The Effects of the Interface on Navigation in Virtual Environments

Thirty participants explored two virtual mazes. Half of the participants used a hand-controller (joystick); the other half used the Virtual Motion Controller (VMC), a body-controller interface. Maneuvering performance, as measured by the precision with which subjects followed a marked route, was slightly better with the joystick. Route learning, as measured by the subjects' ability to replicate the route, was the same for both devices. Survey knowledge, or the ability to form a mental map of the space and to use it to find alternative routes was significantly better with the VMC. This enhancement in performance was conditional on maze difficulty. The more difficult the maze the greater was the performance benefit of using the VMC. The experiment provided evidence that an interface that uses the body may enhance certain components of navigation in virtual environments.