The Influence of Objects Around the Route on Users' Estimations of Time Used for, and Distance and Speed of Locomotion in VR

Abstract

It is very important to understand the relationship in a VR environment between the type of image projected and the user's perception of distance, speed and time. However, there has been no study on this. We studied this relationship using virtual routes that were projected in CAVE with five screens in stereo-vision. We arranged objects around the virtual route and prepared two sets of conditions. One was low density, which means the virtual routes were surrounded with not many objects. The other was high density, which means there were many objects. The results of our experiment show that the number of objects (the density of arranged objects around the virtual route) affected the user's perception of distance, speed, and time. The influence on the perception of time was smaller than that on distance and speed. Under the high density condition, the users felt that the distance and time was longer and the speed faster.