Visual cues can be sufficient for triggering automatic, reflexlike spatial updating

Abstract

"Spatial updating" refers to the process that automatically updates our egocentric mental representation of our immediate surround during self-motions, which is essential for quick and robust spatial orientation. To investigate the relative contribution of visual and vestibular cues to spatial updating, two experiments were performed in a high-end Virtual Reality system. Participants were seated on a motion platform and saw either the surrounding room or a photorealistic virtual model presented via headmounted display or projection screen. After upright rotations, participants had to point "as accurately and quickly as possible" to previously learned targets that were outside of the current field of view (FOV). Spatial updating performance, quantified as response time, configuration error, and pointing error, was comparable in the real and virtual reality conditions when the FOV was matched. Two further results challenge the prevailing basic assumptions about spatial updating: First, automatic, reflexlike spatial updating occurred without any physical motion, i.e., visual information from a known scene alone can, indeed, be sufficient, especially for large FOVs. Second, continuous-motion information is not, in fact, mandatory for spatial updatingmerely presenting static images of new orientations proved sufficient, which motivated our distinction between continuous and instant-based spatial updating.

Spatial updating in superimposed real and virtual environments

“…Results of both experiments are consistent with previous findings that spatial updating occurs in VR (Riecke et al, 2007;Riecke et al, 2004Riecke et al, , 2005Wraga et al, 2004). Experiment 2 also confirms previous research that people do not automatically update verbally described environments, and do not necessarily update multiple environments simultaneously, even when they occupy the same physical space (Wang, 2004).…”

“…It has been shown that people are able to update their position relative to VR, and spatial updating can sometimes be both easy to do and difficult to suppress in VR (e.g., Riecke et al, 2007;Riecke et al, 2004Riecke et al, , 2005Wraga et al, 2004). However, there are debates about when and rors and longer response latencies, indicating that spatial updating is difficult to suppress when observers change locations and orientations.…”

“…However, there are debates about when and rors and longer response latencies, indicating that spatial updating is difficult to suppress when observers change locations and orientations. This phenomenon is also referred to as obligatory spatial updating (Riecke, Cunningham, & Bülthoff, 2007;Riecke, von der Heyde, & Bülthoff, 2004, 2005.…”

Do We Need to Walk for Effective Virtual Reality Navigation? Physical Rotations Alone May Suffice

“…There are, however, a few noteworthy exceptions where visual cues presented in immersive VR can be sufficient for spatial orientation tasks: When high visual realism is combined with an abundance of reliable landmarks and an immersive HMD or projection system, visual cues may be sufficient to enable excellent homing performance (Riecke, van Veen, & Bülthoff, 2002) as well as spatial updating performance that approaches real-world performance (Riecke, von der Heyde, & Bülthoff, 2005).…”

Towards Lean and Elegant Self-Motion Simulation in Virtual Reality

“…This will allow us to determine not only whether a self-motion simulation is subjectively convincing, but also whether it enables robust and effective spatial orientation in the virtual world. This issue is still largely unsolved, but recent results are quite promising [17].…”