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Telewalk: Towards Free and Endless Walking in Room-Scale Virtual Reality

Published: 23 April 2020 Publication History

Abstract

Natural navigation in VR is challenging due to spatial limitations. While Teleportation enables navigation within very small physical spaces and without causing motion sickness symptoms, it may reduce the feeling of presence and spacial awareness. Redirected walking (RDW), in contrast, allows users to naturally walk while staying inside a finite, but still very large, physical space. We present Telewalk, a novel locomotion approach that combines curvature and translation gains known from RDW research in a perceivable way. This combination enables Telewalk to be applied even within a physical space of 3m x 3m. Utilizing the head rotation as input device enables directional changes without any physical turns to keep the user always on an optimal circular path inside the real world while freely walking inside the virtual one. In a user study we found that even though motion sickness susceptible participants reported respective symptoms, Telewalk did result in stronger feelings of presence and immersion and was seen as more natural then Teleportation.

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References

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    April 2020
    10688 pages
    ISBN:9781450367080
    DOI:10.1145/3313831
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    Published: 23 April 2020

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    1. Telewalk
    2. redirected walking
    3. virtual reality

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    • (2024)Heavy is the Hand: Effects of Hand-Tracking Input and Gestures on Locomotion Performance and User Experience in Virtual RealityProceedings of the International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia10.1145/3701571.3701596(61-71)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2024
    • (2024)Effects of Different Tracker-driven Direction Sources on Continuous Artificial Locomotion in VRProceedings of the 30th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology10.1145/3641825.3687735(1-10)Online publication date: 9-Oct-2024
    • (2024)Adaptive Virtual Environments in Small Physical Spaces: Navigation Design for Customized User Experiences in Virtual RealityExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3650942(1-7)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
    • (2024)Sicknificant Steps: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of VR Sickness in Walking-based Locomotion for Virtual RealityProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3641974(1-36)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
    • (2024)The Effect of Spatial Audio on Curvature Gains in VR Redirected WalkingProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3641919(1-10)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
    • (2024)PreVR: Variable-Distance Previews for Higher-Order Disocclusion in VRIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2024.337206830:5(2454-2463)Online publication date: 1-May-2024
    • (2024)Redirected Walking on Omnidirectional TreadmillIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2023.324435930:7(3884-3901)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
    • (2024)Effects of cybersickness mitigation methods on behavior: a comparative study based on the skill–rule–knowledge modelVirtual Reality10.1007/s10055-024-01071-328:4Online publication date: 15-Nov-2024
    • (2023)Logogram VR: Treadmill-Coupled VR with Word Reflective Content for Embodied Logogram LearningApplied Sciences10.3390/app1303162713:3(1627)Online publication date: 27-Jan-2023
    • (2023)Comparing Locomotion Techniques in Virtual Reality for People with Upper-Body Motor ImpairmentsProceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3597638.3608394(1-15)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2023
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