Immersive Multiple Object Tracking Using Virtual Reality: Pilot Study on Athletes and Non Sport-Practicing Subjects

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) offers new ways to propose visual immersive stimuli to subjects and is particularly relevant in sports studies. Multiple Object Tracking (MOT) is highly relevant to measure visuo-motor coordination performance but it is currently mainly based on flat display, which partly restricts depth perception and natural visual exploration. In this pilot study, we proposed and tested a protocol using the MOT task in a VR environment. In this experiment, the immersive level of the task was split in three conditions: ‘far’ from the objects to track, ‘close’ and ‘inside’ (ie, the objects were moving around the subject in this specific condition). This protocol was tested in two participants groups: An athlete group and a non athlete group. Our results show that there are effects of sport practice on the task performance, but that these effects were reduced in the ‘inside’ condition. This suggests that the ‘inside’ condition, that we introduced here for the MOT task, requires skills that are not necessarily linked to the sport practice.