Evaluation of virtual locomotion techniques in virtual urban spaces

Virtual reality (VR) applications face significant challenges when it comes to travel due to space constraints and limited tracking system ranges. This results in users being confined to a small area, while developers are required to create intelligent solutions to overcome these limitations. These challenges are particularly important in VR applications designed to improve people’s cognitive capabilities where the goal is the ecological validity of the tasks carried out. This paper presents a case study in which an immersive VR system designed for cognitive rehabilitation in urban scenarios is used to assess virtual locomotion techniques (VLTs). This study aims to evaluate several existing VLTs with neurotypical people to identify potential usability and safety issues before implementing these techniques in therapies for people with traumatic brain injury (TBI). To achieve this objective, five techniques were selected: Arm-swinging, Gaze-directed steering with gamepad and with 3D-mouse, Segwii, and Hand-directed steering. An experiment was conducted to evaluate these techniques, and the results indicated that all VLTs, except Segwii, achieved good results. Segwii, which resembled a Segway-like vehicle using the Wii balance board, exhibited postural instability issues. For the remaining four VLTs, forced-choice questions were used when the USE (Usefulness, Satisfaction, and Ease of use) questionnaire scores yielded similar results. This analysis revealed that Hand-directed steering and Arm-swinging were the VLTs most appreciated by the users, which was consistent with their better performance. The next step will be to conduct a second evaluation using these two preferred techniques, this time with young adults with TBI.