Perception of Visual Variables on Virtual Wall-Sized Tiled Displays in Immersive Environments

TL;DR

This study explores how visual variables and interaction techniques affect perception and task performance on wall-sized tiled displays in immersive VR environments, comparing virtual and real-world settings.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into display arrangements and interaction methods, highlighting differences between virtual and real-world perception and performance.

Findings

Curved virtual walls lead to smaller errors than flat displays.

Interaction techniques improve task accuracy and efficiency.

Virtual curved walls outperform real-world flat displays in error reduction.

Abstract

We investigate the perception of visual variables on wall-sized tiled displays within an immersive environment. We designed and conducted two formal user studies focusing on elementary visualization reading tasks in VR. The first study compared three different virtual display arrangements (Flat, Cylinder, and Cockpit). It showed that participants made smaller errors on virtual curved walls (Cylinder and Cockpit) compared to Flat. Following that, we compared the results with those from a previous study conducted in a real-world setting. The comparative analysis showed that virtual curved walls resulted in smaller errors than the real-world flat wall display, but with longer task completion time. The second study evaluated the impact of four 3D user interaction techniques (Selection, Walking, Steering, and Teleportation) on performing the elementary task on the virtual Flat wall display. The results confirmed that interaction techniques further improved task performance. Finally, we discuss the limitations and future work.