Improving the Visual Comfort of Virtual Reality Telepresence for Robotics

Telepresence technologies enable users to exhibit a presence in a remote location, through the use of sensors, networks and robotics. State-of-the-art telepresence research swaps conventional desktop monitors for Virtual Reality (VR) headsets, in order to increase the user's immersion in the remote environment, though often at the cost of increased nausea and oculomotor discomfort. We describe a novel method for telepresence via VR, aimed at improving comfort, by accounting for discrepancies between robot and user head pose. This is achieved through a "decoupled" image projection technique, whereby the user is able to look across captured imagery rendered to a virtual display plane. Evaluated against conventional projection techniques, in a controlled study involving 19 participants, decoupled image projection significantly reduced mean perceived nausea and oculomotor discomfort while also improving immersiveness and the perceived sensation of presence.