An approach to reducing distance compression in audiovisual virtual environments

Abstract

Perception of distances in virtual reality (VR) is compressed: objects are consistently perceived as closer than intended. Although this phenomenon has been well documented, it is still not fully understood or defined with respect to the factors influencing such compression. This is a problem in scenarios where veridical perception of distance and scale is essential. We report the results of an experiment investigating an approach to reducing distance compression in audiovisual VR based on a predictive model of distance perception. Our test environment involved photorealistic 3D images captured through stereo photography, with corresponding spatial audio rendered binaurally over headphones. In a perceptual matching task, participants positioned an auditory stimulus with respect to the corresponding visual stimulus. We found a high correlation between the distance perception predicted by our model and how participants perceived the distance. Through automated manipulation of the audio and visual displays based on the model, our approach can be used to reposition auditory and visual components of a scene to reduce distance compression. The approach is adaptable to different environments and agnostic of scene content, and can be calibrated to individual observers.

A Primer on Usability Assessment Approaches for Health-Related Applications of Virtual Reality

“…Such a task can be timed and scored, and the user can be asked to describe their satisfaction and feelings to identify physical performance issues [33]. As another example, tasks involving actions that require users to reach out around their body to interact with nearby objects can be used to highlight unaddressed issues with distance compression, a frequent phenomenon within VR environments where objects are perceived by the user to be closer than their actual position [46]. Following a given task, a user may achieve high task performance scores but still report heavy cognitive overload (ie, mental exhaustion) while using the system, for example, finding that performing the task in VR was significantly more difficult than performing the same task with real objects or tools.…”

Tactile and kinesthetic feedbacks improve distance perception in virtual reality

“…Prior research shows that a problem [13] exists where humans inaccurately perceive the depth of objects in virtual environments [8]. The reasons are summarized by Lawson et al [15], which in turn are drawn from Renner et al's research [20].…”

“…However, strides have been made through improved technology to rectify depth perception distortion. It is generally understood that distance is compressed in virtual environments [8], [13], [25], [21], meaning users tend to perceive virtual objects in relation to themselves (egocentric space) as closer than their actual distance. Similarly, Rolland et al [22] found that using simple virtual objects such as a cube or a cylinder led to expanded perceptual distortion rather than compressed.…”

“…Conversely, Rosa et al conclude that visual cues can have an effect on how users perceive vibrotactile feedback, albeit not necessarily accurately [23]. It is possible that audio cues can solve the problem of depth perception distortion through off-setting their spatial location in relation to the appropriate visual cue(s) [8]. In other words, the audio cues are mapped differently to what would be expected in the real world.…”

“…Inaccurate depth perception in virtual reality, where users incorrectly perceive the depth of virtual objects, is a welldocumented problem and ongoing concern [8]. This distortion is intrinsically linked to the fact that human uses binocular disparities to extract depth information from twodimensional retinal images in stereopsis.…”