In the ever-evolving landscape of
virtual reality (VR) technology, a number of key hurdles remain. But a team of
computer scientists have tackled one of the major challenges in VR that will
greatly improve user experience enabling an immersive virtual experience while
being physically limited to one's actual, real-world space. Computer scientists
from Stony Brook University, NVIDIA and Adobe have collaborated on a
computational framework that gives VR users the perception of infinite walking
in the virtual world - while limited to a small physical space. The framework
also enables this free-walking experience for users without causing dizziness,
shakiness, or discomfort typically tied to physical movement in VR. And, users
avoid bumping into objects in the physical space while in the VR world. To do
this, researchers focused on manipulating a user's walking direction by working
with a basic natural phenomenon of the human eye, called saccade. Saccades are
quick eye movements that occur when we look at a different point in our field
of vision, like when scanning a room or viewing a painting. Saccades occur
without our control and generally several times per second. During that time,
our brains largely ignore visual input in a phenomenon known as saccadic
suppression, leaving us completely oblivious to our temporary blindness, and
the motion that our eyes performed.
Using a head- and eye-tracking VR
headset, the researchers' new method detects saccadic suppression and redirects
users during the resulting temporary blindness. When more redirection is
required, researchers attempt to encourage saccades using a tailored version of
subtle gaze direction - a method that can dynamically encourage saccades by
creating points of contrast in our visual periphery. To date, existing methods
addressing infinite walking in VR have limited redirection capabilities or
cause undesirable scene distortions; they have also been unable to avoid
obstacles in the physical world, like desks and chairs. The team's new method
dynamically redirects the user away from these objects. The method runs fast,
so it is able to avoid moving objects as well, such as other people in the same
room. The researchers ran user studies and simulations to validate their new
computational system, including having participants perform game-like search
and retrieval tasks. Overall, virtual camera rotation was unnoticeable to users
during episodes of saccadic suppression; they could not tell that they were
being automatically redirected via camera manipulation. Additionally, in
testing the team's method for dynamic path planning in real-time, users were
able to walk without running into walls and furniture, or moving objects like
fellow VR users.
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