Integrating Continuous and Teleporting VR Locomotion into a Seamless 'HyperJump' Paradigm

Area of Science:

• Virtual Reality (VR) locomotion
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Cyberpsychology

Background:

• Continuous locomotion in VR offers realistic optical flow but is limited by cybersickness at higher speeds.
• Teleportation avoids cybersickness but hinders continuous spatial updating and can cause disorientation.
• A need exists for VR locomotion that balances speed, spatial awareness, and comfort.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and evaluate 'HyperJump,' a novel VR locomotion technique merging continuous movement with iterative jumps.
• To determine if HyperJump facilitates faster travel in virtual environments without compromising spatial awareness or orientation.
• To compare the effectiveness of HyperJump with different continuous locomotion interfaces (controller-based vs. leaning-based).

Main Methods:

• Participants navigated a virtual city using continuous locomotion with and without HyperJump, maintaining equivalent maximum speeds.
• Spatial awareness was assessed by participants pointing to previously visited landmarks.
• HyperJump was integrated into both controller-based and leaning-based continuous locomotion systems.

Main Results:

• Participants demonstrated significantly faster travel speeds when using HyperJump.
• Spatial awareness and orientation were maintained with HyperJump, with no impairment to spatial knowledge.
• Leaning-based continuous locomotion interfaces resulted in better spatial awareness compared to controller-based interfaces.

Conclusions:

• HyperJump effectively enables faster travel in VR by limiting optical flow, without negatively impacting spatial orientation.
• The findings suggest that carefully controlled optical flow can enhance VR navigation efficiency.
• Future work will explore audio-visual cues and larger environments to further optimize HyperJump and address cybersickness at higher speeds.