The impact of gender, avatar and height in distance perception in virtual environments

Abstract

Virtual Reality is becoming more popular over the years because it allows the user to be the main actor in another environment and interact with it in real time. New interaction methods are being studied, like tangible interfaces, but there is little work done related to small distances when grabbing objects through a virtual environment. This study is important because, in our perspective, interaction in virtual reality will be at arms reach, meaning that the user will interact within very close distances (under 1 m). In this paper, the research team further evaluate distance perception using gender, the presence of avatar and height (fixed or personalised). The sample consisted of 64 participants (32 females and 32 males) evenly distributed between all four conditions (8 males and 8 females for each condition). Results revealed that gender does have an impact on small distance estimation; height does not have an impact on distance estimation; and avatar does make a difference when trying to grab a real object through the virtual environment.