Are avatars treated like human obstacles during aperture crossing in virtual environments?

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality
• Biomechanics

Background:

• Real-world studies show distinct avoidance behaviors when navigating apertures defined by humans versus inanimate objects.
• Virtual reality (VR) offers a controlled environment to investigate human locomotion and spatial navigation.
• Previous research suggests a difference in how people navigate around virtual poles versus virtual humans.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if individuals walking in a virtual reality environment exhibit different aperture-passing behaviors with avatar-defined apertures compared to pole-defined apertures.
• To determine if the observed differences in real-world obstacle avoidance translate to virtual environments.

Main Methods:

• Eleven healthy young adults walked through virtual apertures in a head-mounted VR display.
• Apertures were created by either two virtual pole obstacles or two virtual avatar obstacles.
• Aperture width varied between 1.0-1.8 times participants' shoulder width.

Main Results:

• No significant differences were found in shoulder rotation angle, onset of rotation, walking speed, or velocity at the time of crossing.
• These results were consistent regardless of whether the aperture was formed by virtual poles or avatars.
• The distinct avoidance behaviors observed in real-world settings were not replicated in this virtual reality experiment.

Conclusions:

• The differences in avoidance behaviors between human and pole obstacles in real-world settings do not appear to translate to virtual reality environments.
• Static virtual avatars may be perceived and navigated similarly to inanimate obstacles, lacking the perceived agency of real humans.
• Further research could explore the impact of avatar movement and interaction on navigation behaviors in VR.