Strategy for the development of a walk-in-place interface for virtual reality

Abstract

Many features of a Virtual Reality system can influence the immersion and the sense of presence. Navigation is one of those features, since proprioceptive and vestibular cues can have a positive impact on immersion and sense of presence. This is especially important for studies about human behavior, where behavioral responses should be as close as in the real world. Different types of interfaces are been developed to be more natural and closer to moving in a real environment. A Walk-In-Place (WIP) interface can be used in small rooms and gives some proprioceptive and vestibular cues. A participant walks in the same place and a device captures that movement and translates it to movement inside the Virtual Environment. This paper presents a strategy for implementing a WIP interface using only one inertial orientation sensor, placed above the knee, mainly about the calibration and real-time detection phases and the approach taken on direction changing. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.