Enhanced Perception of Speed in Textured VR Environments with Unchanged Sensitivity

• Main Authors: Kosuge, Yuki, Okamoto, Shogo
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Consumer electronics; differential threshold; Legged locomotion; Sensitivity; speed perception; Virtual environments; Visualization
• ISSN: 2693-0854
• DOI: 10.1109/GCCE62371.2024.10760866

The perception of self-locomotive speed in virtual spaces varies depending on the available visual information. Prior research indicates that self-locomotive speed is perceived more rapidly in virtual reality (VR) environments that feature wall textures or objects compared to more barren spaces. In our study, involving 99 participants, we examined the impact of visual information on the perception of self-locomotive speed in VR. We designed two VR environments: a barren hallway and a textured-wall hallway. We investigated the discrimination threshold for movement speed in each environment and the point of subjective equality between the two conditions. Our findings reveal minimal difference in the discrimination threshold between the two environments, indicating that the wall texture in VR space does not significantly influence the sensitivity of perceiving self-locomotive speed. However, a walking speed of 1.6 m/s in the barren hallway was subjectively equivalent to a 14.7% slower walking speed in the textured-wall hallway. The self-locomotive speed was felt faster with the textured background image. These findings provide insights for presenting appropriate speeds in virtual environments.