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

Abstract

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.

Enhance consumer experience and product attitude in E-commerce live streaming: based on the environmental perspective

“…Second, this study is the first attempt to apply the theories on spatial perception (Baird, 1970; Foley, 1980; Li et al. , 2021; Montello, 1997; Watson and Enns, 2012) in social e-commerce contexts such as live streaming.…”

“…Second, this study is the first attempt to apply the theories on spatial perception (Baird, 1970;Foley, 1980;Li et al, 2021;Montello, 1997;Watson and Enns, 2012) in social e-commerce contexts such as live streaming. We examine and distinguish the implications of perceived distance and perceived depth in live streaming environments.…”

“…In the visual space perception literature, perceived distance and perceived depth are consistently considered the two distinct and influential concepts affecting human responses to visual stimuli (Watson and Enns, 2012;Montello, 1997;Foley, 1980). Specifically, perceived distance is how the observer feels the distance to the targeted stimulus in space (Foley, 1980;Montello, 1997;Li et al, 2021;Baird, 1970), while the three-dimensional volume of objects and the spatial layout or relative locations of objects in a three-dimensional environment represent perceived depth in space (Watson and Enns, 2012). In practice, perceived distance measures the distance of targeted objects from the observer, while perceived depth is the relative distance of each object in space.…”

A review study of space perception and navigation of people with low vision: is simulated low vision a reliable methodology?

“…-Control over studied variables: As orientation and mobility assume a critical role in navigation and wayfinding, it frequently introduces a dynamic observation point against a certain route, necessitating constant visual updating [4][5][6]. Various modes of interaction between an individual and the environment (e.g.…”

Virtual Reality as a Tool to Understand Spatial Navigation

“…Difficulties with omnidirectional treadmills are that users can have balance problems when turning and, at the time of this writing, omnidirectional treadmills are significantly more expensive than head-mounted virtual reality systems (Hooks et al, 2020). Except for the expense, modern treadmills provide reasonable proxies for real walking in virtual environments (Li et al, 2021;Liang et al, 2018;Ruddle et al, 2011Ruddle et al, , 2013.…”