A framework for fidelity evaluation of immersive virtual reality systems

Developments in visual and tracking systems have expanded virtual reality (VR) applications and led to VR becoming a powerful tool for decision making, planning, and conducting training and experiments across several fields. VR’s goal is to fully immerse a user in a virtual environment through simulating the same kinds of physical and psychological reactions they would experience in the real world. Fidelity is a common and useful concept for distinguishing different VR systems, as a common goal for VR is to provide a high-fidelity experience similar to the real world. The purpose of this study was to provide a comprehensive framework and a scale for evaluating the fidelity of VR systems by addressing their architecture and the factors that affect overall fidelity with respect to the digital sensory and tracking systems used. The proposed framework characterizes itself from other fidelity evaluation frameworks in the involvement of integration and synchronization of VR system data and devices as the main factors in fidelity evaluation. Also, it presents a scale for fidelity evaluation of VR systems and defines high-level useful concepts for distinguishing different VR systems with respect to fidelity.