Head turn scaling below the threshold of perception in immersive virtual environments

Immersive virtual environments allow to experience presence, the feeling of being present in a virtual environment. When accessing virtual reality with virtual reality goggles, head tracking is used to update the virtual viewpoint according to the user's head movement. While typically used unmodified, the extent to which the virtual viewpoint follows the real head motion can be scaled. In this paper, the effect of scaling below the threshold of perception on presence during a target acquisition task was studied. It was assumed, that presence is reduced when head motion is scaled. No effect on presence, simulator sickness and performance was found. A significant effect on physical task load was found. The results yield information for further work and for the required verification of the used concept of presence. It can be assumed, that load can be modified by the scaling without significantly influencing the quality of presence.

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