Motive compass: Navigation interface for locomotion in virtual environments constructed with spherical images

Abstract

In this paper, we propose Motive Compass, a new navigation interface for locomotion in virtual environment constructed with spherical images. In these virtual environments, users can gaze in all directions, but can only pass through lines where the camera has passed through during recording. Because the rotation of a virtual camera is not constrained to navigation paths, users may perceive that accessible locations are not constrained and they can freely move. Therefore, it is necessary to inform users of the accessible directions. Furthermore, velocity control is needed for close exploration in virtual environments. Therefore, we propose the Motive Compass input interface, which intuitively shows users the accessible directions and enables them to control the velocity. We conducted a large-scale demonstration experiment in a real exhibition to evaluate our interface and compared it with a conventional interface. The results show that our interface more effectively presents accessible directions and enables users to control their velocities, which supports the user's exploration in virtual environments.