Walking> walking-in-place> flying, in virtual environments

2021

Our experience in virtual environments is characterised by a sense of presence, i.e., the feeling of being in the virtual scenario rather than in the real environment, even though we know there is nothing there. A previous research has shown that the sense of presence is associated with individual differences in the ability to represent vivid mental images: the more vivid the images the stronger the sense of presence. Slater proposed the term 'place illusion' (PI) for the type of presence that refers to the sense of 'being there', i.e., the strong illusion of being in the virtual place with our body that leads us to respond realistically to the virtual simulation. Therefore, we asked whether the degree of presence experienced in Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) environments is also associated with the ability to image body movements (e.g., running, jumping and so forth). To this end, participants experienced two different IVR scenarios and filled the Igroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ) to assess the degree of presence and the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire (VMIQ) to assess the ability to image different body movements. The results showed a positive correlation between the ability to vividly represent body movements images and the capacity to feel present in the virtual world. Namely, the higher the vividness of body movements mental images the stronger the reported sense of presence felt within the IVR scenarios.

Proceedings of the 7th annual …, 2004

Presence is commonly defined as the subjective feeling of "being there". It has been mainly conceived of as deriving from immersion, interaction, and social and narrative involvement with suitable technology. We argue that presence depends on a suitable integration of aspects relevant to an agent's movement and perception, to her actions, and to her conception of the overall situation in which she finds herself, as well as on how these aspects mesh with the possibilities for action afforded in the interaction with the virtual environment.

Presence-Teleoperators and …, 1994

This paper describes a study to assess the influence of a variety of factors on reported level of presence in immersive virtual environments. It introduces the idea of "stacking depth", that is, where a participant can simulate the process of entering the virtual environment while already in such an environment, which can be repeated to several levels of depth. An experimental study including 24 subjects was carried out. Half of the subjects were transported between environments by using virtual Head-mounted displays, and the other half by going through doors. Three other binary factors were: whether or not gravity operated, whether or not the subject experienced a virtual precipice, and whether or not the subject was followed around by a virtual actor.

Revista Brasileira de Computação Aplicada, 2013

Resumo: Um dos objetivos e vantagens da Realidade Virtual é a promoção da sensação de "estar lá", de estar presente. As pesquisas existentes focaram em determinar "se" um fator contribui para o senso de presença. Este artigo compara dois sistemas de visualização, avaliando qual dos dois contribui mais para este senso. Dois sistemas de baixo custo e baixa tecnologia foram usados: estereoscopia anáglifa e campo de visão (FOV) largo (50º). O Questionário SUS foi aplicado a 63 participantes para avaliar o senso de presença. Os participantes foram divididos em dois grupos, num experimento intra-sujeitos seguido de um inter-sujeitos, assistiram a um passeio guiado em um campus universitário virtual. Ambos os sistemas contribuíram para aumentar o senso de presença. O aumento do FOV foi melhor para lembrar do lugar visitado enquanto a estereoscopia foi melhor em tornar o ambiente mais realista. Entretanto, percebeu-se que a estereoscopia anáglifa não pode ser usada sempre. Em termos gerais, os dados mostram que a estereoscopia anáglifa contribui mais que um FOV largo para o senso de presença. Concluímos sugerindo que o primeiro passo para aumentar a imersão de um Ambiente Virtual deva ser o uso de estereoscopia, nem que seja a anáglifa, se for apropriado.

2020

The advancement of virtual reality technology offers various locomotion options that support users’ navigation behaviors in a virtual reality environment. This study was aimed at examining the effects of two navigation methods—joystick-controlling and walkingaround—on users’ perceived usability, behavioral engagement, and virtual presence. Fifty South Korean college students were recruited in the study, and they were assigned randomly to one of the two navigation conditions. Participants from each group were asked to observe a 3D object and complete the surveys. They were then asked to repeat the procedure with a 2D image. Using repeated-measures ANOVAs and MANOVA, we found that users using joystick-controlling reported higher usability and showed superior performance to the walking-around group on two tasks. Participants reported a higher behavioral engagement when observing the 2D image. Besides, they perceived a significantly higher virtual presence when observing the 2D image. F...

2006

This paper investigates the use of camera motions, in order to improve the sensation of walking in a Virtual Environment. A simple model of camera motion is first proposed. This model uses:

Previous research has suggested that presence in a virtual environment (VE) is important for several reasons (Sheridan, 1992;. A highly present individual is more likely to behave in the VE in a manner similar to their behaviour in similar circumstances in everyday reality. Therefore, an immersive virtual environment (IVE) may be a useful system for training and skill acquisition, where to train or gain the skill in the real world may be too expensive or dangerous. This formulation of the effect of presence may be used to construct a measure of the degree of presence. Suppose that individuals are placed in an environment which is familiar relative to everyday reality. Those individuals who have a high degree of presence would be likely to exhibit similar behaviours to that in the real world -for example, obeying social conventions, perceived psycho-physical limitations, and egocentric interactions. Those individuals who are less present may be more likely to break these conventions (for example, walking through virtual walls and off virtual cliffs). This paper discusses research in presence within IVEs and presents an experiment using a measure of presence based on observable behaviours of people placed in a VE that is a representation of a familiar environment.

Computers & Graphics, 2018

The purpose of this study was to measure the subject's sense of presence while they performed a task (riding a bicycle downhill) in a virtual reality (VR) environment and to compare it by body position (standing vs. sitting) and gender. The sample consisted of 35 subjects (19 male and 16 female) between 17 and 33 years of age. A translated and validated Portuguese version of the Igroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQp) and the Reflexive Motor Acts (RMAs), based on direct observation, were used as metrics. The results showed significant differences between body position at the level of Experienced Realism, Spatial Presence and Overall Sense of Presence. When measuring RMAs, it was demonstrated that people in the sitting position presented a higher frequency. We concluded that body position influences perceptions of credibility, which has an impact on the sense of presence. No differences were identified between the genders.

Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 2016

The study of sense of presence experienced in virtual reality environments has become an important area of research. The continued advancement of immersive technology offers more opportunities to examine how a subject becomes immersed in and interacts with a variety of virtual environments. The primary purpose of this research is to study the sense of presence while interacting with a traditional Virtual Reality Environment (Helmet-based system with a Head-tracking device) and compare it with a virtual reality environment using an Immersive Environment (Spherical-based Visualization environment). Two empirical experiments were investigated in this study, each consisting of thirty-five subjects. A virtual airplane scenario was created and simulated for the participants of both environments. Participants were given several questionnaires after completing the simulation. This study mainly focused on question 9 and 10 of that survey, which dealt with how much the participant felt presen...

Virtual …, 2000

Witmer and Singer have developed a questionnaire for presence (PQ) as well as an immersive tendencies questionnaire (ITQ). Their research has shown that ITQ scores are positively correlated with PQ scores. This paper reports on an attempt to replicate these ndings in a non-immersive, collaborative setting, by creating one virtual environment designed to engender a high sense of presence in users, and one designed to disrupt and decrease the sense of presence felt by users. The major ndings of this attempt were rstly that while there was a dierence in the two w orlds according to the denition of presence, the PQ did not pick up this dierence, and secondly that PQ scores were correlated with ITQ scores only in the so-called \high-presence" environment, implying that Witmer and Singer's results hold only under certain conditions.

2016

To identify and analyze the functions of interactions responses to the stimuli of a virtual environment and their relation to the degree of reported presence of sense, the Xbox 360® with the Kinect Adventures game was used. Four phases of the game were executed and a questionnaire was administered. Verbal responses directed to virtual stimuli did not show a behavioral pattern, but the frequency of non-verbal responses directed to virtual stimuli (NVS-VS) and the sense of presence increased with the advance in stages. It is suggested that the frequency of VR-VS is an appropriate complementary measure of the sense of presence and perform functional analyzes of behavior during immersion can be useful to access the sense of presence.

Proceedings of Motion on Games - MIG '13, 2013

Walking-In-Place (WIP) techniques have potential in terms of solving the problem arising when an immersive virtual environment offers a larger freedom of movement than the physical environment. Such techniques are particularly useful when the spatial constraints are very prominent, as they are likely to be in relation to immersive gaming systems located in the homes of consumers. However, most existing WIP techniques rely on movement of the legs which may cause users, wearing a head mounted display, to unintentionally move. This paper details a within-subjects study performed with the intention of investigating how two alternative types of gestural input relying on arm and hip movements compare to the traditional WIP gesture and keyboard input. Visual feedback was delivered through a head-mounted display and auditory feedback was provided by means of a 16-channel surround sound system. The gestures were evaluated in terms of perceived naturalness, presence and real world positional drift. The results suggest that both WIP and arm swinging are perceived as significantly more natural than hip movement and the keyboard configuration. However, arm swinging better matched real walking in terms of energy expenditure and led to significantly less positional drift.

Selected papers of the Eurographics …, 1995

This paper describes a metaphor that allows people to move around an immersive virtual environment by "walking on the spot". Positional data of participants' head motions are obtained from a tracking sensor on a head-mounted display during a training session, where they alternate between walking on the spot and a range of other activities. The data is used to train a feed-forward neural network that learns to recognise the person's walking on the spot behaviour. This is used in a virtual reality system to allow people to move through the virtual environment by simulating the kinds of kinesthetic actions and sensory perceptions involved in walking. An experiment was carried out to compare this method of navigation with the familiar alternative that involves using a hand-held pointing device, such as 3D mouse. The experiment, still continuing, suggests that the walking on the spot method may enhance the participant's sense of presence, but there is not sufficient evidence to suggest that it is advantageous with respect to the efficiency of navigation.

Presence, 1999

This paper presents both an analysis of requirements for user control over simulated locomotion and a new control technique designed to meet these requirements. The goal is to allow the user to move through virtual environments in as similar a manner as possible to walking through the real world. We approach this problem by examining the interrelationships between motion control and the other actions people use to act, sense, and react to their environment. If the interactions between control actions and sensory feedback can be made comparable to those of actions in the real world, then there is hope for constructing an effective new technique. Candidate solutions are reviewed once the analysis is developed. This analysis leads to a promising new design for a sensor-based virtual locomotion called Gaiter. The new control allows users to direct their movement through virtual environments by stepping in place. The movement of a person's legs is sensed, and in-place walking is treated as a gesture indicating the user intends to take a virtual step. More speci cally, the movement of the user's legs determines the direction, extent, and timing of their movement through virtual environments. Tying virtual locomotion to leg motion allows a person to step in any direction and control the stride length and cadence of his virtual steps. The user can walk straight, turn in place, and turn while advancing. Motion is expressed in a body-centric coordinate system similar to that of actual stepping. The system can discriminate between gestural and actual steps, so both types of steps can be intermixed.