Reach out and touch me: effects of four distinct haptic technologies on affective touch in virtual reality

Advances in Human-Computer Interaction

Cedergren

2019

139

The latest technical and interaction advancements within the virtual reality (VR) field have marked a new era, not only for VR, but also for VR locomotion. In this era, well-established, prevalent VR locomotion techniques are mostly used as points of comparison for benchmarking of new VR locomotion designs. At the same time, there is the need for more exploratory, comparative studies of contemporary VR locomotion techniques, so that their distinguished interaction aspects can be documented and guide the design process of new techniques. This article presents a comparative, empirical evaluation study of contemporary and prevalent VR locomotion techniques, examining the user experience (UX) they offer. First, the prevalent VR locomotion techniques are identified based on literature, i.e., walking-in-place, controller/joystick, and teleportation. Twenty-six adults are enrolled in the study and perform a game-like task using the techniques. The study follows a mixed methods approach, utilising the System Usability Scale survey, the Game Experience Questionnaire, and a semistructured interview to assess user experiences. Results indicate that the walking-in-place technique offers the highest immersion but also presents high levels of psychophysical discomfort. Controller/joystick VR locomotion is perceived as easy-to-use due to the users’ familiarity with controllers, whereas teleportation is considered to be effective due to its fast navigation, although its visual ‘jumps’ do break the users’ sense of immersion. Based on the interviews, the users focused on the following interaction dimensions to describe their VR locomotion experiences: (i) immersion and flow, (ii) ease-of-use and mastering, (iii) competence and sense of effectiveness, and (iv) psychophysical discomfort. The study implications for VR locomotion are discussed, along with the study limitations and the future direction for research.

Section: Questionnaires Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

VR Locomotion in the New Era of Virtual Reality: An Empirical Comparison of Prevalent Techniques

Advances in Human-Computer Interaction

Cedergren

2019

139

“…User experience was measured using the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) (IJsselsteijn, De Kort, and Poels, 2013), which has been used in several domains (such as gaming, augmented reality, and location-based services) because of its ability to cover a wide range of experiential factors with good reliability (Lee and Kim, 2017;Nacke, Grimshaw, and Lindley, 2010;Nacke and Lindley, 2008a,b;Lee et al, 2012). The use of GEQ has been established in the VR domain in several studies around such topics as navigation and locomotion in virtual environments (Meijer, Geudeke, and Van den Broek, 2009;Nabiyouni and Bowman, 2015), haptic interaction in VR (Ahmed et al, 2016), VR learning (Apostolellis and Bowman, 2014), cyberpsychology (Toet, van Welie, and Houtkamp, 2009), and VR gaming (Schild, LaViola, and Masuch, 2012). In this study, the dimensions of Competence, Sensory and Imaginative Immersion, Flow, Tension, Challenge, Negative Affect, Positive Affect, Returning to Reality, and Tiredness were selected from the In-Game and Post-Game versions of the GEQ based on the user instructions of the questionnaire (IJsselsteijn, De Kort, and Poels, 2013).…”

Section: Questionnaires and Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controller-based Text-input Techniques for Virtual Reality: An Empirical Comparison

Kongsvik

2019

IJVR

Existing consumer VR systems support text input using handheld controllers in combination with virtual keyboards and many designers have attempted to build on these widely used techniques. However, information on current and well-established VR text-input techniques is lacking. In this work, we conduct a comparative empirical evaluation of four controller-based VR text-input techniques, namely, raycasting, drum-like keyboard, head-directed input, and split keyboard. We focus on their text-entry rate and accuracy, usability, and user experience. Twenty-two participants evaluated the techniques by completing a typing session, answering usability and user-experience questionnaires, and participating in a semi-structured interview. The drum-like keyboard and the raycasting techniques stood out, achieving good usability scores, positive experiential feedback, satisfactory text-entry rates, and moderate error rates that can be reduced in future studies. The specific documented usability and experiential characteristics of the techniques are presented and discussed herein.

“…User experience was measured using the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ), which has been used in several domains (such as gaming, augmented reality and location-based services) because of its ability to cover a wide range of experiential factors with good reliability [43][44][45]. The use of GEQ is also established in the VR domain in several studies around such topics as locomotion in virtual environments [46], haptic interaction in VR [47], VR learning [48], and VR gaming [49], among others. In this study, the dimensions of Competence, Sensory and Imaginative Immersion, Flow, Tension, Challenge, Negative Affect, Positive Affect and Tiredness (from the In-Game and Post-Game versions of the GEQ) were considered relevant and useful to the evaluation of the method.…”

Section: Demographics and Questionnairesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Text Input in Virtual Reality: A Preliminary Evaluation of the Drum-Like VR Keyboard

Kongsvik

2019

Technologies

The drum-like virtual reality (VR) keyboard is a contemporary, controller-based interface for text input in VR that uses a drum set metaphor. The controllers are used as sticks which, through downward movements, “press” the keys of the virtual keyboard. In this work, a preliminary feasibility study of the drum-like VR keyboard is described, focusing on the text entry rate and accuracy as well as its usability and the user experience it offers. Seventeen participants evaluated the drum-like VR keyboard by having a typing session and completing a usability and a user experience questionnaire. The interface achieved a good usability score, positive experiential feedback around its entertaining and immersive qualities, a satisfying text entry rate (24.61 words-per-minute), as well as moderate-to-high total error rate (7.2%) that can probably be further improved in future studies. The work provides strong indications that the drum-like VR keyboard can be an effective and entertaining way to type in VR.