Portals With a Twist: Cable Twist-Free Natural Walking in Room-Scaled Virtual Reality
PubDate: November 2020
Teams: Interactive Reality Experiences University of Applied Sciences and Arts
Writers: Sebastian Misztal;Guillermo Carbonell;Nils Ganther;Jonas Schild profile imageJonas Schild
PDF: Portals With a Twist: Cable Twist-Free Natural Walking in Room-Scaled Virtual Reality
Abstract
To provide naturally walking in small virtual reality (VR) tracking spaces while preventing cables of head-mounted displays (HMDs) getting twisted, we developed Portals With A Twist (PorTwist), a redirected walking method using a portal metaphor. We compared PorTwist with a teleportation method in a 2m × 2.7m tracking space in a within-design user study (N = 34). PorTwist resulted in significantly longer natural walking distances and could prevent HMD cables from getting twisted while providing comparable levels of perceived presence and simulator sickness as teleportation. We further identified potential to improve usability in the future.