Turn Your Head Half Round: VR Rotation Techniques for Situations With Physically Limited Turning Angle

Abstract

Rotational tracking enables Virtual Reality (VR) users to turn their head around freely 360° while looking around the environment. However, there are situations when physical head rotation is only possible for not more than a certain range, e. g., when the user sits in a bus or plane while she is wearing a VR headset. For these situations, rotation gains were introduced to decouple virtual and real rotations. We present two more techniques that allow 360° virtual turning in a physically limited space: Dynamic Rotation Gains and Scrolling. We conducted an experiment to compare those three rotation techniques and a baseline condition regarding VR sickness, spatial orientation, and usability. We found a significant underestimation of rotation angles for the dynamic rotation gains which might mean that this technique is more subtle than others. Furthermore, usability was higher and VR sickness lower for the dynamic rotation gains while scrolling caused the highest VR sickness. Finally, we conducted a confirmatory study to prove the applicability of dynamic rotation gains in an actual VR experience and got promising feedback.