J. Edward Swan II

Peripheral Stimulation and its Effect on Perceived Spatial Scale in Virtual Environments

J. Adam Jones, J. Edward Swan II, and Mark Bolas. Peripheral Stimulation and its Effect on Perceived Spatial Scale in Virtual Environments. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics: Proceedings, IEEE Virtual Reality 2013, 19(4):701–710, 2013. DOI: 10.1109/TVCG.2013.37.

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Abstract

The following series of experiments explore the effect of static peripheral stimulation on the perception of distance and spatial scale in a typical head-mounted virtual environment. It was found that applying constant white light in an observer’s far periphery enabled the observer to more accurately judge distances using blind walking. An effect of similar magnitude was also found when observers estimated the size of a virtual space using a visual scale task. The presence of the effect across multiple psychophysical tasks provided confidence that a perceptual change was, in fact, being invoked by the addition of the peripheral stimulation. These results were also compared to observer performance in a very large field of view virtual environment and in the real world. The subsequent findings raise the possibility that distance judgments in virtual environments might be considerably more similar to those in the real world than previous work has suggested.

BibTeX

@Article{TVCG13-ps, 
  author =       {J. Adam Jones and J. Edward {Swan~II} and Mark Bolas}, 
  title =        {Peripheral Stimulation and its Effect on Perceived Spatial Scale in 
                  Virtual Environments}, 
  journal =      {IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics: 
                  Proceedings, IEEE Virtual Reality 2013}, 
  year =         2013, 
  volume =       19, 
  number =       4, 
  pages =        {701--710}, 
  note =         {DOI: <a target="_blank"
                  href="https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2013.37">10.1109/TVCG.2013.37</a>.} 
  abstract =     { 
The following series of experiments explore the effect of static peripheral 
stimulation on the perception of distance and spatial scale in a typical 
head-mounted virtual environment. It was found that applying constant white 
light in an observer’s far periphery enabled the observer to more accurately 
judge distances using blind walking. An effect of similar magnitude was also 
found when observers estimated the size of a virtual space using a visual scale 
task. The presence of the effect across multiple psychophysical tasks provided 
confidence that a perceptual change was, in fact, being invoked by the addition 
of the peripheral stimulation. These results were also compared to observer 
performance in a very large field of view virtual environment and in the real 
world. The subsequent findings raise the possibility that distance judgments in 
virtual environments might be considerably more similar to those in the real 
world than previous work has suggested. 
}, 
}