Hand Gesture-Driven Vertical Teleportation: Navigating Complex Height Differences in VR

This paper presents two novel teleportation methods for VR environments that address limitations of conventional parabola-based approaches when navigating varying heights. The SphereBackcast and Penetration methods utilize straight-line specification for intuitive movement to elevated locations. Experiments with 22 participants showed our methods significantly outperformed parabola-based teleportation for height differences above 2m, while maintaining comparable performance on flat terrain. NASA-TLX and SUS evaluations confirmed improved usability and reduced cognitive load, indicating these methods can be readily integrated into existing VR applications.