Impossible Open Spaces: Exploring the Effects of Occlusion on the Noticeability of Self-Overlapping Virtual Environments

Abstract

Impossible spaces make it possible to maximize the area of virtual environments that can be explored on foot through self-overlapping virtual architecture. This paper details a study exploring how users' ability to detect overlapping virtual architecture is affected when the virtual environment includes distractors that impose additional cognitive load by challenging the users. The results indicate that such distractors both increase self-reported task load and reduce users' ability to reliably detect overlaps between adjacent virtual rooms. That is, rooms could overlap by up to 68% when distractors were presented, compared to 40% when no distractors were present. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Virtual reality; Interaction techniques.

Foldable Spaces: An Overt Redirection Approach for Natural Walking in Virtual Reality

“…However, because these redirection techniques leverage the principles of Impossible Spaces and Change Blindness Redirection to hide how the redirection intervenes in the VE, they necessitate a specific architectural layout consisting of indoor rooms or self-contained scenes connected with corridors. Nevertheless, Impossible Open Spaces [7] begins to tackle this limitation by investigating how overlapping detection thresholds are affected when Impossible Spaces…”