Telepresence Effects on the Relationship of Velocity to the Psychological Experience of Speed

This study examines potential mappings between the subjective experience of speed when mediated through visual display devices and the physical velocity of a vehicle, especially when the apparatus for experiencing speed and the actual vehicle are not in the same scale. Such mappings are important for creating psychological reality in telepresence environments, such as a driving simulator. Subjects made magnitude estimations of perceived speed by watching video clips of forward motion taken from vehicles of two different heights. A 2.625:1 ratio in “virtual” eyeheights was approximately maintained in the magnitude estimates, indicating that speed is experienced as a scaled quantity relative to virtual eyeheight. When magnitude estimates for the lower virtual eyeheight were scaled, perceived speed at that height could be predicted for any actual velocity in this experiment. Building on this knowledge, telepresence designers must account for the scale factor in predicting other behaviors such as distance for braking and turning the vehicle.