Depth perception in virtual environment: the effects of immersive sytem and freedom of movement

Abstract

Concerns over the use of virtual reality (VR) systems in experimental psychological research exist. It is found that human egocentric depth perception in a virtual environment (VE) has significant errors compared to real physical environment. It is hypothesized that due to the presence of a human body as a size reference in a mixed reality CAVE-like system, the accuracy of depth estimation will improve. The second hypothesis proposes that when a participant is allowed to move around the VE, motion parallax will supplement the depth perception ability. Results showed that the features of an immersive system did not aid the estimation. Around 40 % underestimation of actual distance was observed above 15 m. By using a 3D-military jet instead of 2D-wall as the judgment object, a significant improvement in the accuracy is found. Pictorial cues were hence, suggested as the improvement basis for next part of the study.