Investigating Resolution Strategies for Workspace-Occlusion in Augmented Virtuality

TL;DR

This paper explores two strategies, Redirected Walking and Automatic Teleport Rotation, to reduce physical content occlusion in Augmented Virtuality, improving safety and usability based on user study results.

Contribution

It introduces and evaluates two novel resolution strategies for workspace occlusion in Augmented Virtuality environments.

Findings

Both methods effectively reduce occlusion.

Automatic Teleport Rotation achieves higher occlusion resolution.

Teleport Rotation may increase cybersickness.

Abstract

Augmented Virtuality integrates physical content into virtual environments, but the occlusion of physical by virtual content is a challenge. This unwanted occlusion may disrupt user interactions with physical devices and compromise safety and usability. This paper investigates two resolution strategies to address this issue: Redirected Walking, which subtly adjusts the user's movement to maintain physical-virtual alignment, and Automatic Teleport Rotation, which realigns the virtual environment during travel. A user study set in a virtual forest demonstrates that both methods effectively reduce occlusion. While in our testbed, Automatic Teleport Rotation achieves higher occlusion resolution, it is suspected to increase cybersickness compared to the less intrusive Redirected Walking approach.