TY - JOUR
T1 - Throwing Versus Walking as Indicators Of Distance Perception In Similar Real And Virtual Environments
AU - Sahm, Cynthia S.
AU - Creem-Regehr, Sarah H.
AU - Thompson, William B.
AU - Willemsen, Peter
PY - 2005
Y1 - 2005
N2 - For humans to effectively interact with their environment, it is important for the visual system to determine the absolute size and distance of objects. Previous experiments performed in full-cue, real-world environments have demonstrated that blind walking to targets serves as an accurate indication of distance perception, up to about 25 m. In contrast, the same task performed in virtual environments (VEs) using head-mounted displays shows significant underestimation in walking. To date, blind walking is the only visually directed action task that has been used to evaluate distance perception in VEs beyond reaching distances. The possible influence of the response measure itself on absolute distance perception in virtual environments is currently an open question. Blind walking involves locomotion and the egocentric updating of the environment with one's own movement. We compared this measure to blind throwing, a task that involves the initiation of a movement directed by vision, but no further interaction within the environment. Both throwing and walking were compressed in the VE but accurate in the real world. We suggest that distance compression found in VEs may be a result of a general perceptual origin rather than specific to the response measure.
AB - For humans to effectively interact with their environment, it is important for the visual system to determine the absolute size and distance of objects. Previous experiments performed in full-cue, real-world environments have demonstrated that blind walking to targets serves as an accurate indication of distance perception, up to about 25 m. In contrast, the same task performed in virtual environments (VEs) using head-mounted displays shows significant underestimation in walking. To date, blind walking is the only visually directed action task that has been used to evaluate distance perception in VEs beyond reaching distances. The possible influence of the response measure itself on absolute distance perception in virtual environments is currently an open question. Blind walking involves locomotion and the egocentric updating of the environment with one's own movement. We compared this measure to blind throwing, a task that involves the initiation of a movement directed by vision, but no further interaction within the environment. Both throwing and walking were compressed in the VE but accurate in the real world. We suggest that distance compression found in VEs may be a result of a general perceptual origin rather than specific to the response measure.
KW - Blind walking
KW - Distance perception
KW - Experimentation
KW - Head-mounted displays
KW - Measurement
KW - Performance
KW - Virtual environments
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U2 - 10.1145/1048687.1048690
DO - 10.1145/1048687.1048690
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84899013186
VL - 2
SP - 35
EP - 45
JO - ACM Transactions on Applied Perception
JF - ACM Transactions on Applied Perception
SN - 1544-3558
IS - 1
ER -