Safe-&-round: bringing redirected walking to small virtual reality laboratories

Abstract

Walking is usually considered the most natural form for self-motion in a virtual environment (VE). However, the confined physical workspace of typical virtual reality (VR) labs often prevents natural exploration of larger VEs. Redirected walking has been introduced as a potential solution to this restriction, but corresponding techniques often induce enormous manipulations if the workspace is considerably small and lacks natural experiences therefore. In this poster we propose the Safe-&-Round user interface, which supports natural walking in a potentially infinite virtual scene while confined to a considerably restricted physical workspace. This virtual locomotion technique relies on a safety volume, which is displayed as a semi-transparent half-capsule, inside which the user can walk without manipulations caused by redirected walking.