Navigation is a core task in VR that must be well supported. Interface choices shape task performance (e.g., search), viewing experience, and the sense of presence and immersion. Mini-maps are widely recommended and often help with these goals. However, the mini-map may also increase mental and physical workload and may even cause discomfort, exacerbating the already-likely-to-exist cybersickness. In this work, we compare two virtual navigation conditions, one with the mini-map and the other without, to investigate and reexamine their various effects, especially on cybersickness, an important and overlooked aspect of the VR experience. While the experiment reconfirmed the previously known fact that the map could enhance search task/navigational performance, it also caused or worsened cybersickness symptoms, especially for those possessing relatively lesser spatial abilities. The results indicate the need to revise the interaction design guidelines in VR regarding the pros and cons of using mini-maps for navigation and search.

Virtual reality (VR) offers a compelling and immersive experience; however, cybersickness (or VR sickness) stands as a significant obstacle to its widespread adoption. When a user experiences cybersickness, one’s physical condition deteriorates with various symptoms, often accompanied by an increased and destabilized heart rate and even altered perception of one’s state. In this paper, we propose to provide “False but Stable Heart rate (FSH)” feedback through auditory and vibrotactile stimulation to reversely induce a stably perceived heart rate and, thereby, alleviate cybersickness while navigating a sickness-inducing VR content. The validation of the human experiment confirmed the intended effect in a statistically significant way. Furthermore, it was found that the lesser compatible FSH feedback had a more substantial sickness reduction effect but distracted the user with the reduced immersive experience. The compatible FSH feedback still showed moderate sickness reduction with the maintained sense of presence and immersion.

This study investigates how different virtual agent (VA) behaviors influence subjects’ perceptions and group decision-making. Participants carried out experimental group discussions with a VA exhibiting varying levels of engagement and affective behavior. Engagement refers to the VA’s focus on the group task, whereas affective behavior reflects the VA’s emotional state. The findings revealed that VA’s engagements effectively captured participants’ attention even in the group setting and enhanced group synergy, thereby facilitating more in-depth discussion and producing better consensus. On the other hand, VA’s affective behavior negatively affected the perceived social presence and trustworthiness. Consequently, in the context of group discussion, participants preferred the engaged and non-affective VA to the non-engaged and affective VA. The study provides valuable insights for improving the VA’s behavioral design as a team member for collaborative tasks.

While controllers can support many generic 3D interactions in virtual reality (VR), it alone may fall short of eliciting the core experience for certain actions. One such task is the “object throwing’’, ubiquitous in many sports contents, involving intricately timed actions of aiming, arm swinging, and object releasing. With the increasing availability of eye tracking, we propose to combine gaze-based targeting with the controller swing gesture to model the object throw. The target is aimed/locked by gaze, and the throw is enacted by the controller swing/button press with the object let-gone by the button release. We compare and evaluate the proposed interface against the conventional controller-only based interaction through two typical baseball tasks – Pitcher and Outfielder. The findings indicated that the task accuracy was similar, but the gaze-based targeting allowed for faster completion. More importantly, the gaze-based method showed significantly higher usability and richer VR experience.

The virtual reality (VR) headset is still relatively heavy, causing a significant physical and mental burden and negatively affecting the VR user experience, particularly during extended periods of use. In this paper, we present a prototype design of the “Lifter,” which utilizes a counterbalanced wire-pulley mechanism to partially relieve the weight of the VR headset (between 50% and 85%). The human subject study has confirmed that the Lifter relieved not only physical fatigue but also significantly improved mental burden, sense of immersion, presence, and flow (perception of time passing) during prolonged usage (30 minutes or more).

Locomotion is an important task in many virtual reality (VR) applications. Locomotion requires two different directional settings for: (1) translation to a target, and (2) body rotation. Conventional locomotion methods mostly make use of the hand-held controller for such directional control. The controller-based directional setting may not be natural, as in real life, humans set directions with the gaze, often together with the head/body rotation. Note that the view direction is independently and naturally controlled by the head (or gaze) direction. In this paper, we propose to use the peripheral gaze for body rotation, seamlessly together with the foveal gaze for the view control, so that the two tasks practically do not interfere with one another. In the comparative study, the peripheral gaze showed similar task performance to the controller-based rotation but with reduced VR sickness and improved usability.

Vital signals tend to become destabilized and generally increase when one’s physical condition is not well. For example, experiencing virtual reality (VR) sickness brings about a deteriorated physical condition, often accompanied by an increased heart rate. Several research have shown that providing feedback of false heart rate can induce various altered perceptions, such as increased effort and anxiety. In this poster, we propose to provide false but “stable” heart rate feedback through sound and vibration while navigating a sickness-inducing VR scene. We hypothesize that the false but stable heart rate feedback will have an induced effect of calming the user down (even stabilizing the heart rate itself) and reducing the unpleasant VR sickness symptoms. A pilot study was conducted to compare three conditions, namely viewing a sickness eliciting VR content, (1) as is, (2) with the false but stable heart rate feedback through sound, and (3) with the false but stable heart rate feedback through vibration. Results showed that the level of sickness was significantly reduced by sound and vibration feedback, respectively.

While there are several theories of virtual reality (VR) sickness causes and pertinent methods suggested for mitigation, it remains an important problem. One possible solution might be to prescribe measures for just relieving the immediate symptoms (vs. addressing the very root causes). Understanding that the severity of the sickness may affect individuals differently, we examined three methods: (1) reducing the weight of the headset (using a suspension mechanism); (2) refreshing the user with a gentle breeze of wind (using a fan); (3) accompanying the VR viewing experience with mindful breathing. We assess the relative sickness reduction effect, if any, of these three measures through a comparative pilot experiment and individual case analysis. The preliminary results point to rather the importance of system usability and how it affects the relationship between the perceived immersion and the extent of sickness. The initial proposition to enhance the user’s physical condition as a way to better withstand VR sickness symptoms could not be established.

The extent of virtual reality (VR) sickness varies widely among users, as each user has different sensitivities to diverse causes of VR sickness. This can make prescribing a single particular reduction technique difficult and ineffective. In this poster, we present preliminary work examining the more effective and preferred sickness-reduction techniques for a given user under varied sickness-inducing motions. Based on the user-specific information collected using VR content, a customized strategy is developed for a given user and applied to the same VR content. We report the experimental results for testing the effectiveness of the customized reduction technique, comparing it to a single particular reduction method.

In this paper, we applied the concept of diminished reality to remove content-irrelevant pedestrian (i.e., real object) in the context of handheld augmented reality (AR). We prepared three view conditions: in Transparent (TP) condition, we removed the pedestrian entirely; in Semi-transparent (STP) condition, the pedestrian became semi-transparent; lastly, in Default (DF) condition, the pedestrian appeared as is. We conducted a user study to compare the effects of the three conditions on users’ engagement and perception of a virtual pet in the AR content. Our findings revealed that users felt less distracted to the AR content in TP and STP conditions, compared to the DF condition. Furthermore, users felt the virtual pet as more life-like, its behavior more plausible, and felt a higher spatial presence in the real environment, in the TP condition.