Studying children’s navigation in virtual reality

Abstract

Navigation in large-scale virtual environments is composed of locomotion and wayfinding. We compared two locomotion techniques in an immersive CAVE-like display in order to determine which one promotes better performance in children in a wayfinding task. A ‘treasure hunt’ game scenario was devised in which participants had to navigate to various houses of a virtual village that was previously seen only on a map. The 2D coordinates of paths taken by participants were recorded together with their success rates in finding the targets, and the time taken to reach their destination. Children showed that although the pointing method allowed them better control in locomotion, neither method was preferred in terms of success rates and timing.