TerraFirma: A Low-Cost and Effective 360 VR Extension for Viewpoint Translation and Collaboration

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality

Background:

• Traditional 360 VR offers limited user interaction and viewpoint control.
• Enhancing immersive exploration in 360° environments often requires complex and costly acquisition processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel approach for extending 360 VR capabilities, specifically supporting viewpoint translation and multi-user collaboration.
• To achieve these enhancements without increasing the cost of acquiring the virtual environment.

Main Methods:

• Modeling the ground as a planar patch connected to the background with visual continuity.
• Anchoring user avatars to this ground patch to enable walking and interaction.
• Supporting collaborative environments with multiple avatars on the shared ground patch.

Main Results:

• The approach successfully enables user viewpoint translation and supports collaboration with multiple avatars.
• User studies (N=30) demonstrated advantages over conventional 360 VR in anchoring, viewpoint translation, and collaboration.
• Accurate integration of both stationary and dynamic virtual objects into the 3D scene was achieved.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method significantly enhances immersive exploration in 360° scenes by enabling natural user movement and collaboration.
• It offers a cost-effective solution for richer virtual reality experiences compared to traditional methods.
• The approach provides a foundation for more interactive and engaging 360 VR applications.