Redirected Walking in Virtual Reality with Distractors

Virtual Reality (VR) has seen rapid advancements in the past decade, allowing for increasingly immersive experiences. However, locomotion, or movement in VR, remains a significant challenge, particularly when the virtual environment is larger than the user's physical space. Redirected Walking (RDW) enables users to explore large virtual environments, through natural walking, by actively steering the user away from walls and obstacles in their physical space. Redirected walking is, however, far from its ultimate goal of enabling infinite walking in VR through redirection that is imperceptible to the user. In this thesis, we present our exploration of redirected walking thresholds and the incorporation of distractors in VR to enhance RDW's effectiveness. We developed a purpose-built system to test RDW, focusing on three redirection techniques (rotational gain, curvature gain, and translation gain). We also created two distractors to study the effect of Improved Redirection with Distractors on rotational gains. Two user studies were conducted to evaluate users' reactions to RDW and the influence of distractors on the experience. Our findings show that user acceptability of RDW diminishes while the detection rate increases as the intensity of redirection increases. Results show that users are able to detect redirection of as low as 10% amplification for rotation gain and 7.5m radius for curvature gain. Thresholds for acceptability were identified between 40% and 55% amplification for rotational gain and a 5.0m radius for curvature. Though no specific threshold was found for translational gain, users seemed to not notice redirection until passing 25% amplification, and in terms of acceptability, even stronger gains appear feasible. Furthermore, distractors strongly influence the effectiveness of rotational gain, prompting increased head rotation from users by up to 43%. In conclusion, this thesis broadens our understanding of RDW in VR by exploring the acceptability and detection thresholds for various redirection techniques and examining the impact of distractors on user experience and redirection efficacy.