AUTHOR=Hirt Christian , Isaak Noah , Holz Christian , Kunz Andreas 

TITLE=Predictive multiuser redirected walking using artificial potential fields

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Virtual Reality

VOLUME=Volume 5 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/virtual-reality/articles/10.3389/frvir.2024.1259429

DOI=10.3389/frvir.2024.1259429

ISSN=2673-4192

ABSTRACT=3 Real walking is considered the best locomotion metaphor to explore virtual environments in
4 terms of user experience. Besides being intuitive for the user, walking captures the true feeling
5 of motion since visual and proprioceptive sensation harmonize well. The major disadvantage of
6 choosing walking over other locomotion metaphors consists of the physical constraints of the
7 available space, which is usually considerably smaller than the virtual environment. To address
8 this issue, Redirected Walking (RDW) introduces slight mismatches between a user’s visually
9 perceived path and their actual walking pattern, compelling them to subconsciously compensate
10 the inconsistency by adjusting their walking trajectory. As a result, users can be steered to
11 a certain degree and extensive virtual environments are effectively compressed into smaller
12 physical spaces. Among others, particularly predictive RDW still offers lots of potential to grow
13 since it unites a variety of algorithmic systems, whereas many approaches from literature depend
14 on drastic restrictions like single user constraints or architectural limitations to ensure real-time
15 performance.
16 In this paper, we present two novel predictive RDW systems, which allow multiple physically
17 co-located users to explore independent, unconstrained virtual environments. The systems rely
18 on two new implementations of prediction systems based on clothoidic trajectory generation
19 combined with a cost-based planning concept built on non-harmonic artificial potential fields
20 (APF), which inherently allow for non-convex and dynamic physical environments. Using the APF,
21 three additional RDW conditions popular in literature are implemented for comparison purposes.
22 The overall five RDW concepts are validated in an extensive user study with 150 participants,
23 conducted in 75 pairs. The results indicate that the novel predictive RDW systems outperform
24 the other three literature conditions except for particular sections of the virtual environment with
25 specific architectural traits.