Judgments of Object Size and Distance across Different Virtual Reality Environments: A Preliminary Study

An Examination of the Relationship Between Visualization Media and Consumer Product Evaluation

Virtual product presentations that rely on static images and text are often insufficient to communicate all the information that is necessary to accurately evaluate a product. Technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR) have enabled more sophisticated representation methods, but certain product characteristics are difficult to assess and may result in perceptual differences when a product is evaluated in different visual media. In this article, we report two case studies in which a group of participants evaluated three designs of two product typologies (i.e., a desktop telephone and a coffee maker) as presented in three different visual media (i.e., photorealistic renderings, AR, and VR for the first case study; and photographs, a non-immersive virtual environment, and AR for the second case study) using eight semantic scales. An inferential statistical method using Aligned Rank Transform (ART) proceedings was applied to determine perceptual differences between groups. Our results show that in both cases product attributes in Jordan's physio-pleasure category are the most affected by the presentation media. The socio-pleasure category was also affected for the case of the coffee makers. The level of immersion afforded by the medium significantly affects product evaluation.

CAVE and HMD: distance perception comparative study

This paper proposes to analyse user experience using two different immersive device categories: a cave automatic virtual environment (CAVE) and a head-mounted display (HMD). While most past studies focused on one of these devices to characterize user experience, we propose to fill the gap in comparative studies by conducting investigations using both devices, considering the same application, method and analysis. Through this study, we want to highlight the differences in user experience induced when using either one of these technologies in terms of visualization and interaction. We performed two experiments, each focusing on a specific aspect of the devices employed. The first one is related to distance perception when walking and the possible influence of the HMD's weight, which does not occur with CAVE systems as they do not require wearing any heavy equipment. Past studies found that weight may impact distance perception. Several walking distances were considered. Results revealed that the HMD's weight does not induce significant differences over short distances (above three meters). In the second experiment, we focused on distance perception over short distances. We considered that the HMD's screen being closer to the user's eyes than in CAVE systems might induce substantial distance perception differences, especially for short-distance interaction. We designed a task in which users had to move an object from one place to another at several distances using the CAVE and an HMD. Results revealed significant underestimation compared to reality as in past work, but no significant differences between the immersive devices. These results provide a better understanding of the differences between the two emblematic virtual reality displays.

Can People Infer Distance in a 2D Scene Using the Visual Size and Position of an Object?

Depth information is limited in a 2D scene and for people to perceive the distance of an object, they need to rely on pictorial cues such as perspective, size constancy and elevation in the scene. In this study, we tested whether people could use an object’s size and its position in a 2D image to determine its distance. In a series of online experiments, participants viewed a target representing their smartphone rendered within a 2D scene. They either positioned it in the scene at the distance they thought was correct based on its size or adjusted the target to the correct size based on its position in the scene. In all experiments, the adjusted target size and positions were not consistent with their initially presented positions and sizes and were made larger and moved further away on average. Familiar objects influenced adjusted position from size but not adjusted size from position. These results suggest that in a 2D scene, (1) people cannot use an object’s visual size and position relative to the horizon to infer distance reliably and (2) familiar objects in the scene affect perceived size and distance differently. The differences found demonstrate that size and distance perception processes may be independent.