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Walking through immersive virtual environments is one of the important parts of Virtual Reality (VR) applications. Prior research has established that users’ gait in virtual and real environments differs; however, little research has evaluated how users’ gait differs as users gain more experience with VR. We conducted experiments measuring novice and experienced subjects’ gait parameters in VR and real environments. Results showed that subjects’ performance in VR and Real World was more similar in the last trials than in the first trials; their walking dissimilarity in the start trials diminished by walking more trials. We found trial as a significant variable affecting the walking speed, step length, and trunk angle for both groups of users. While the main effect of expertise was not observed, an interaction effect between expertise and the trial number was shown. Trunk angle increased over time for novices but decreased for experts. 

Redirected walking techniques use rotational gains to guide users away from physical obstacles as they walk in a virtual world, effectively creating the illusion of a larger virtual space than is physically present. Designers often want to keep users unaware of this manipulation, which is made possible by limitations in human perception that render rotational gains imperceptible below a certain threshold. Many aspects of these thresholds have been studied, however no research has yet considered whether these thresholds may change over time as users gain more experience with them. To study this, we recruited 20 novice VR users (no more than 1 hour of prior experience with an HMD) and provided them with an Oculus Quest to use for four weeks on their own time. They were tasked to complete an activity assessing their sensitivity to rotational gain once each week, in addition to whatever other activities they wanted to perform. No feedback was provided to participants about their performance during each activity, minimizing the possibility of learning effects accounting for any observed changes over time. We observed that participants became significantly more sensitive to rotation gains over time, underscoring the importance of considering prior user experience in applications involving rotational gain, as well as how prior user experience may affect other, broader applications of VR. 

This work explored how users’ sensitivity to offsets in their avatars’ virtual hands changes as they gain exposure to virtual reality. We conducted an experiment using a two-alternative forced choice (2-AFC) design over the course of four weeks, split into four sessions. The trials in each session had a variety of eight offset distances paired with eight offset directions (across a 2D plane). While we did not find evidence that users became more sensitive to the offsets over time, we did find evidence of behavioral changes. Specifically, participants’ head-hand coordination and completion time varied significantly as the sessions went on. We discuss the implications of both results and how they could influence our understanding of long-term calibration for perception-action coordination in virtual environments. 

Immersive Virtual Environments (IVEs) incorporating tangibles are becoming more accessible. The success of applications combining 3D printed tangibles and VR often depends on how accurately size is perceived. Research has shown that visuo-haptic perceptual information is important in the perception of size. However, it is unclear how these sensory-perceptual channels are affected by immersive virtual environments that incorporate tangible objects. Towards understanding the effects of different sensory information channels in the near field size perception of tangibles of graspable sizes in IVEs, we conducted a between-subjects study evaluating the accuracy of size perception across three experimental conditions (Vision-only, Haptics-only, Vision and Haptics). We found that overall, participants consistently over-estimated the size of the dials regardless of the type of perceptual information that was presented. Participants in the haptics only condition overestimated diameters to a larger degree as compared to other conditions. Participants were most accurate in the vision only condition and least accurate in the haptics only condition. Our results also revealed that increased efficiency in reporting size over time was most pronounced in the visuo- haptic condition. 

Virtual reality games have grown rapidly in popularity since the first consumer VR head-mounted displays were released in 2016, however comparatively little research has explored how this new medium impacts the experience of players. In this paper, we present a study exploring how user experience changes when playing Minecraft on the desktop and in immersive virtual reality. Fourteen players completed six 45 minute sessions, three played on the desktop and three in VR. The Gaming Experience Questionnaire, the i-Group presence questionnaire, and the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire were administered after each session, and players were interviewed at the end of the experiment. Participants strongly preferred playing Minecraft in VR, despite frustrations with using teleporation as a travel technique and feelings of simulator sickness. Players enjoyed using motion controls, but still continued to use indirect input under certain circumstances. This did not appear to negatively impact feelings of presence. We conclude with four lessons for game developers interested in porting their games to virtual reality.