Going, Going, Gone: Exploring Intention Communication for Multi-User Locomotion in Virtual Reality

Title of the Paper

Going, Going, Gone: Exploring Intention Communication for Multi-User Locomotion in Virtual Reality

Paper Information

• Subject Area: Intention communication and locomotion technology in multi-user virtual reality (VR)
• Keywords: SocialVR, Locomotion, Teleportation, Multi-User, Connectedness, Virtual Reality

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Problems or Challenges:

  • In the physical world, people adjust their movements through implicit intention communication when moving together, maintaining a social group experience. However, in virtual reality, the commonly used "point & teleport" discrete movement method lacks intention communication, potentially causing behavioral disconnection between users.
  • Fixed group locomotion solutions (e.g., one person controlling the navigation for the entire group) deprive individuals of their freedom of movement, while individual movement methods risk group fragmentation.

• Significance:

  • Collaboration and group synchronization in SocialVR are crucial for enhancing user intimacy and shared experiences. However, current locomotion methods either sacrifice freedom or disrupt group consistency.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • Existing research primarily focuses on single-user VR locomotion technologies, while multi-user locomotion remains a marginal research area. Non-verbal communication and synchronized movement in SocialVR are considered key to group connectedness and user experience.
  • Weissker et al. proposed group teleportation methods (e.g., Multi-Ray Jumping), but these approaches are unsuitable for most scenarios due to passive users being unable to act freely.

Proposed Solution

• Method Proposed by the Authors:

  • Extend the point & teleport technique by providing two users with a shared preview visualization to support both individual and collective locomotion behavior.
  • Develop three prototypes for intention communication: displaying only the target location, displaying only the direction, and providing a full preview of both the target and direction.

• Innovations:

  • Introduce a design space that decomposes elements of single-user and fixed group methods into two dimensions: direction and target.
  • Enhance social connectedness and intention communication by sharing visual information about targets and directions while maintaining individual freedom of movement.

• Implementation Steps and Techniques:

  • Design a grid maze task for users, including both individual navigation and group navigation tasks.
  • Test five independent variables (standard locomotion, direction sharing, target sharing, full preview, fixed group teleportation) sequentially.
  • Develop a dual-user VR interactive environment using the Unity engine and Photon network; simulate task scenarios with a virtual maze.
  • Compare user experience, intention understanding, and social connectedness across the five methods through experimental design.

Research Findings

• Specific Results:

  • The full preview method performed best in terms of intention understanding, group perception, and social connectedness while preserving individual freedom of movement.
  • Fixed group teleportation ensured synchronized group movement but received negative feedback due to the loss of individual freedom.
  • Participants provided positive feedback on direction sharing and target sharing methods, especially in scenarios with moderate information load.

• Comparison with Existing Solutions:

  • The new method effectively bridges the gap between traditional single-user free locomotion methods (standard locomotion) and fixed group teleportation methods.
  • It achieves group behavior synchronization while enhancing individual control over their actions.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • Sense of Behavioral Engagement: The group method received the lowest scores, while the standard and full methods were rated highest for behavioral engagement.
  • Location Awareness and Group Perception: Full preview and fixed group methods demonstrated stronger user perception (e.g., higher scores for location awareness).
  • User Future Preferences: The most preferred future method was the full preview sharing approach.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations:
    • The study was conducted in a dual-user environment and did not consider scalability to multi-user scenarios.
    • Privacy protection measures were not included, which may pose risks of privacy leakage in multi-user settings.
    • The validated methods were tested in artificial environments; future applications should target more realistic task scenarios.
  • Future Directions:
    • Explore scalable solutions with reduced visual interference.
    • Develop asymmetric information-sharing strategies in dynamic role-switching contexts.
    • Incorporate privacy control measures to allow users to customize the scope of shared locomotion information.

Conclusion

• This study proposes a novel VR intention communication method that improves group perception and individual freedom by sharing movement direction and target location.
• Aiming to promote free collaborative exploration in SocialVR environments, the study validates its effectiveness in enhancing user experience and social connectedness, providing significant design references and experimental foundations for future SocialVR research.