Comparative experiment of body-position based navigation in immersive virtual environments

Navigation is one of the basic human-computer interactions in virtual environments, and the technique should be easy to use, cognitively simple, and uncumbersome. However, the interaction in immersive virtual environments requires a factor of the sense of immersion as well as efficiency. We have proposed a body-position based navigation technique that drives a viewpoint with extension and bending of the arms, rotating both arms, and standing on tiptoes and bending the knees. Using various parts of the body may help to enhance the sense of immersion in the virtual environment. Depth images obtained from a polynocular stereo machine are used for tracking the 3D positions of the arms and head of the user in an immersive projection display. We evaluated the body-position system in experiments in which participants performed fly-through tasks in a 3D space, and compared the effectiveness of the body-position system with that of a joystick and a hand-arm gesture interface. The results of the experiment showed that the body-position system was advantageous on moving around at large areas instead of efficiency or accuracy of viewpoint control in virtual environments.