Viewpoint Optimisation for Navigation Using Dynamic Teher

Abstract

Dynamic viewpoint tethering is an innovative display technique which has been proposed to support effective navigation in large-scale virtual environments, by integrating information from different frames of reference. In this paper, we explain the modelling of a dynamic tether and report our latest research findings in investigating the optimal parametric values of tether configuration and their relations to human users' navigational performance. Tethered displays with different parametric configurations were compared. Participants were instructed to control an aircraft-shaped cursor flying in a virtual tunnel and to answer questions about the environment. The results revealed that critically damped tethers supported the best local guidance performance. No significant global awareness performance differences were observed under all display conditions.

Effects of Viewpoint Displacement on Navigational Performance in Virtual Environments

“…In follow-up studies, Wang & Milgram (2002;2003) contrasted tethered displays with different dynamic properties and showed that a critically damped dynamically tethered display resulted in the best guidance performance.…”

“…The other four tether lengths: {D2, D3, D4, D5}, corresponding to {1, 2, 4, 8} graphical units, were distributed between the two extreme conditions. All six tethers were critically damped, and the selection of spring constant and damping coefficient was based on the optimal values identified an earlier experiment (Wang & Milgram, 2002). …”

“…As a framework for constraining viewpoint behaviour in navigational display systems, viewpoint tethering has been proposed in recent years as a means of integrating information from both egocentric and exocentric frames of reference (McCormick et al, 1998;Colquhoun & Milgram, 2000;Wang & Milgram, 2001;2002;2003). The concept of viewpoint tethering encompasses a display design technique that involves using a tether for virtually "attaching" the display viewpoint to an avatar.…”

Integrating multiple 3D views through frame-of-reference interaction

“…Forward-up views have been around for some time and have been studied as to their benefits for particular tasks [8,4,12]. Similarly, "tethered views" or "dynamic tethers" have been proposed and implemented by others [18,22]. While the behavior of dynamic tethers is not directly representable in terms of couplings, couplings do provide a way to unite various coordinated views in a single framework.…”

“…Another source of inspiration is work on tethered and dynamically tethered views [22,18]. A tethered view is a view attached to a moving object for the purposes of following the object and controlling the view's path.…”