Redirection Masking Strategies: Understanding Attentional Diversion Methods for Redirection Techniques

Imagine you can explore virtual space just by regular walking, even if you are in the very confined tracking space of your living or bedroom. Redirection techniques aim to overcome physical space limitations and enhance capabilities for natural motion when exploring large-scale virtual environments, improving the sense of presence. Techniques include the covert manipulation of user position or rotation to altering the geometry of a virtual environment. Several methods are used to mask redirection techniques, such as the obstruction of view of a user, to using visual or auditory elements to divert the attention of users away from the redirection technique. One recurring masking strategy is the utilisation of a distractor, which attracts user attention by a visual or auditory object, or interactors, an object which engages the user in a series of focused interactions. We provide a simple framework to categorise various masking strategies, to create a general understanding of the usage and implementation of these masking techniques. To validate and demonstrate the usefulness of this framework, we map it against a collection of papers that use masking strategies in different contexts. We identify the types of masking strategies and provide a generalised implementation outline. This provides further insight and understanding of the inner workings of these attentional diversion methods.