The Influence of Restricted Viewing Conditions on Egocentric Distance Perception: Implications for Real and Virtual Indoor Environments

We carried out three experiments to examine the influence of field of view and binocular viewing restrictions on absolute distance perception in real-world indoor environments. Few of the classical visual cues provide direct information for accurate absolute distance judgments to points in the environment beyond about 2 m from the viewer. Nevertheless, in previous work it has been found that visually directed walking tasks reveal accurate distance estimations in full-cue real-world environments to distances up to 20 m. In contrast, the same tasks in virtual environments produced with head-mounted displays (HMDs) show large compression of distance. Field of view and binocular viewing are common limitations in research with HMDs, and have been rarely studied under full pictorial-cue conditions in the context of distance perception in the real-world. Experiment 1 showed that the view of one's body and feet on the floor was not necessary for accurate distance perception. In experiment 2 we manipulated the horizontal and the vertical field of view along with head rotation and found that a restricted field of view did not affect the accuracy of distance estimations when head movement was allowed. Experiment 3 showed that performance with monocular viewing was equal to that with binocular viewing. These results have implications for the information needed to scale egocentric distance in the real-world and reduce the support for the hypothesis that a limited field of view or imperfections in binocular image presentation are the cause of the underestimation seen with HMDs.

[1]  Jack M. Loomis,et al.  Absolute motion parallax weakly determines visual scale in real and virtual environments , 1995, Electronic Imaging.

[2]  John P. Lewis,et al.  Perceptuomotor adaptation: more than meets the eye , 2002 .

[3]  M. Wagner,et al.  The metric of visual space , 1985, Perception & psychophysics.

[4]  M. Wraga.  Using eye height in different postures to scale the heights of objects. , 1999, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[5]  W. Epstein.  Stability and constancy in visual perception : mechanisms and processes , 1977 .

[6]  J. Philbeck,et al.  Comparison of two indicators of perceived egocentric distance under full-cue and reduced-cue conditions. , 1997, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[7]  M. Goodale,et al.  Separate visual pathways for perception and action , 1992, Trends in Neurosciences.

[8]  Peter Willemsen,et al.  The effects of head-mounted display mechanics on distance judgments in virtual environments , 2004, APGV '04.

[9]  James E. Cutting,et al.  Chapter 3 – Perceiving Layout and Knowing Distances: The Integration, Relative Potency, and Contextual Use of Different Information about Depth* , 1995 .

[10]  M. Hagen,et al.  On a neglected variable in theories of pictorial perception: Truncation of the visual field , 1978, Perception & psychophysics.

[11]  G. Michel,et al.  Restricting the Field of View: Perceptual and Performance Effects , 1990, Perceptual and motor skills.

[12]  Heinrich H. Bülthoff,et al.  Visual Homing Is Possible Without Landmarks: A Path Integration Study in Virtual Reality , 2002, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[13]  Joshua Maclvor Knapp,et al.  The visual perception of egocentric distance in virtual environments , 2002 .

[14]  Michael Venturino,et al.  Performance and head movements using a helmet-mounted display with different sized fields-of-view , 1990 .

[15]  W. Warren,et al.  Visual guidance of walking through apertures: body-scaled information for affordances. , 1987, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[16]  J. Rieser,et al.  Visual Perception and the Guidance of Locomotion without Vision to Previously Seen Targets , 1990, Perception.

[17]  M A Goodale,et al.  The effects of time and distance on accuracy of target-directed locomotion: does an accurate short-term memory for spatial location exist? , 1988, Journal of motor behavior.

[18]  James O. Larimer,et al.  Studies of the field-of-view/resolution tradeoff in virtual-reality systems , 1992, Electronic Imaging.

[19]  Peter Willemsen,et al.  Perceived egocentric distances in real, image-based, and traditional virtual environments , 2002, Proceedings IEEE Virtual Reality 2002.

[20]  R. Hetherington.  The Perception of the Visual World , 1952 .

[21]  Jack M. Loomis,et al.  Limited Field of View of Head-Mounted Displays Is Not the Cause of Distance Underestimation in Virtual Environments , 2004, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[22]  Bob G. Witmer,et al.  Judging Perceived and Traversed Distance in Virtual Environments , 1998, Presence.

[23]  J. Gibson.  The perception of the visual world , 1951 .

[24]  J. Thomson.  Is continuous visual monitoring necessary in visually guided locomotion? , 1983, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[25]  J. Loomis,et al.  Visual space perception and visually directed action. , 1992 .

[26]  Joseph Psotka,et al.  Effects of Field of View on Judgments of Self-Location: Distortions in Distance Estimations Even When the Image Geometry Exactly Fits the Field of View , 1998, Presence.

[27]  J M Loomis,et al.  Visually perceived location is an invariant in the control of action , 1997, Perception & psychophysics.

[28]  Dennis R. Proffitt,et al.  Two memories for geographical slant: Separation and interdependence of action and awareness , 1998, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[29]  Wallace J. Sadowski,et al.  Nonvisually Guided Locomotion to a Previously Viewed Target in Real and Virtual Environments , 1998, Hum. Factors.

[30]  Jack M. Loomis,et al.  Visual perception of egocentric distance in real and virtual environments. , 2003 .

[31]  T. Furness,et al.  Exploring the Influence of a Virtual Body on Spatial Awareness , 1996 .

[32]  L. S. Mark,et al.  Eyeheight-scaled information about affordances: a study of sitting and stair climbing. , 1987, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[33]  Heinrich H. Bülthoff,et al.  Perceiving and controlling simulated ego-rotations by optic flow: Influence of field of view (FOV) and display devices on ego-motion perception , 2002 .

[34]  Paul B. Kline,et al.  Distance Perception in Virtual Environments: Effects of Field of View and Surface Texture at Near Distances , 1996 .

[35]  Zijiang J. He,et al.  Distance determined by the angular declination below the horizon , 2001, Nature.

[36]  Mark Mon-Williams,et al.  Natural problems for stereoscopic depth perception in virtual environments , 1995, Vision Research.

[37]  José Antonio Aznar-Casanova,et al.  [On the metric of visual space]. , 2006, Arquivos brasileiros de oftalmologia.

[38]  W C GOGEL,et al.  Convergence as a cue to the perceived distance of objects in a binocular configuration. , 1961, Report. Army Medical Research Laboratory.

[39]  Zijiang J. He,et al.  Terrain influences the accurate judgement of distance , 1998, Nature.

[40]  J. M. Foley.  Binocular distance perception. , 1980, Psychological review.

[41]  B. Wandell.  Foundations of vision , 1995 .

[42]  M. Wraga,et al.  The role of eye height in perceiving affordances and object dimensions , 1999, Perception & psychophysics.

[43]  J. Loomis,et al.  Visual space perception and visually directed action. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[44]  Peter Willemsen,et al.  Does the Quality of the Computer Graphics Matter when Judging Distances in Visually Immersive Environments? , 2004, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[45]  S S Fukusima,et al.  Visual perception of egocentric distance as assessed by triangulation. , 1997, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[46]  Zijiang J. He,et al.  Perceiving distance accurately by a directional process of integrating ground information , 2004, Nature.

[47]  Malcolm M. Cohen,et al.  Optical, gravitational and kinesthetic determinants of judged eye level , 1991 .

[48]  J. Philbeck,et al.  Comparison of two indicators of perceived egocentric distance under full-cue and reduced-cue conditions , 1997 .

[49]  J. Philbeck,et al.  Visual Perception of Location and Distance , 1996 .