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First Steps Towards Walk-In-Place Locomotion and Haptic Feedback in Virtual Reality for Visually Impaired

Published: 02 May 2019 Publication History

Abstract

This paper presents the first results on a user study in which people with visual impairments (PVI) explored a virtual environment (VE) by walking in a virtual reality (VR) treadmill. As recently suggested, we have now acquired first results from our feasibility study investigating this walk-in-place interaction. This represents a new, more intuitive way of for example virtually exploring unknown spaces in advance. Our prototype consists of off-the-shelf VR components (i.e., treadmill, headphones, glasses, and controller) providing a simplified white cane simulation and was tested by six visually impaired subjects. Our results indicate that this interaction is yet difficult, but promising and an important step to make VR more and better usable for PVIs. As an impact on the CHI community, we would like to make this research field known to a wider audience by sharing our intermediate results and suggestions for improvements, on some of which we are already working on.

References

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Chetz Colwell, Helen Petrie, Diana Kornbrot, Andrew Hardwick, and Stephen Furner. 1998. Haptic Virtual Reality for Blind Computer Users. In Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98). ACM, 92--99.
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Yuhang Zhao, Cynthia L. Bennett, Hrvoje Benko, Edward Cutrell, Christian Holz, Meredith Ringel Morris, and Mike Sinclair. 2018. Enabling People with Visual Impairments to Navigate Virtual Reality with a Haptic and Auditory Cane Simulation. In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '18). ACM, 116:1--116:14.

Cited By

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  • (2024)Enhancing Virtual Mobility for Individuals Who Are Blind or Have Low Vision: A Stationary Exploration MethodCompanion Proceedings of the 2024 Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces10.1145/3696762.3698058(83-87)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
  • (2024)Towards Accessible Musical Performances in Virtual Reality: Designing a Conceptual Framework for Omnidirectional Audio DescriptionsProceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3663548.3675618(1-17)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
  • (2024)SonicVista: Towards Creating Awareness of Distant Scenes through SonificationProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/36596098:2(1-32)Online publication date: 15-May-2024
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  1. First Steps Towards Walk-In-Place Locomotion and Haptic Feedback in Virtual Reality for Visually Impaired

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        cover image ACM Conferences
        CHI EA '19: Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
        May 2019
        3673 pages
        ISBN:9781450359719
        DOI:10.1145/3290607
        Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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        New York, NY, United States

        Publication History

        Published: 02 May 2019

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        Author Tags

        1. haptic feedback
        2. locomotion
        3. orientation and mobility
        4. virtual reality
        5. visual impairment

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        Cited By

        View all
        • (2024)Enhancing Virtual Mobility for Individuals Who Are Blind or Have Low Vision: A Stationary Exploration MethodCompanion Proceedings of the 2024 Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces10.1145/3696762.3698058(83-87)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
        • (2024)Towards Accessible Musical Performances in Virtual Reality: Designing a Conceptual Framework for Omnidirectional Audio DescriptionsProceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3663548.3675618(1-17)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
        • (2024)SonicVista: Towards Creating Awareness of Distant Scenes through SonificationProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/36596098:2(1-32)Online publication date: 15-May-2024
        • (2024)A Novel Approach for Virtual Locomotion Gesture Classification: Self-Teaching Vision Transformer for a Carpet-Type Tactile Sensor2024 IEEE Conference Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR)10.1109/VR58804.2024.00067(461-471)Online publication date: 16-Mar-2024
        • (2024)From Teleportation to Climbing: A Review of Locomotion Techniques in the Most Used Commercial Virtual Reality ApplicationsInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2024.237215141:4(1946-1966)Online publication date: 8-Jul-2024
        • (2024)The Effects of Walk-in-Place and Overground Walking on the Acquisition of Spatial Information by People With Visual Impairment in Virtual Reality WayfindingInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2024.232517741:4(2541-2559)Online publication date: 13-Mar-2024
        • (2024)Comparing spatial navigation in a virtual environment vs. an identical real environment across the adult lifespanComputers in Human Behavior10.1016/j.chb.2024.108210157:COnline publication date: 17-Jul-2024
        • (2024)Evaluation of virtual locomotion techniques in virtual urban spacesMultimedia Tools and Applications10.1007/s11042-024-20487-2Online publication date: 12-Dec-2024
        • (2023)In-Place Virtual Exploration Using a Virtual Cane: An Initial StudyCompanion Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces10.1145/3626485.3626539(45-49)Online publication date: 5-Nov-2023
        • (2023)Opportunities for Accessible Virtual Reality Design for Immersive Musical Performances for Blind and Low-Vision PeopleProceedings of the 2023 ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction10.1145/3607822.3614540(1-21)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2023
        • Show More Cited By

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