Interaction Under Whole-Body User Rotations in VR Space.

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality Technology
• User Experience Research

Background:

• Virtual reality (VR) offers immersive experiences but faces challenges with user comfort, disorientation, and cybersickness.
• Existing VR applications often limit virtual body orientation to match physical posture due to these concerns.
• Underexplored capabilities in VR interaction stem from the need to balance immersion with user well-being.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of altering virtual pitch orientation on user comfort, simulator sickness, and interaction performance in VR.
• To determine the feasibility of VR experiences with virtual body orientations independent of physical posture.
• To assess the relationship between virtual tilt magnitude and subjective/objective user responses.

Main Methods:

• A within-subject experimental design was employed with 30 seated participants.
• Participants experienced 12 different virtual pitch orientations, ranging from moderate to extreme (±180°).
• Data collected included subjective ratings of comfort and simulator sickness, perceptual responses, and task performance metrics.

Main Results:

• No significant increases in nausea, disorientation, or decreased comfort were observed across various virtual tilt conditions.
• Mild virtual tilts performed comparably to baseline (no tilt) conditions.
• Extreme virtual tilts also maintained low levels of nausea, with mixed but generally non-significant effects on performance (forward tilts neutral/improved, backward tilts slightly impaired).

Conclusions:

• VR experiences can incorporate virtual body orientations that differ from the user's physical posture without detrimentally affecting comfort or performance.
• These findings support the development of novel VR applications in simulation, interface design, visualization, creative content, and gaming.
• The study demonstrates the potential for greater design freedom in VR by decoupling virtual and physical body orientations.