Enhancing the Visually Induced Self-Motion Illusion (Vection) under Natural Viewing Conditions in Virtual Reality

The visually induced illusion of ego-motion (vection) is known to be facilitated by both static fixation points [1] and foreground stimuli that are perceived to be stationary in front of a moving background stimulus [2]. In this study, we found that hardly noticeable marks in the periphery of a projection screen can have similar vection-enhancing effects, even without fixating or suppressing the optokinetic reflex (OKR). Furthermore, vection was facilitated even though the marks had no physical depth separation from the screen. Presence ratings correlated positively with vection, and seemed to be mediated by the ego-motion illusion. Interestingly, the involvement/attention aspect of overall presence was more closely related to vection onset times, whereas spatial presence-related aspects were more tightly related to convincingness ratings. This study yields important implications for both presence theory and motion simulator design and applications, where one often wants to achieve convincing ego-motion simulation without restricting eye movements artificially.