Minication affects action-based distance judgments in oculus rift HMDs

ABSTRACT

Distance perception is a crucial component for many virtual reality applications, and numerous studies have shown that egocentric distances are judged to be compressed in head-mounted display (HMD) systems. Geometric minification, a technique where the graphics are rendered with a field of view that larger than the HMD's field of view, is one known method of eliminating the distance compression [Kuhl et al. 2009; Zhang et al. 2012]. This study uses direct blind walking to determine how minification might impact distance judgments in the Oculus Rift HMD which has a significantly larger FOV than previous minification studies. Our results show that people were able to make accurate distance judgments in a calibrated condition and that geometric minification causes people to overestimate distances. Since this study shows that minification can impact wide FOV displays such as the Oculus, we discuss how it may be necessary to use calibration techniques which are more thorough than those described in this paper.

References

1. Andre, J., and Rogers, S. 2006. Using verbal and blind-walking distance estimates to investigate the two visual systems hypothesis. Perception & Psychophysics 68, 3, 353--361.
2. Interrante, V., Ries, B., Lindquist, J., Kaeding, M., and Anderson, L. 2008. Elucidating factors that can facilitate veridical spatial perception in immersive virtual environments. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 17, 2, 176--198.
3. Jones, J. A., Suma, E. A., Krum, D. M., and Bolas, M. 2012. Comparability of narrow and wide field-of-view head-mounted displays for medium-field distance judgments. In Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Applied Perception, ACM, New York, NY, USA, SAP '12, 119--119.
4. Jones, J., Swan, J., and Bolas, M. 2013. Peripheral stimulation and its effect on perceived spatial scale in virtual environments. Visualization and Computer Graphics, IEEE Transactions on 19, 4 (April), 701--710.
5. Knapp, J. M., and Loomis, J. M. 2004. Limited field of view of head-mounted displays is not the cause of distance underestimation in virtual environments. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 13, 5 (Oct.), 572--577.
6. Kuhl, S. A., Thompson, W. B., and Creem-Regehr, S. H. 2009. HMD calibration and its effects on distance judgments. ACM Transactions on Applied Perception 6, 3.
7. Kunz, B. R., Wouters, L., Smith, D., Thompson, W. B., and Creem-Regehr, S. H. 2009. Revisiting the effect of quality of graphics on distance judgments in virtual environments: A comparison of verbal reports and blind walking. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 71, 6, 1284--1293.
8. Loomis, J. M., and Knapp, J. 2003. Visual perception of egocentric distance in real and virtual environments. In Virtual and Adaptive Environments, L. J. Hettinger and M. W. Haas, Eds. Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, ch. 2, 21--46.
9. Loomis, J. M., Silva, J. A. D., Fujita, N., and Fukusima, S. S. 1992. Visual space perception and visually directed action. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 18, 4, 906--921.
10. Messing, R., and Durgin, F. 2005. Distance perception and the visual horizon in head-mounted displays. ACM Transactions on Applied Perception 2, 3, 234--250.
11. Rieser, J. J., Ashmead, D. H., Tayor, C. R., and Youngquist, G. A. 1990. Visual perception and the guidance of locomotion without vision to previously seen targets. Perception 19, 675--689.
12. Sahm, C. S., Creem-Regehr, S. H., Thompson, W. B., and Willemsen, P. 2004. Throwing versus walking as indicators of distance perception in real and virtual environments. In Proc. Symposium on Applied Perception in Graphics and Visualization, 179.
13. Thompson, W. B., Willemsen, P., Gooch, A. A., Creem-Regehr, S. H., Loomis, J. M., and Beall, A. C. 2004. Does the quality of the computer graphics matter when judging distances in visually immersive environments? Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 13, 5, 560--571.
14. Willemsen, P., Gooch, A. A., Thompson, W. B., and Creem-Regehr, S. H. 2008. Effects of stereo viewing conditions on distance perception in virtual environments. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 17, 1, 91--101.
15. Willemsen, P., Colton, M. B., Creem-Regehr, S. H., and Thompson, W. B. 2009. The effects of head-mounted display mechanical properties and field-of-view on distance judgments in virtual environments. ACM Transactions on Applied Perception 6, 2, 8:1--8:14.
16. Witmer, B. G., and Kline, P. B. 1998. Judging perceived and traversed distance in virtual environments. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 7, 2 (Apr.), 144--167.
17. Witmer, B. G., and Sadowski Jr., W. J. 1998. Nonvisually guided locomotion to a previously viewed target in real and virtual environments. Human Factors 40, 3 (Sept.), 478--488.
18. Zhang, R., Nordman, A., Walker, J., and Kuhl, S. A. 2012. Minification affects verbal and action-based distance judgments differently in head-mounted displays. ACM Transactions on Applied Perception 9, 3. Presented at the 2012 ACM Symposium on Applied Perception.

Index Terms

• Computing methodologies

  • Artificial intelligence

    • Computer vision

      • Computer vision problems

      • Computer vision tasks

        • Scene understanding