Natural walking speed prediction in Virtual Reality while using target selection-based locomotion

Abstract

Travelling speed plays an essential role in the overall user experience while navigating inside a virtual environment. Researchers have used various travelling speed that matches the user speed profile in order to give a natural walking experience. However, predicting a user’s instantaneous walking speed can be challenging when there is no continuous input from the user. Target selection-based techniques are those where the user selects the target to reach there automatically. These techniques also lack naturalness due to their low interaction fidelity. In this work, we have proposed a mathematical model that can dynamically compute the instantaneous natural walking speed while moving from one point to another in a virtual environment. We formulated our model with the help of user studies.