research-article

Affordance Judgments in HMD-Based Virtual Environments: Stepping over a Pole and Stepping off a Ledge

Authors:

Bobby BodenheimerAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Applied Perception (TAP), Volume 12, Issue 2

Article No.: 6, Pages 1 - 21

https://doi.org/10.1145/2720020

Published: 10 April 2015 Publication History

Abstract

People judge what they can and cannot do all the time when acting in the physical world. Can I step over that fence or do I need to duck under it? Can I step off of that ledge or do I need to climb off of it? These qualities of the environment that people perceive that allow them to act are called affordances. This article compares people’s judgments of affordances on two tasks in both the real world and in virtual environments presented with head-mounted displays. The two tasks were stepping over or ducking under a pole, and stepping straight off of a ledge. Comparisons between the real world and virtual environments are important because they allow us to evaluate the fidelity of virtual environments. Another reason is that virtual environment technologies enable precise control of the myriad perceptual cues at work in the physical world and deepen our understanding of how people use vision to decide how to act. In the experiments presented here, the presence or absence of a self-avatar—an animated graphical representation of a person embedded in the virtual environment—was a central factor. Another important factor was the presence or absence of action, that is, whether people performed the task or reported that they could or could not perform the task. The results show that animated self-avatars provide critical information for people deciding what they can and cannot do in virtual environments, and that action is significant in people’s affordance judgments.

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Cited By

Malo RPrié Y(2024)Reaching conceptual stability by re-articulating empirical and theoretical work on affordancesFrontiers in Psychology10.3389/fpsyg.2024.128316815Online publication date: 14-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1283168
Gagnon HFinney HStefanucci JBodenheimer BCreem-Regehr S(2024)Reaching Between Worlds: Calibration and Transfer of Perceived Affordances from Virtual to Real Environments2024 IEEE Conference Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR)10.1109/VR58804.2024.00120(1011-1021)Online publication date: 16-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/VR58804.2024.00120
Mulvaney PRooney BFriehs MLeader J(2024)Social VR design features and experiential outcomes: narrative review and relationship map for dyadic agent conversationsVirtual Reality10.1007/s10055-024-00941-028:1Online publication date: 22-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10055-024-00941-0
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Index Terms

Affordance Judgments in HMD-Based Virtual Environments: Stepping over a Pole and Stepping off a Ledge
1. Applied computing
  1. Law, social and behavioral sciences
    1. Psychology
2. Computing methodologies
  1. Computer graphics
    1. Graphics systems and interfaces
      1. Virtual reality

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Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Applied Perception

ACM Transactions on Applied Perception Volume 12, Issue 2

April 2015

58 pages

ISSN:1544-3558

EISSN:1544-3965

DOI:10.1145/2746686

Editors:
Victoria Interrante
University of Minnesota, USA
,
Diego Gutierrez
Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain

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Copyright © 2015 ACM.

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Publication History

Published: 10 April 2015

Accepted: 01 January 2015

Revised: 01 December 2014

Received: 01 March 2014

Published in TAP Volume 12, Issue 2

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https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1283168
Gagnon HFinney HStefanucci JBodenheimer BCreem-Regehr S(2024)Reaching Between Worlds: Calibration and Transfer of Perceived Affordances from Virtual to Real Environments2024 IEEE Conference Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR)10.1109/VR58804.2024.00120(1011-1021)Online publication date: 16-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/VR58804.2024.00120
Mulvaney PRooney BFriehs MLeader J(2024)Social VR design features and experiential outcomes: narrative review and relationship map for dyadic agent conversationsVirtual Reality10.1007/s10055-024-00941-028:1Online publication date: 22-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10055-024-00941-0
Personeni GSavescu A(2023)Ecological validity of virtual reality simulations in workstation health and safety assessmentFrontiers in Virtual Reality10.3389/frvir.2023.10587904Online publication date: 16-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2023.1058790
Bhargava AVenkatakrishnan RVenkatakrishnan RSolini HLucaites KRobb APagano CBabu S(2023)Empirically Evaluating the Effects of Eye Height and Self-Avatars on Dynamic Passability Affordances in Virtual Reality2023 IEEE Conference Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR)10.1109/VR55154.2023.00046(308-317)Online publication date: Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/VR55154.2023.00046
Bhargava AVenkatakrishnan RVenkatakrishnan RLucaites KSolini HRobb APagano CBabu S(2023)Can I Squeeze Through? Effects of Self-Avatars and Calibration in a Person-Plus-Virtual-Object System on Perceived Lateral Passability in VRIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2023.324706729:5(2348-2357)Online publication date: May-2023
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Gölz MFinkel LKehlbeck RHerschbach ABauer IScheib JDeussen ORanderath J(2023)From virtual to physical environments when judging action opportunities: are diagnostics and trainings transferable?Virtual Reality10.1007/s10055-023-00765-427:3(1697-1715)Online publication date: 15-Feb-2023
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Bhargava AVenkatakrishnan RVenkatakrishnan RSolini HLucaites KRobb APagano CBabu S(2022)Did I Hit the Door? Effects of Self-Avatars and Calibration in a Person-Plus-Virtual-Object System on Perceived Frontal Passability in VRIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2021.308342328:12(4198-4210)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2022
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Gagnon HZhao YRichardson MPointon GStefanucci JCreem-Regehr SBodenheimer B(2021)Gap Affordance Judgments in Mixed Reality: Testing the Role of Display Weight and Field of ViewFrontiers in Virtual Reality10.3389/frvir.2021.6546562Online publication date: 15-Mar-2021
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