Viewpoint adaptation during navigation based on stimuli from the virtual environment

We consider the possibility of automatically modifying the user’s viewpoint orientation for the purpose of enhancing the navigation experience. We concentrate on outdoor virtual environments where the terrain is uneven as well as certain cases of indoor flat environment floors, respectively on environments where focus-drawing objects and different types of obstacles exist. Most natural environments present these properties and virtual environments that are based on natural environments are in abundance. The navigational adjustments are introduced as response to environment stimuli such as slope changes, the emergence of visibility rays to focus objects or as navigational difficulty events occur after encounters with nonoversteppable obstacles. A scheme is presented that facilitates the viewpoint orientation feature. Conceptually, the viewpoint orientation is a method of partially and temporarily decoupling the head movements from the navigation direction. Virtual environments in ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: VRML
• Authors: Szilárd Kiss, Anton Nijholt
• Keywords: Navigational, Viewpoint Orientation, Virtual Environments, VRML 2003