Effects of virtual environment and self-representations on perception and physical performance in redirected jumping

Background Redirected jumping(RDJ)allows users to explore virtual environments(VEs)naturally by scaling a small real-world jump to a larger virtual jump with virtual camera motion manipulation,thereby addressing the problem of limited physical space in VR applications.Previous RDJ studies have mainly focused on detection threshold estimation.However,the effect VE or self representation(SR)has on the perception or performance of RDJs remains unclear.Methods In this paper,we report experiments to measure the perception(detection thresholds for gains,presence,embodiment,intrinsic motivation,and cybersickness)and physical performance(heart rate intensity,preparation time,and actual jumping distance)of redirected forward jumping under six different combinations of VE(low and high visual richness)and SRs(invisible,shoes,and human-like).Results Our results indicated that the detection threshold ranges for horizontal translation gains were significantly smaller in the VE with high rather than low visual richness.When different SRs were applied,our results did not suggest significant differences in detection thresholds,but it did report longer actual jumping distances in the invisible body case compared with the other two SRs.In the high visual richness VE,the preparation time for jumping with a human-like avatar was significantly longer than that with other SRs.Finally,some correlations were found between perception and physical performance measures.Conclusions All these findings suggest that both VE and SRs influence users'perception and performance in RDJ and must be considered when designing locomotion techniques.

A Comprehensive Review of Redirected Walking Techniques:Taxonomy,Methods,and Future Directions

Virtual reality(VR)allows users to explore and experience a computer-simulated virtual environment so that VR users can be immersed in a totally artificial virtual world and interact with arbitrary virtual objects.However,the limited physical tracking space usually restricts the exploration of large virtual spaces,and VR users have to use special locomotion techniques to move from one location to another.Among these techniques,redirected walking(RDW)is one of the most natural locomotion techniques to solve the problem based on near-natural walking experiences.The core idea of the RDW technique is to imperceptibly guide users on virtual paths,which might vary from the paths they physically walk in the real world.In a similar way,some RDW algorithms imperceptibly change the structure and layout of the virtual environment such that the virtual environment fits into the tracking space.In this survey,we first present a taxonomy of existing RDW work.Based on this taxonomy,we compare and analyze both contributions and shortcomings of the existing methods in detail,and find view manipulation methods offer satisfactory visual effect but the experience can be interrupted when users reach the physical boundaries,while virtual environment manipulation methods can provide users with consistent movement but have limited application scenarios.Finally,we discuss possible future research directions,indicating combining artificial intelligence with this area will be effective and intriguing.