Redirected Walking in Place

Abstract

This paper describes a method for allowing people to virtually move around a CAVE™ without ever having to turn to face the missing back wall. We describe the method, and report a pilot study of 28 participants, half of whom moved through the virtual world using a hand-held controller, and the other half used the new technique called 'Redirected Walking in Place' (RWP). The results show that the current instantiation of the RWP technique does not result in a lower frequency of looking towards the missing wall. However, the results also show that the sense of presence in the virtual environment is significantly and negatively correlated with the amount that the back wall is seen. There is evidence that RWP does reduce the chance of seeing the blank wall for some participants. The increased sense of presence through never having to face the blank wall, and the results of this pilot study show the RWP has promise and merits further development.