The effect of navigation method and visual display on distance perception in a large-scale virtual building. 2021

Hengshan Li, and Panagiotis Mavros, and Jakub Krukar, and Christoph Hölscher
Future Cities Laboratory, Singapore-ETH Centre, 1 CREATE Way, CREATE Tower, 138602, Singapore, Singapore. li@arch.ethz.ch.

Immersive virtual reality (VR) technology has become a popular method for fundamental and applied spatial cognition research. One challenge researchers face is emulating walking in a large-scale virtual space although the user is in fact in a small physical space. To address this, a variety of movement interfaces in VR have been proposed, from traditional joysticks to teleportation and omnidirectional treadmills. These movement methods tap into different mental processes of spatial learning during navigation, but their impacts on distance perception remain unclear. In this paper, we investigated the role of visual display, proprioception, and optic flow on distance perception in a large-scale building by manipulating four different movement methods. Eighty participants either walked in a real building, or moved through its virtual replica using one of three movement methods: VR-treadmill, VR-touchpad, and VR-teleportation. Results revealed that, first, visual display played a major role in both perceived and traversed distance estimates but did not impact environmental distance estimates. Second, proprioception and optic flow did not impact the overall accuracy of distance perception, but having only an intermittent optic flow (in the VR-teleportation movement method) impaired the precision of traversed distance estimates. In conclusion, movement method plays a significant role in distance perception but does not impact the configurational knowledge learned in a large-scale real and virtual building, and the VR-touchpad movement method provides an effective interface for navigation in VR.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D009068 Movement The act, process, or result of passing from one place or position to another. It differs from LOCOMOTION in that locomotion is restricted to the passing of the whole body from one place to another, while movement encompasses both locomotion but also a change of the position of the whole body or any of its parts. Movement may be used with reference to humans, vertebrate and invertebrate animals, and microorganisms. Differentiate also from MOTOR ACTIVITY, movement associated with behavior. Movements
D011434 Proprioception Sensory functions that transduce stimuli received by proprioceptive receptors in joints, tendons, muscles, and the INNER EAR into neural impulses to be transmitted to the CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. Proprioception provides sense of stationary positions and movements of one's body parts, and is important in maintaining KINESTHESIA and POSTURAL BALANCE. Labyrinthine Sense,Position Sense,Posture Sense,Sense of Equilibrium,Vestibular Sense,Sense of Position,Equilibrium Sense,Sense, Labyrinthine,Sense, Position,Sense, Posture,Sense, Vestibular
D004215 Distance Perception The act of knowing or the recognition of a distance by recollective thought, or by means of a sensory process which is under the influence of a set of prior experiences. Distance Discrimination,Discrimination, Distance,Discriminations, Distance,Perception, Distance
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D014584 User-Computer Interface The portion of an interactive computer program that issues messages to and receives commands from a user. Interface, User Computer,Virtual Systems,User Computer Interface,Interface, User-Computer,Interfaces, User Computer,Interfaces, User-Computer,System, Virtual,Systems, Virtual,User Computer Interfaces,User-Computer Interfaces,Virtual System
D016138 Walking An activity in which the body advances at a slow to moderate pace by moving the feet in a coordinated fashion. This includes recreational walking, walking for fitness, and competitive race-walking. Ambulation
D019359 Knowledge The body of truths or facts accumulated in the course of time, the cumulated sum of information, its volume and nature, in any civilization, period, or country. Epistemology

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