A Segmented Redirection Mapping Method for Roadmaps of Large Constrained Virtual Environments

Redirected walking (RDW) enables users to explore large virtual spaces by real walking in small real spaces. How to effectively reduce physical collisions and decrease user perceptions of redirection are important for most RDW methods. This article proposes a segmented redirection mapping method to calculate and map the roadmap of a large virtual space with inner obstacles to a mapped roadmap within a small real space. We adopt a Voronoi-based pruning method to extract the roadmap of the virtual space and design an RDW platform to interactively modify the virtual roadmap. We propose a roadmap mapping method based on divide-and-conquer and dynamic planning strategies to subdivide the virtual roadmap into several sub-virtual roads that are mapped individually. By recording connections of different sub-virtual roads, our method is applicable to virtual roadmaps with loop structures. During mapping, we apply the reset and redirection gains of the RDW technique as optimal aims and restrict conditions to obtain the mapped roadmap, which has small path curving and contains as few resets as possible. By real walking along the mapped roadmap, users perceive moving along the virtual roadmap to explore the entire virtual space. The experiment shows that our method works effectively for various virtual spaces with or without inner obstacles. Furthermore, our method is flexible in obtaining mapped roadmaps of different real spaces when the virtual space is fixed. Compared to prevalent RDW methods, our method can significantly reduce physical boundary collisions and maintain user experience of virtual roaming.