Walking speed in VR maze while central visual fields are restricted with synchronously moving black circles: Functions of central visual field in walking through VR space

Abstract

We examined the function of the central visual field by using the newly developed VR system that was consisted with a wide-view HMD and an eye-tracker for restricting an arbitrary area of human visual field. Subjects were asked to walk through short virtual mazes under different visual condition in which 10 or 20 degree of their central visual field was restricted artificially with the system. Results indicated 1) Times for walking through the entire maze under the visual condition with 10 degrees of the central visual field restricted in synchronization were longer than times under the condition in which 10 degrees of the fixed central area of screen were restricted. 2) For walking through the area with two dead ends, walking times under the condition in which 20 degrees of the central visual field were restricted were longer than under the condition in which 10 degrees of the central visual field were restricted. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.