Research
Distance Perception in Real and Virtual Environments
A number of recent studies suggest that people underestimate distance in virtual environments, especially when distance judgments are made in HMD systems. Very little is known about how people perceive distance in large screen immersive display systems. In a series of experiments, we compared distance perception in real and virtual environments using our large screen system. The real environment was a large grassy lawn in front of a university building. We replicated this scene in our virtual environment using a non-stereoscopic, large-screen immersive display system. We developed a new measure of distance perception that can be used in both real and large screen virtual environments based on the estimated time to complete an imagined walk.
A
consistent pattern of results emerged from our experiments.
Time-to-walk estimates were highly similar in virtual and real
environments for both children and adults.
In general, people were accurate at distance up to 40-60 ft. and
undershot at longer distances.
These results are consistent with prior research on blindfolded walking in
real environments and suggest that distance perception in virtual
environments with large-screen systems is similar to distance perception in
real environments.
Jodie Plumert, Joe Kearney, Jim Cremer, K. Recker