Distance perception in virtual reality: A meta-analysis of the effect of head-mounted display characteristics

Abstract

Distances are commonly underperceived in virtual reality (VR), and this finding has been documented repeatedly over more than two decades of research. Yet, there is evidence that perceived distance is more accurate in modern compared to older head-mounted displays (HMDs). This meta-analysis of 123 studies describes egocentric distance perception across numerous HMDs, and also examines the relationship between perceived distance and technical HMD characteristics. Judged distance was positively associated with HMD field of view (FOV) and negatively associated with HMD weight, although the relationship with weight was more pronounced among high FOV versus low FOV HMDs. Judged distance was also positively associated with pixel size, although this depended on HMD weight, with heavier HMDs showing a negative association and lighter HMDs showing a positive association. These findings suggest that future improvements in HMD FOV and weight may be central to resolving the problem of distance underperception in VR.

Virtual Reality as a Tool to Understand Spatial Navigation

“…Recent research by Stanney et al, 2020 indicates that limited IPD ranges on HMDs may exclude up to 30% of the female population and that IPD non-fit is a significant factor in cybersickness. Additionally, both weight and FOV of HMDs are implicated in the well-known problem of distance mis-perception in VR (Creem-Regehr et al, 2023;Kelly, 2022b). Finally, proprioceptive and vestibular cues are sometimes available when moving in a virtual environment displayed through an HMD.…”

“…The work discussed above demonstrates a number of experimental manipulations and theoretical contributions for understanding spatial navigation in VR, mostly assuming that the results found using virtual environments generalize to real world behavior. In fact, although there have been numerous studies comparing space perception in real and virtual environments (Creem-Regehr et al, 2023;Kelly, 2022b;Renner et al, 2013), direct comparisons with spatial navigation tasks are relatively scarce. This lack of comparisons is likely because of methodological constraints that led to the choice of VR as a method to begin with, such as the need for traversal over large, controlled environments or manipulations of specific room shapes or features.…”