A review of wayfinding and a new virtual reality system for wayfinding studies

The Virtual Reality (VR) systems for wayfinding studies, the evaluation metrics for wayfinding performance and the factors affecting wayfinding performances are summarised and discussed in the present study. The VR systems covered by this study include desktop, large display, Head-Mounted Display (HMD), Fish Tank and Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) systems. Three levels of evaluation metrics are reviewed, which are task performance, physical behaviours and cognitive rationale. Factors affecting wayfinding performance are divided into four categories: personal factors, wayfinding strategy factors, environmental factors and navigation support tool factors, each of which has several sub-factors. Effects of these factors on wayfinding performance are discussed. Finally, a new VR system developed by this study for wayfinding problems is introduced and a perspective on future wayfinding research is provided.

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