Distance perception in virtual environments

Virtual environments provide people with the opportunity to experience places and situations remote from their actual physical surroundings. However, we cannot expect spatial representation in virtual environments to be as accurate as spatial representation in physical environments. One reason for this is that perceived distance is systematically underestimated in virtual environments. The precise reasons for this are unknown. This work uses the bisection method shown in Bodenheimer et al. [2007] to study the perceived distance in virtual environments. In the virtual environment, distance bisection involves subjects adjusting an avatar using a joystick until they feel that the avatar bisects the distance between themselves and a target avatar. Bodenheimer et al. [2007] examine errors resulting from judging the bisection at 15m and 30m. We examine errors resulting from judging the bisection from five different distances: 3m, 7.5m, 15m, 22.5m, and 30m. We observe a linear relationship between the amount of foreshortening in judging the midpoint and distance. Additionally, perceiving a virtual representation of one's self in the virtual environment makes subjects significantly more accurate at judging the midpoint at 3m. However, for distances greater than 7.5m we find that asking people to use their virtual representation to judge the bisection leads to a significant increase in the amount of foreshortening.