Stepwise Teleportation as an Alternative to Continuous Motion in Virtual Reality

Abstract: In the locomotion design space, artificial locomotion is most commonly used when navigating virtual spaces larger than the physical space provided. Some significant challenges to the use of artificial locomotion are however cybersickness and disorientation. Cybersickness is a phenomenon that creates discomfort for the user and is believed to be inflicted by continuous movement and its creation of vection. Contrarily, discrete locomotion interfaces like teleportation do not cause vection or cybersickness for the user. However, because of this, teleportation is unable to offer spatial updating, which is crucial for preventing disorientation. This thesis investigates an alternative to these interfaces that aims to combine their benefits while avoiding their drawbacks in an interface referred to as Stepwise teleportation that consist of short discrete translations, referred to as steps, in the direction chosen by the user.