Traditional target-selection-based teleportation depends on the intersection of a (curved) ray with the scene's geometry, which limits navigation to points on the ground, restricting users' navigational freedom. While previous techniques exist that permit mid-air target selection, they are not optimal for transitioning between air and ground navigation, leading to inaccurate or lengthy interaction sequences. In this paper, we introduce SATOR, a new 3D teleportation technique designed to enable efficient and accurate navigation to both ground and mid-air targets by combining and enhancing previous approaches. Informed by the literature, we implemented four different parametrizations of our technique and compared them to a previously published technique that also enables both ground and mid-air target selection. Our user study with 30 participants indicates that SATOR is more efficient, accurate, and easier to use than the baseline. As a result, SATOR effectively helps users get an overview of the environment, observe features at different heights, or maneuver quickly around larger obstacles.

Target-selection-based teleportation is one of the most widely used and researched travel techniques in immersive virtual environments, requiring the user to specify a target location with a selection ray before being transported there. This work explores the influence of the maximum reach of the parabolic selection ray, modeled by different emission velocities of the projectile motion equation, and compares the resulting teleportation performance to a straight ray as the baseline. In a user study with 60 participants, we asked participants to teleport as far as possible while still remaining within accuracy constraints to understand how the theoretical implications of the projectile motion equation apply to a realistic VR use case. We found that a projectile emission velocity of $14 \frac{m}{s}$14ms (resulting in a maximal reach of $\text{21.52 m}$21.52m) offered the best trade-off between selection distance and accuracy, with an inferior performance of the straight ray. Our results demonstrate the necessity to carefully set and report the projectile emission velocity in future work, as it was shown to directly influence user-selected distance, selection errors, and controller height during selection.

In this work, we explore the integration of Orientation Selection into Steering interfaces, aiming to preserve the seamless sensation of real-world movement while mitigating the risk of inducing cybersickness. Our implementation encounters conflicts in standard input mappings, prompting us to adopt bimanual interaction as a solution. Recognizing the complexity of interaction that may arise from this step, we also develop unimanual alternatives, e.g., utilizing a Human-Joystick, commonly referred to as a Leaning interface. The outcomes of an empirical study centered around a primed search task yield unexpected findings. We observed a sample of users spanning multiple levels of gaming experience and a balanced gender distribution exhibit no significant difficulties with the bimanual, asymmetric interfaces. Remarkably, the performance of Orientation Selection is, as in prior work, at least on par with Snap Rotation. Moreover, through a subsequent exploratory analysis, we uncover indications that Pointing-Directed Steering outperforms embodied interfaces in usability and task load in the given setting.

Traveling distances in the real world inherently involves the passage of time, as reaching a desired location is a continuous process. This temporal component, for instance, influences how distances are perceived and estimated. However, in virtual environments, this relationship is often altered or entirely absent. This can make locomotion faster, as is the case with point-and-click teleportation, but depending on the application, it may diminish the user experience or negatively affect distance perception. Instantaneous movement is often chosen due to its lack of negative effects on cybersickness rather than its efficiency. In this research, we explore methods to incorporate temporal elements into different stages of point-and-click teleportation. We investigate how these adjustments influence participants' perception of distance. Our findings show a reduction in distance underestimation when using a time-delayed teleportation method, confirming that temporal factors can impact distance perception in virtual environments.

Augmented Virtuality integrates physical content into virtual environments, but the occlusion of physical by virtual content is a challenge. This unwanted occlusion may disrupt user interactions with physical devices and compromise safety and usability. This paper investigates two resolution strategies to address this issue: Redirected Walking, which subtly adjusts the user’s movement to maintain physical-virtual alignment, and Automatic Teleport Rotation, which realigns the virtual environment during travel. A user study set in a virtual forest demonstrates that both methods effectively reduce occlusion. While in our testbed, Automatic Teleport Rotation achieves higher occlusion resolution, it is suspected to increase cybersickness compared to the less intrusive Redirected Walking approach.

Fade-to-black animations are a commonly used technique to visualize transitions during teleportation. However, their duration varies across different implementations and has not been extensively researched. This abstract details a study design to understand how the level of environmental detail affects the preferred duration of fade-to-black animations. We propose a within-subject study, comparing participants’ preferred duration across three virtual environments with varying levels of detail. We discuss improvements to the task design of an existing study. Other than the level of environmental detail, we motivate research into the effects of different tasks (i.e. hurried or calm) on the preferred duration.