game engine graphics, and maintains high visual quality even for large view displacements. We propose a novel server-side dual-view representation that leverages an optimally-placed extra view and depth peeling to provide the client with coverage for filling disocclusion holes. This representation is directly rendered in a novel wide-angle projection with favorable directional parameterization. A new client-side IBR algorithm uses a pre-transmitted level-of-detail proxy with an encaging simplification and depth-carving to maintain highly complex geometric detail. We demonstrate our approach with typical VR / mobile gaming applications running on mobile hardware. Our technique compares favorably to competing approaches according to perceptual and numerical comparisons. © 2016 The Author(s) Computer Graphics Forum © 2016 The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Conference Paper
In this paper we evaluate methods to move 'naturally' in an Immersive Virtual Environment (IVE) visualised through an Head Mounted Display (HMD). Natural interaction is provided through gesture recognition on depth sensors' data. Gestural input solutions in the literature to provide locomotion are discussed. Two new methods for locomotion are proposed, implemented in a framework used for comparative evaluation. Perceived naturalness and effectiveness of locomotion methods are assessed through qualitative and quantitative measures. Extensive tests are conducted on the locomotion considering also: 1) obstacles in navigation; 2) interaction with virtual objects during locomotion. This is done with the aim to identify methods capable to provide a full body experience in an IVE. Results show that one of the methods for locomotion we propose has a performance comparable to established techniques in literature. Outcomes may be exploited to improve the naturalness of users' movements in IVEs and help to unlock new strategies in providing IVEs for learning, training, collaboration and entertainment, also with respect to users with disabilities.