Leveraging Change Blindness for Walking in Virtual Environments
Evan A. Suma, Seth Clark, Samantha L. Finkelstein, Zachary J. Wartell · 2010
Change blindness occurs when a person fails to notice alterations to a visual scene. By applying subtle manipulations to the geometry of a virtual environment, this phenomenon can be leveraged to unknowingly redirect a user’s walking path while wearing a head-mounted display, allowing a large virtual environment to be represented in a smaller physical space. We implemented a proof-of-concept virtual environment that condenses a 2352 sq. foot office building into 196 sq. feet of physical walking space. Informal testing has suggested a compelling illusion, and anecdotal evidence indicates that small scene manipulations are difficult to detect when not directly observed by users. A formal study is currently being conducted to empirically validate the usefulness of this technique.