What Prevents Us From Learning Virtual Reality Space: A Study of Indoor Corridor Angle and Obstacle Transparency

People sometimes become disorientated and feel unnatural in virtual reality (VR) spaces created via devices such as head-mounted displays. The main problem is that multiple structures make it difficult to learn the VR space, particularly indoors. These structures segment the space and form boundaries for sightlines and activity areas. How obstacles in segmented space affect human behavior have been less discussed in studies related to navigation. This study sought to clarify the mechanism for the effect of spatial segmentation effect on human spatial cognition, in the context of indoor navigation. This study was conducted in a VR scenario with an omni-directional treadmill; a total of 76 college students participated, and 52 of them were included in the analysis. The study found that the cognitive distortion from spatial segmentation primarily operates by activity area rather than visual obstruction, and it can be inferred that the basis of human abstraction of spatial information may perhaps be the activity area. Regardless of obstacle transparency, non-rectangular spatial segmentation deteriorates navigational performance. The results suggest that, future metaverse communities should consider designing rectangular segmented activity areas to improve navigation performance and reduce disorientation.