VR-STEP: Walking-in-Place using Inertial Sensing for Hands Free Navigation in Mobile VR Environments

Low-cost smartphone adapters can bring virtual reality to the masses, but input is typically limited to using head tracking, which makes it difficult to perform complex tasks like navigation. Walking-in-place (WIP) offers a natural and immersive form of virtual locomotion that can reduce simulation sickness. WIP, however, is difficult to implement in mobile contexts as it typically relies on bulky controllers or an external camera. We present VR-STEP; a WIP implementation that uses real-time pedometry to implement virtual locomotion. VR-STEP requires no additional instrumentation outside of a smartphone's inertial sensors. A user study with 18 users compares VR-STEP with a commonly used auto-walk navigation method and finds no significant difference in performance or reliability, though VR-STEP was found to be more immersive and intuitive.