Walking in place using the Microsoft Kinect to explore a large VE

One way to permit free exploration of any sized virtual environment (VE) and provide some of the inertial cues of walking is to have users "walk in place" (WIP) [Williams et al. 2011]. With WIP, each step is treated as a virtual translation even though the participant remains in the same location. In our prior work [Williams et al. 2011], we had success in implementing a WIP method using an inexpensive Nintendo Wii Balance Board. We showed that participants' spatial orientation was the same as normal walking and superior to joystick navigation. There were two major drawbacks to this WIP algorithm. First, our step detection algorithm had a half--step lag. Second, participants found it slightly annoying to walk in place on the small board. Thus, the current work seeks to overcome these limitations by implementing an algorithm to WIP using two Microsoft Kinect sensors (150 USD each). Specifically, we are interested in seeing how well users can explore a large VE by WIP with the Kinect (WIP--K). Due to the large size of the VE, comparing these results to normal physical walking is not possible. Therefore, we directly compare WIP--K to joystick navigation. Also, we examine scaling the translational gain of WIP--K so that one "step" carries the user forward two steps (referred to as WIP--K x 2). Thus, this within--subject experiment compares subjects' spatial orientation as they navigate a VE in three conditions: Joystick, WIP--K, WIP--K x 2.