Short paper: Redirected steering for virtual self-motion control with a motorized electric wheelchair

Redirection techniques have shown great potential for enabling users to travel in large-scale virtual environments while their physical movements have been limited to a much smaller laboratory space. Traditional redirection approaches introduce a subliminal discrepancy between real and virtual motions of the user by subtle manipulations, which are thus highly dependent on the user and on the virtual scene. In the worst case, such approaches may result in failure cases that have to be resolved by obvious interventions, e. g., when a user faces a physical obstacle and tries to move forward. In this paper we introduce a remote steering method for redirection techniques that are used for physical transportation in an immersive virtual environment. We present a redirection controller for turning a legacy wheelchair device into a remote control vehicle. In a psychophysical experiment we analyze the automatic angular motion redirection with our proposed controller with respect to detectability of discrepancies between real and virtual motions. Finally, we discuss this redirection method with its novel affordances for virtual traveling.