Detached Walk-in-Place

Abstract: Locomotion, the ability to walk freely in virtual environments, is a problem with no standardized solution. Walk-in-Place is one strand of solutions in which the user’s physical movement creates forward movement in the virtual environment. This technique is particularly useful for navigation in smartphone-based virtual reality without location detection. However, current mobile implementations use gaze-directed steering which limits the user’s ability to simultaneously scan the environment, which can reduce maneuverability. Additionally, step detection is triggered by head movement which shakes the head-mounted display and can therefore create discomfort and motion sickness. Detached Walk-in-place (dWIP) uses an external gyroscope attached to the body, or held in the hand, to track the user’s body rotation. This detaches the walking direction from gaze direction and removes step detection from the head-mounted-display. In this paper, I present a study of two different dWIP solutions (Torso- and Hand-directed). Both solutions are tested and compared with an existing mobile walk-in-place solution. Performance, user preference and simulator sickness were measured as the participants had to navigate a curved track using each method. The result shows that both dWIP methods required less steps compared with the current WIP, but the torso-directed dWIP is slower compared to the other two. There was no significant difference in user preference or simulator sickness. Overall, dWIP was well received and shows great potential as a mobile VR locomotion method.