Wendy Powell

Altering User Movement Behaviour in Virtual Environments

In immersive Virtual Reality systems, users tend to move in a Virtual Environment as they would in an analogous physical environment. In this work, we investigated how user behaviour is affected when the Virtual Environment differs from the physical space. We created two sets of four environments each, plus a virtual replica of the physical environment as a baseline. The first focused on aesthetic discrepancies, such as a water surface in place of solid ground. The second focused on mixing immaterial objects together with those paired to tangible objects. For example, barring an area with walls or obstacles. We designed a study where participants had to reach three waypoints laid out in such a way to prompt a decision on which path to follow based on the conflict between the mismatching visual stimuli and their awareness of the real layout of the room. We analysed their performances to determine whether their trajectories were altered significantly from the shortest route. Our results indicate that participants altered their trajectories in presence of surfaces representing higher walking difficulty (for example, water instead of grass). However, when the graphical appearance was found to be ambiguous, there was no significant trajectory alteration. The environments mixing immaterial with physical objects had the most impact on trajectories with a mean deviation from the shortest route of 60 cm against the 37 cm of environments with aesthetic alterations. The co-existance of paired and unpaired virtual objects was reported to support the idea that all objects participants saw were backed by physical props. From these results and our observations, we derive guidelines on how to alter user movement behaviour in Virtual Environments.

Virtual carers for the elderly: A case study review of ethical responsibilities

Intelligent digital healthcare systems are becoming an increasingly considered approach to facilitating continued support of our ageing population. Within the remit of such digital systems, ‘Virtual Carer’ is one of the more consistent terms that refers to an artificial system capable of providing various assistive living and communicative functionalities, embodied within a graphical avatar displayed on a screen. As part of the RITA (Responsive Interactive Advocate) project – a proof of concept for one such virtual carer system – a series of semi-structured discussions with various stakeholders was conducted. This paper presents the results of these discussions to highlight data security, replacement of human/physical care and always acting in the user’s best interest. These three ethical concerns and designer responsibilities are identified as highly relevant to both individuals and groups that may, in the future, utilise a system like RITA either as a care receiver or provider. This paper also presents some initial, theoretical safeguard processes relevant to these key concerns.

Getting around in google cardboard – exploring navigation preferences with low-cost mobile VR

In recent years there has been a paradigm shift in the uptake and use of Virtual Reality (VR). Advances in graphics rendering, and the introduction of low-cost VR headsets has brought VR into the reach of ordinary consumers. Google Cardboard VR viewers cost just a few dollars and work with most smart phones, enabling mobile VR to truly enter the domain of the everyday. However, these headsets are currently generally used for passive entertainment or viewing 360 degree media, and are not ideally suited to active exploration of a virtual space. In this paper we present our preliminary evaluation of three approaches to travel and navigation.

Inside looking out or outside looking in?: an evaluation of visualisation modalities to support the creation of a substitutional virtual environment

Current Virtual Reality systems only allow users to draw a rectangular perimeter to mark the room-scale area they intend to use. Domestic environments can include furniture and other obstacles that hinder the ease with which users can naturally walk. By leveraging the benefits of passive haptics, users can match physical objects with virtual counterparts, to create substitutional environments. In this paper we explore two visualisation modalities to aid in the creation of a coarse virtual representation of the physical environment, by marking out the volumes of space where physical obstacles are located, to support the substitution process. Our study investigates whether this process is better supported by an inside-looking-out 3D User Interface (that is, viewing the outside world while immersed in Virtual Reality) or from an outside-looking-in one (while viewing the Virtual Environment through an external device, such as a tablet). Results show that the immersive option resulted in better accuracy and was the one with the highest overall preference ratings.

Prediction of navigation by visual aesthetics when presented with binary choices

This preliminary study explored the possibility of influencing participants navigation when presented with 5 binary choices. Each participant experienced one trial of the 5 fixed ordered conditions. A think-aloud protocol and questionnaires were used to understand perception and behaviour. We conclude with suggestions of further research of understanding visual aesthetics and their influence of human movement behaviour on patients navigation