User-Centered Extension of a Locomotion Typology: Movement-Related Sensory Feedback and Spatial Learning

Abstract

When human operators locomote actively in virtual environments (VE), the movement range often has to be adapted to the limited dimensions of the physical space. This however might lead to a conflict between sensory information originating from user movements and sensory feedback provided through the virtual locomotion. To investigate whether different locomotion strategies that adapt virtual movement to the limited physical space impact cognitive processes, two experiments were conducted. The first experiment used walking in place, the second study scale of locomotion to investigate the impact of locomotion adaptation on the acquisition of spatial knowledge and user experience. We systematically analyzed body-based sensorial conflicts for the different adaptation strategies and reveal that neither walking in place nor scale of locomotion impacts spatial knowledge acquisition or user experience. We can conclude that visual cues indicating locomotion combined with body-based rotational cues seem to be sufficient for the acquisition of spatial knowledge and that locomotion with controllers seems efficient and preferable for users. The results link system-driven typologies with human-centered factors to guide systematic tests of locomotion techniques in virtual environments for future studies.