Design and Evaluation of Navigation Techniques for Multiscale Virtual Environments

Virtual Reality allow users to explore virtual environments naturally, by moving their head and body. However, the size of the environments they can explore is limited by real world constraints, such as the tracking technology or the physical space available. Existing techniques removing these limitations often break the metaphor of natural navigation in VR (e.g. steering techniques), involve control commands (e.g., teleporting) or hinder precise navigation (e.g., scaling user's displacements). This paper proposes NaviFields, which quantify the requirements for precise navigation of each point of the environment, allowing natural navigation within relevant areas, while scaling users' displacements when travelling across non-relevant spaces. This expands the size of the navigable space, retains the natural navigation metaphor and still allows for areas with precise control of the virtual head. We present a formal description of our NaviFields technique, which we compared against two alternative solutions (i.e., homogeneous scaling and natural navigation). Our results demonstrate our ability to cover larger spaces, introduce minimal disruption when travelling across bigger distances and improve very significantly the precise control of the viewpoint inside relevant areas.

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“…Multi-scale techniques scale the size of the user (rather than its speed), to interact with the VE at microscopic or macroscopic levels [15].…”

Section: Dynamic Control Of the Viewpointmentioning

confidence: 99%

NaviFields

Murillo

Gatti

Segovia

et al. 2017

Proceedings of the 30th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology

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“…Kopper et al [8] presented a system that allows the user to navigate through the different scales of an environment. The hierarchy of the scene models is used to define the levels of scale.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving 3D navigation in multiscale environments using cubemap-based techniques

Trindade

Raposo

2011

Proceedings of the 2011 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing

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Navigation in virtual 3D environments, especially those with multiscale features, is still a problem for many users. In this regard, a good design of the navigation interfaces is critical to ensure that the users navigate with the best possible efficiency and comfort. In this paper, we present improvements made to two well-known interfaces: fly, including support to collision treatment and automatic navigation speed adjustment in relation to scale, and examine, with automatic pivot point. Such techniques are based on the cubemap structure. Usability tests have shown a significant improvement in the execution of navigation tasks.

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“…Kopper et al [15] present navigation techniques for a multi-scale VE of a human body. The display system is a monoscopic HMD with a tracked input device.…”

Section: View Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction Volume Management in a Multi-scale Virtual Environment

Wartell¹,

Houtgast

Pfeiffer

et al. 2009

Advances in Information and Intelligent Systems

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This book chapter explores issues of interaction and stereoscopic display in multiscale virtual environments. When interaction, especially direct manipulation, is combined with stereoscopic display, there are trade-offs that must be considered when optimizing both. The chapter addresses the design issues for different types of large displays and then concentrates on the virtual workbench for an implementation that balances interaction and stereoscopic display needs. The general importance of recognizing and using specifically defined geometric areas of user interest is demonstrated. A multi-scale application is then developed, and the implementation is evaluated. When good and stable stereoscopic display is present, users gain much in their ability to perceive shape, depth, and spatial relations. This makes interaction techniques more powerful and suggests new techniques.

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Design and Evaluation of Navigation Techniques for Multiscale Virtual Environments

Cited by 69 publications

References 12 publications

NaviFields

NaviFields

Improving 3D navigation in multiscale environments using cubemap-based techniques

Interaction Volume Management in a Multi-scale Virtual Environment

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