Task and Environment-Aware Virtual Scene Rearrangement for Enhanced Safety in Virtual Reality.

Abstract

Emerging VR applications have revolutionized user experiences by immersing individuals in digitally crafted environments. However, fully immersive experiences introduce new challenges, notably the risk of physical hazards when users are unaware of their surroundings. Existing solutions, including guardian spaces and locomotion systems, present trade-offs that either disrupt the immersive experience or risk inducing motion sickness. To address these challenges, we propose a novel approach that dynamically rearranges VR scenes according to users' physical spaces, seamlessly embedding physical constraints and interaction tasks into the virtual environment. We design a computational model to optimize the rearranged scene through a cost function, ensuring collision-free interactions while maintaining visual fidelity and the goal of interaction tasks. The experiments demonstrate improvements in user experience and safety, presenting an innovative solution to harmonize physical and virtual environments in VR applications.