The impact of scenery and time on spatial orientation cognition in virtual reality

doi:10.11996/JG.j.2095-302X.2024061349

Abstract

Abstract:

Sense of direction refers to the ability of users to construct mental maps based on their personal perceptions by observing or navigating scenes, allowing them to understand and interpret map information and make judgments on direction, angle, and distance. In fields such as psychology and medicine, numerous studies have shown that the sense of direction is influenced by multiple factors, including spatial memory, spatial perception, and spatial imagination. Within virtual environments, users also rely on this ability to judge direction, using virtual devices to gather scene information. This study primarily examined how users determine their orientation in virtual scenes through abilities such as spatial memory, perception, and imagination. The metric for users’ sense of direction in this study included two aspects: accuracy and efficiency. Accuracy refers to the angular and distance errors between the user’s and the target’s orientation and position, while efficiency refers to the decision time for the user to judge the direction and the time to move to the target. Six experiments were conducted to explore the impact of visual scene differences on users’ sense of direction. The experimental results showed that: ① visual information is a crucial factor for users’ direction judgments in virtual reality; ② within similarly structured scenes, smaller spaces with more objects enhanced users’ sense of direction; ③ changes in scene style had little impact on users’ sense of direction under constant visual range. Additionally, the accuracy of users’ orientation judgments was influenced by both decision and movement time, with movement time exerting a more significant effect, while decision time had a relatively smaller impact. The findings of this study provided valuable insights for virtual reality scene design, measuring user sense of direction, optimizing scene layouts, and enhancing user navigation capabilities.

Key words: virtual reality, sense of direction, angle, distance, time, spatial cognition

CLC Number:

TP391

REN Yangfu, YU Ge, FU Yueyao, XU Senzhe, HE Yu, WANG Juhong, ZHANG Songhai. The impact of scenery and time on spatial orientation cognition in virtual reality[J]. Journal of Graphics, 2024, 45(6): 1349-1363.

Figures/Tables 13

References 39

[1]	BARHORST-CATES E M, STOKER J, STEFANUCCI J K, et al. Using virtual reality to assess dynamic self-motion and landmark cues for spatial updating in children and adults[J]. Memory & Cognition, 2021, 49(3): 572-585.
[2]	BÜRGER D, PASTEL S, CHEN C H, et al. Suitability test of virtual reality applications for older people considering the spatial orientation ability[J]. Virtual Reality, 2023, 27(3): 1751-1764.
[3]	JIANG C F, LI Y S. Virtual hospital-a computer-aided platform to evaluate the sense of direction[C]// The 29th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. New York: IEEE Press, 2007: 2361-2364.
[4]	COUGHLAN G, LACZÓ J, HORT J, et al. Spatial navigation deficits—overlooked cognitive marker for preclinical Alzheimer disease?[J]. Nature Reviews Neurology, 2018, 14(8): 496-506.
[5]	COUTROT A, SCHMIDT S, COUTROT L, et al. Virtual navigation tested on a mobile app is predictive of real-world wayfinding navigation performance[J]. PLoS One, 2019, 14(3): e0213272.
[6]	SPIERS H J, COUTROT A, HORNBERGER M. Explaining world‐wide variation in navigation ability from millions of people: citizen science project sea hero quest[J]. Topics in Cognitive Science, 2023, 15(1): 120-138.
[7]	牟炜民, 赵民涛, 李晓鸥. 人类空间记忆和空间巡航[J]. 心理科学进展, 2006, 14(4): 497-504.
	MOU W M, ZHAO M T, LI X O. Human spatial memory and spatial navigation[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2006, 14(4): 497-504. (in Chinese)
[8]	许琴, 罗宇, 刘嘉. 方向感的加工机制及影响因素[J]. 心理科学进展, 2010, 18(8): 1208-1221.
	XU Q, LUO Y, LIU J. The mechanism of sense of direction and its modulating factors[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2010, 18(8): 1208-1221. (in Chinese)
[9]	李晶, 张侃. 对称场景中朝向一致性对内在参照系的影响[J]. 心理学报, 2011, 43(3): 221-228.
	LI J, ZHANG K. The effect of orientation coincidence of objects on intrinsic frame of reference system in symmetrical scene[J]. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 2011, 43(3): 221-228. (in Chinese)
[10]	周希, 宛小昂, 杜頔康, 等. 不连续虚拟现实空间中的再定向[J]. 心理学报, 2016, 48(8): 924-932.
	ZHOU X, WAN X A, DU D K, et al. Reorientation in uncontinuous virtual reality space[J]. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 2016, 48(8): 924-932. (in Chinese) DOI
[11]	张凤翔, 陈美璇, 蒲艺, 等. 空间导航能力个体差异的多层次形成机制[J]. 心理科学进展, 2023, 31(9): 1642-1664. DOI
	ZHANG F X, CHEN M X, PU Y, et al. Individual differences in spatial navigation: a multi-scale perspective[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2023, 31(9): 1642-1664. (in Chinese) DOI
[12]	DARKEN R P, SIBERT J L. Wayfinding strategies and behaviors in large virtual worlds[C]// 1996 SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York: ACM, 1996: 142-149.
[13]	RUDDLE R A, LESSELS S. Three levels of metric for evaluating wayfinding[J]. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 2006, 15(6): 637-654.
[14]	SMITH S P, DU’MONT S. Measuring the effect of gaming experience on virtual environment navigation tasks[C]// 2009 IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces. New York: IEEE Press, 2009: 3-10.
[15]	MARPLES D, GLEDHILL D, CARTER P. The effect of lighting, landmarks and auditory cues on human performance in navigating a virtual maze[C]// 2020 Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and Games. New York: ACM, 2020: 16.
[16]	MAIDENBAUM S, PATEL A, GEDANKIEN T, et al. The effect of navigational aids on spatial memory in virtual reality[C]// 2020 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops. New York: IEEE Press, 2020: 644-645.
[17]	DONG W H, QIN T, YANG T Y, et al. Wayfinding behavior and spatial knowledge acquisition: are they the same in virtual reality and in real-world environments?[J]. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2022, 112(1): 226-246.
[18]	SIGURDARSON S, MILNE A P, FEUEREISSEN D, et al. Can physical motions prevent disorientation in naturalistic VR?[C]// 2012 IEEE Virtual Reality Workshops. New York: IEEE Press, 2012: 31-34.
[19]	KOTLAREK J, LIN I C, MA K L. Improving spatial orientation in immersive environments[C]// 2018 ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction. New York: ACM, 2018: 79-88.
[20]	DARKEN R P, CEVIK H. Map usage in virtual environments: orientation issues[C]// 1999 IEEE Virtual Reality. New York: IEEE Press, 1999: 133-140.
[21]	MONTEIRO D, WANG X, LIANG H N, et al. Spatial knowledge acquisition in virtual and physical reality: a comparative evaluation[C]// The 7th International Conference on Virtual Reality. New York: IEEE Press, 2021: 308-313.
[22]	KIMURA K, REICHERT J F, OLSON A, et al. Orientation in virtual reality does not fully measure up to the real-world[J]. Scientific Reports, 2017, 7(1): 18109. DOI PMID
[23]	HSIEH T J, KUO Y H, NIU C K. Utilizing HMD VR to improve the spatial learning and wayfinding effects in the virtual maze[C]// The 20th International Conference on HCI International 2018-Posters' Extended Abstracts. Cham: Springer, 2018: 38-42.
[24]	NGUYEN-VO T, RIECKE B E, STUERZLINGER W. Moving in a box: improving spatial orientation in virtual reality using simulated reference frames[C]// 2017 IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces. New York: IEEE Press, 2017: 207-208.
[25]	NGUYEN-VO T, RIECKE B E, STUERZLINGER W. Simulated reference frame: a cost-effective solution to improve spatial orientation in VR[C]// 2018 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces. New York: IEEE Press, 2018: 415-422.
[26]	王枫红, 陈岱琳, 高紫婷, 等. HUD道路引导空间位置对新手驾驶人的影响[J]. 图学学报, 2024, 45(4): 856-867. DOI
	WANG F H, CHEN D L, GAO Z T, et al. The effect of spatial location of HUD's road guidance on novice drivers[J]. Journal of Graphics, 2024, 45(4): 856-867. (in Chinese)
[27]	陈嬿, 张琼文, 王嘉琪, 等. 地图符号与情绪效价对AR地图用户空间记忆的影响研究[J]. 图学学报, 2023, 44(2): 399-407. DOI
	CHEN Y, ZHANG Q W, WANG J Q, et al. Effects of map symbols and emotional valence on AR map users' spatial memory[J]. Journal of Graphics, 2023, 44(2): 399-407. (in Chinese) DOI
[28]	刘相, 陶靖, 刘玉庆, 等. 空间站舱内定向虚拟训练方法研究[J]. 载人航天, 2016, 22(5): 645-650.
	LIU X, TAO J, LIU Y Q, et al. Study on virtual reality based training methods for spatial orientation in spacecraft[J]. Manned Spaceflight, 2016, 22(5): 645-650. (in Chinese)
[29]	KYRITSIS M, GULLIVER S R, MORAR S. Cognitive and environmental factors influencing the process of spatial knowledge acquisition within virtual reality environments[J]. International Journal of Artificial Life Research, 2014, 4(1): 43-58.
[30]	KÖNIG S U, KESHAVA A, CLAY V, et al. Embodied spatial knowledge acquisition in immersive virtual reality: comparison to map exploration[J]. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 2021, 2: 625548.
[31]	SASAKI T, VALLANCE M. On being lost: evaluating spatial recognition in a virtual environment[J]. International Journal of Virtual and Augmented Reality, 2018, 2(2): 38-58.
[32]	SHIMADA K, HIROI K, KAWAGUCHI N, et al. Measurement methods of spatial ability using a virtual reality system[C]// The 9th International Conference on Mobile Computing and Ubiquitous Networking. New York: IEEE Press, 2016: 1-6.
[33]	AFANA J, MARSHALL J, TENNENT P. Manipulating rotational perception in virtual reality[C]// 2021 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct. New York: IEEE Press, 2021: 201-206.
[34]	PASTEL S, BÜRGER D, CHEN C H, et al. Comparison of spatial orientation skill between real and virtual environment[J]. Virtual Reality, 2022, 26(1): 91-104.
[35]	ZHANG S H, ZHANG S K, XIE W Y, et al. Fast 3D indoor scene synthesis by learning spatial relation priors of objects[J]. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2022, 28(9): 3082-3092.
[36]	ZHANG S K, LI Y X, HE Y, et al. MageAdd: real-time interaction simulation for scene synthesis[C]// The 29th ACM International Conference on Multimedia. New York: ACM, 2021: 965-973.
[37]	LIU J H, ZHANG S K, ZHANG C Y, et al. Controllable procedural generation of landscapes[EB/OL]. [2024-05-05]. https://openreview.net/forum?id=RCD9rwbqt4.
[38]	ZHANG S K, TAM H, LI Y K, et al. SceneDirector: interactive scene synthesis by simultaneously editing multiple objects in real-time[J]. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2024, 30(8): 4558-4569.
[39]	ZHANG S K, LIU J H, LI Y K, et al. Automatic generation of commercial scenes[C]// The 31st ACM International Conference on Multimedia. New York: ACM, 2023: 1137-1147.

场景	风格	结构	尺寸/m	物品数量
场景1	室内宽阔	规则正方形	20×20	4件家具
场景2	室内狭窄	规则正方形	10×10	22件家具
场景3	室内宽阔	规则正方形	20×20	22件家具
场景4	室内狭窄	规则正方形	10×10	4件家具
场景5	室外	无规则	50×50	6间房屋及若干植被
场景6	无	无规则	无限	0

场景	风格	结构	尺寸/m	物品数量
场景1	室内宽阔	规则正方形	20×20	4件家具
场景2	室内狭窄	规则正方形	10×10	22件家具
场景3	室内宽阔	规则正方形	20×20	22件家具
场景4	室内狭窄	规则正方形	10×10	4件家具
场景5	室外	无规则	50×50	6间房屋及若干植被
场景6	无	无规则	无限	0

阶段	SSQ得分(均值±标准偏差)
实验前(Pre-Test)	0.750±2.173
实验1 (Test 1)	3.853±5.892
实验2 (Test 2)	4.342±8.206
实验3 (Test 3)	2.456±4.269
实验4 (Test 4)	4.293±6.825
实验5 (Test 5)	5.150±10.002
实验6 (Test 6)	7.006±11.793

阶段	SSQ得分(均值±标准偏差)
实验前(Pre-Test)	0.750±2.173
实验1 (Test 1)	3.853±5.892
实验2 (Test 2)	4.342±8.206
实验3 (Test 3)	2.456±4.269
实验4 (Test 4)	4.293±6.825
实验5 (Test 5)	5.150±10.002
实验6 (Test 6)	7.006±11.793

性别	指标	场景1	场景2	场景3	场景4	场景5	场景6
	均值	74.87	77.39	80.28	82.56	81.33	72.06
女	中位数	33.58	37.31	60.17	50.45	59.85	55.50
	标准差	71.17	73.20	69.89	67.26	70.11	60.73
	均值	70.20	70.14	72.39	76.12	60.54	79.96
男	中位数	47.29	24.49	31.91	25.88	29.70	55.48
	标准差	66.65	68.35	70.17	73.96	62.27	65.42