Exploring Experience Gaps Between Active and Passive Users During Multi-user Locomotion in VR

Document Title

Exploring Experience Gaps Between Active and Passive Users During Multi-user Locomotion in VR

Document Information

• Subject Area: User experience differences in multi-user virtual reality (VR) locomotion
• Keywords: VR locomotion, experience gaps, sensory conflict, motion sickness, VR navigation

Research Background and Problem

• Identified Problem or Challenge: Significant experience differences exist between active users (users controlling locomotion) and passive users (users merely observing) during multi-user VR locomotion. These differences may lead to reduced team collaboration efficiency or hinder user engagement in this form of VR experience.
• Importance: Understanding such experience gaps is crucial for improving team collaboration task efficiency and user satisfaction in VR applications. It also provides theoretical guidance for future multi-user VR design.
• Research Motivation and Related Work:
  • Research on single-user locomotion methods is relatively comprehensive, while the field of multi-user locomotion still has significant gaps.
  • Current studies mainly focus on motion sickness, user motion intent, and social interaction, with limited consideration of sensory conflict and various influencing factors.
  • This study is the first to systematically explore experience gaps between active and passive users across multiple scenarios, including temporary experience gaps (sub-locomotion combinations).

Solution

• Method or Solution:
  • Design and implement a set of experiments covering six locomotion scenarios and 48 motion nodes.
  • Conduct separate asynchronous evaluations for active and passive users to measure psychological, sensory, and physical comfort, presence, and acceptance.
  • Investigate the impact of speed, intervals, motion types, and individual motion sickness sensitivity on experience gaps.
• Innovations:
  • Systematically defined typical VR multi-user locomotion scenarios.
  • Studied temporary experience gaps caused by sensory conflict for the first time and proposed specific scenarios to avoid or intervene in significant experience gaps.
  • Explored optimal configurations based on the combination of motion sickness-sensitive users.
• Implementation Steps and Key Techniques:
  1. Set different motion types (e.g., walking, flying, teleportation) and speed/interval parameters.
  2. Participants completed tasks under multiple conditions and filled out a series of single-item questionnaires to evaluate temporary experiences.
  3. Used statistical analysis to identify significant differences and assess the impact of experience gaps.
  4. Extracted subjective feedback on sensory conflict in specific scenarios through interviews.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Findings:
  • Compared experience gaps between active and passive users under six conditions (e.g., walking + stationary, flying + observing, teleportation) and quantified the impact of sensory conflict on physiological and psychological comfort.
  • Identified that certain rotational and rolling motions in sub-motion combinations significantly affected passive users, particularly when visual conflicts caused severe discomfort.
  • Proposed methods to optimize multi-user locomotion scenario design by adjusting speed/interval parameters and combining motion sickness sensitivities.
• Advantages Compared to Existing Solutions:
  • The study comprehensively covered different combinations and behaviors of active and passive users.
  • Adapted to various single and combined sub-locomotion behaviors, aiding in scenario design and comfort improvement.
• Experimental or Evaluation Results:
  • Results demonstrated that passive users generally had poorer experiences during multi-user locomotion, especially when there were significant changes in the observation perspective.
  • Certain low-speed active user motions or motions aligned with the passive user's rotation direction could mitigate sensory conflict and enhance the passive user's sense of presence and motion experience.
• Limitations and Future Directions:
  • The asynchronous simulation of multi-user scenarios may affect the real-world applicability of the results.
  • Future research should focus on user interaction in dynamic collaborative scenarios, including team collaboration tasks and communication of motion intent.
  • Proposed real-time intervention strategies for sensory conflict, such as using vibration feedback or introducing visual barriers, to dynamically reduce experience gaps.

Summary and Application Value

• This study revealed significant experience gaps in multi-user VR locomotion and proposed specific methods to address sensory conflict issues. The findings provide valuable references for VR designers to optimize user experiences and can be widely applied in multi-user gaming, team training, virtual tours, and other scenarios.