The Magic Barrier Tape: a Novel Metaphor for Infinite Navigation in Virtual Worlds with a Restricted Walking Workspace

摘要

In most virtual reality simulations the virtual world is larger than the real walking workspace. The workspace is often bounded by the tracking area or the display devices. This paper describes a novel interaction metaphor called the Magic Barrier Tape, which allows a user to navigate in a potentially infinite virtual scene while confined to a restricted walking workspace. The technique relies on the barrier tape metaphor and its "do not cross" implicit message by surrounding the walking workspace with a virtual barrier tape in the scene. Therefore, the technique informs the user about the boundaries of his walking workspace, providing an environment safe from collisions and tracking problems. It uses a hybrid position/rate control mechanism to enable real walking inside the workspace and rate control navigation to move beyond the boundaries by "pushing" on the virtual barrier tape. It provides an easy, intuitive and safe way of navigating in a virtual scene, without break of immersion. Two experiments were conducted in order to evaluate the Magic Barrier Tape by comparing it to two state-of-the-art navigation techniques. Results showed that the Magic Barrier Tape was faster and more appreciated than the compared techniques, while being more natural and less tiring. Considering it can be used in many different virtual reality systems, it is an interaction metaphor suitable for many different applications, from the entertainment field to training simulations scenarios.