Exploiting change blindness to expand walkable space in a virtual environment

We present a technique for exploiting change blindness to allow the user to walk through an immersive virtual environment that is much larger than the available physical workspace. This approach relies on subtle manipulations to the geometry of a dynamic environment model to redirect the user’s walking path without becoming noticeable. We describe a virtual environment which was implemented both as a proof-of-concept and a test case for future evaluation. Anecdotal evidence from our informal tests suggest a compelling illusion, though a formal study against existing methods is required to evaluate the usefulness of this technique.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: VR
• Authors: Evan A. Suma, Seth Clark, Samantha L. Finkelstein, Zachary Wartell
• Keywords: Available Physical Workspace, Immersive Virtual Environment, Virtual Environment, Virtual Reality, VR 2010