Contributions of proprioception to navigation in virtual environments

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality
• Spatial Cognition

Background:

• Users of virtual environments (VEs) often experience disorientation.
• Difficulty transferring spatial knowledge acquired in VEs to the real world is a significant challenge.
• Proprioception, the sense of self-movement and body position, may play a crucial role in spatial learning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if proprioceptive feedback from a walking interface in a VE improves real-world spatial navigation.
• To compare the effects of different training methods (VE walking, VE joystick, map study, real-world walking, no training) on spatial knowledge transfer.

Main Methods:

• Two groups explored a virtual building: one with a walking interface (affording proprioception) and one with a joystick (no proprioception).
• Participants used low-resolution head-mounted displays.
• Post-VE navigation in the actual building was assessed and compared to control groups.

Main Results:

• The walking interface did not improve orientation within the VE during training.
• However, the walking interface group demonstrated enhanced performance in finding objects in the real-world building.
• Compared to joystick control, proprioceptive feedback in the VE benefited real-world navigation tasks.

Conclusions:

• Proprioceptive feedback from virtual environment interfaces can enhance the transfer of spatial knowledge to real-world navigation.
• This finding has implications for training in simulated environments, particularly for tasks requiring physical navigation.
• Virtual reality simulations can be optimized for better real-world spatial learning by incorporating proprioceptive elements.