Head-mounted display versus desktop for 3D navigation in virtual reality: a user study

Virtual Reality (VR) has been constantly evolving since its early days, and is now a fundamental technology in different application areas. User evaluation is a crucial step in the design and development of VR systems that do respond to users’ needs, as well as for identifying applications that indeed gain from the use of such technology. Yet, there is not much work reported concerning usability evaluation and validation of VR systems, when compared with the traditional desktop setup. The paper presents a user study performed, as a first step, for the evaluation of a low-cost VR system using a Head-Mounted Display (HMD). That system was compared to a traditional desktop setup through an experiment that assessed user performance, when carrying out navigation tasks in a game scenario for a short period. The results show that, although users were generally satisfied with the VR system, and found the HMD interaction intuitive and natural, most performed better with the desktop setup.

[1]  Angelos Amditis,et al.  Evaluation of virtual reality products and applications from individual, organizational and societal perspectives - The "VIEW" case study , 2006, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[2]  Christopher G. Healey,et al.  A comparison of immersive HMD, fish tank VR and fish tank with haptics displays for volume visualization , 2006, APGV '06.

[3]  T. Hettmansperger,et al.  Robust Nonparametric Statistical Methods , 1998 .

[4]  Cullen D. Jackson,et al.  CAVE and fishtank virtual-reality displays: a qualitative and quantitative comparison , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[5]  John R. Wilson.  Interaction with virtual environments , 2006, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[6]  Frederick P. Brooks.  What's Real About Virtual Reality? , 1999, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[7]  Ivan Poupyrev,et al.  3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice , 2004 .

[8]  Roy A. Ruddle,et al.  Effects of proprioceptive feedback and environmental characteristics on spatial learning in virtual environments , 2004, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[9]  Johann Habakuk Israel,et al.  Human-Machine Interaction in Virtual Environments – Recent Developments and Industrial Applications , 2007 .

[10]  Ivan Poupyrev,et al.  An Introduction to 3D User Interface Design , 2001 .

[11]  Ivan Poupyrev,et al.  An Introduction to 3-D User Interface Design , 2001, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[12]  Frederick Mosteller,et al.  Understanding robust and exploratory data analysis , 1983 .

[13]  Prabhat,et al.  A Comparative Study of Desktop, Fishtank, and Cave Systems for the Exploration of Volume Rendered Confocal Data Sets , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[14]  Bud Webb,et al.  A REALITY CHECK , 1997 .

[15]  Joseph L. Gabbard.  A Taxonomy of Usability Characteristics in Virtual Environments , 1997 .

[16]  Doug A. Bowman,et al.  Effects of information layout, screen size, and field of view on user performance in information‐rich virtual environments , 2005, VRST '05.

[17]  Avi Parush,et al.  Navigation and orientation in 3D user interfaces: the impact of navigation aids and landmarks , 2004, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[18]  Deborah Hix,et al.  User-centered design and evaluation of a real-time battlefield visualization virtual environment , 1999, Proceedings IEEE Virtual Reality (Cat. No. 99CB36316).

[19]  Stephen H. Westin,et al.  VR -A reality check? , 2005, IEEE Proceedings. VR 2005. Virtual Reality, 2005..

[20]  Timothy P. McNamara,et al.  Updating orientation in large virtual environments using scaled translational gain , 2006, APGV '06.

[21]  Deborah Hix,et al.  User-Centered Design and Evaluation of Virtual Environments , 1999, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[22]  FjeldMorten.  Usability and collaborative aspects of augmented reality , 2004 .

[23]  Dennis Proffitt,et al.  Quantifying immersion in virtual reality , 1997, SIGGRAPH.

[24]  Xiaoyu Zhang,et al.  Quantifying the benefits of immersion for collaboration in virtual environments , 2005, VRST '05.

[25]  AmditisAngelos,et al.  Evaluation of virtual reality products and applications from individual, organizational and societal perspectives-The "VIEW" case study , 2006 .

[26]  Doug A. Bowman,et al.  Maintaining Spatial Orientation during Travel in an Immersive Virtual Environment , 1999, Presence.

[27]  F. Mosteller,et al.  Understanding robust and exploratory data analysis , 1985 .

[28]  Earl Hunt,et al.  The Transfer of Spatial Knowledge in Virtual Environment Training , 1998, Presence.

[29]  Deborah Hix,et al.  Usability Evaluation in Virtual Environments: Classification and Comparison of Methods , 2001 .

[30]  John R. Wilson,et al.  Virtual and interactive environments for work of the future , 2006, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[31]  Gregory D. Abowd,et al.  Human-Computer Interaction (3rd Edition) , 2003 .

[32]  Kenny Gruchalla,et al.  Immersive well-path editing: investigating the added value of immersion , 2004, IEEE Virtual Reality 2004.

[33]  Umer Farooq,et al.  Empirical Comparison of Human Behavior and Performance with Different Display Devices for Virtual Environments , 2002 .

[34]  Sarah Sharples,et al.  Performance of new participants in virtual environments: The Nottingham tool for assessment of interaction in virtual environments (NAÏVE) , 2006, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[35]  Morten Fjeld,et al.  Usability and collaborative aspects of augmented reality , 2004, INTR.

[36]  John F. Lucas,et al.  Exploring the Benefits of Immersion in Abstract Information Visualization , 2004 .

[37]  D. Mizell,et al.  Comparing Immersive Virtual Reality with Other Display Modes for Visualizing Complex 3 D Geometry , 2000 .

[38]  Angelia Sebok,et al.  Navigation in desktop virtual environments: an evaluation and recommendations for supporting usability , 2004, Virtual Reality.

[39]  Johann Habakuk Israel,et al.  Editorial: Human-Machine Interaction in Virtual Environments , 2007, MMI Interakt..

[40]  Mary C. Whitton,et al.  Walking > walking-in-place > flying, in virtual environments , 1999, SIGGRAPH.

[41]  Anthony Steed,et al.  Evaluating Effectiveness of Interaction Techniques across Immersive Virtual Environmental Systems , 2005, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[42]  Mary Czerwinski,et al.  Immersion in desktop virtual reality , 1997, UIST '97.

[43]  Angelos Amditis,et al.  Human centred design of 3-D interaction devices to control virtual environments , 2006, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[44]  John H. Bailey,et al.  Virtual spaces and real world places: transfer of route knowledge , 1996, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[45]  Antonella De Angeli,et al.  Navigation help in 3D worlds: some empirical evidences on use of sound , 2007, Multimedia Tools and Applications.

[46]  Roy A. Ruddle,et al.  Navigating Large-Scale Virtual Environments: What Differences Occur Between Helmet-Mounted and Desk-Top Displays? , 1999, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[47]  Philip N. Day,et al.  System design and user evaluation of Co-Star: An immersive stereoscopic system for cable harness design , 2007, Comput. Aided Des..