Effects of VE Transition Techniques on Presence, Illusion of Virtual Body Ownership, Efficiency, and Naturalness

Abstract

Several transition techniques (TTs) exist for Virtual Reality (VR) that allow users to travel to a new target location in the vicinity of their current position. To overcome a greater distance or even move to a different Virtual Environment (VE) other TTs are required that allow for an immediate, quick, and believable change of location. Such TTs are especially relevant for VR user studies and storytelling in VR, yet their effect on the experienced presence, illusion of virtual body ownership (IVBO), and naturalness as well as their efficiency is largely unexplored. In this paper we thus identify and compare three metaphors for transitioning between VEs with respect to those qualities: an in-VR head-mounted display metaphor, a turn around metaphor, and a simulated blink metaphor. Surprisingly, the results show that the tested metaphors did not affect the experienced presence and IVBO. This is especially important for researchers and game designers who want to build more natural VEs.