How Real are Virtual Environments: A Validation of Localization, Manipulation and Design Performance
Abstract
Immersive simulation techniques such as Virtual Environments (VE) can revolutionize human factors engineering and training projects provided that they are carefully validated. Is human performance in the virtual world the same as in the real world? When visual aspects perceived on a virtual ship differ from those perceived on a real ship, human factors engineering studies may yield non-optimal designs When interactions with virtual worlds are not natural, training may not transfer to the real world. I will discuss three studies that compared human task performance in real and virtual (HMD) environments. First, we carried out spatial perception experiments and measured localization performance: how well can people indicate the center point between two objects in identical virtual and real environments. Second, manipulation performance was measured: how well can people grab, turn and position objects in virtual environments and what adaptation effects occur when returning to the real world. Third, we compared the assessment of ergonomic aspects of identical virtual and real ship bridges. Discrepancies found between the results for the real and the virtual bridge are discussed in terms of challenges with respect to the quality of head-mounted display optics and tracking devices and, most importantly, with respect to natural interfaces needed for manipulation (virtual hand control) and for moving around in virtual worlds (intuitive navigation methods).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADP010621
Entities
People
- Peter Werkhoven