title: Velocity-dependent dynamic curvature gain for redirected walking.
abstract: Redirected walking techniques allow people to walk in a larger virtual space than the physical extents of the laboratory. We describe two experiments conducted to investigate human sensitivity to walking on a curved path and to validate a new redirected walking technique. In a psychophysical experiment, we found that sensitivity to walking on a curved path was significantly lower for slower walking speeds (radius of 10 m versus 22 m). In an applied study, we investigated the influence of a velocity-dependent dynamic gain controller and an avatar controller on the average distance that participants were able to freely walk before needing to be reoriented. The mean walked distance was significantly greater in the dynamic gain controller condition, as compared to the static controller (22 m versus 15 m). Our results demonstrate that perceptually motivated dynamic redirected walking techniques, in combination with reorientation techniques, allow for unaided exploration of a large virtual city model.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen. Christian.Neth@tuebingen.mpg.de
authors.forename: Christian T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Neth
authors.forename: Jan L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Souman
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Engel
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kloos
authors.forename: Heinrich H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Bülthoff
authors.forename: Betty J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Mohler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003196:Computer Graphics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*