Straightening walking path using redirected walking technique

Abstract

Virtually infinite space is a holy grail of immersive virtual environment (IVE), and numerous approaches have been proposed, yet there still is a hardware and spatial cost. We propose a novel low-cost locomotion interface that combines a 1-DoF treadmill and a head mounted display (HMD), in which displayed image is rotated to induce straightened trajectory for the treadmill, similar to the technique known as Redirected Walking. We conducted an experiment using the proposed method, and showed that by using PD control algorithm, the walking path became straightened.