Physical Locomotion for Virtual Environments

Physical interaction can provide users with engaging experiences and more healthy active interfaces. In virtual environments, physical interaction can be used for locomotion purposes in which the user's physical actions are mapped to virtual translations, for example in Virtual Reality. Physical engagement can be important not only for exertion game applications, but also in terms of reducing VR sickness, providing engaging and perhaps more realistic experiences, and in the long-term, contribute to reducing sedentary behavior in work context applications. My work examines how locomotion methods can be implemented in virtual environments for various contexts in which the user is physically active in generating locomotion, in contrast to a sedentary desktop or joystick setting. In three studies, I have studied how forms of physical locomotion (normal walking, walk-in-place, fitness equipment) for virtual reality applications, impact the performance and usability within their given context. In these studies I have used comparative experimental design to evaluate locomotion alternatives, or compared with a desktop alternative. For the next study I aim to investigate physical steering techniques for flying experiences. I also aim to synthesize locomotion research into a holistic detail-oriented framework to support comparison and reproducability between locomotion techniques.