Are avatars treated like human obstacles during aperture crossing in virtual environments?
Amy L Hackney, Michael E Cinelli, William H Warren and 1 others
PMID 32492623WHAT IT FOUND
In a virtual environment, walking through two stationary avatars did not make people rotate their shoulders more cautiously than walking through two poles.
Opening width changed rotations, but the avatars did not add caution beyond the poles.
Key findings
01Walking through two virtual avatars did not lead to more cautious movement than walking through two virtual poles.
02Shoulder rotation angle changed with aperture width, with greater rotations at openings from 1.0 to 1.4 times shoulder width than at openings from 1.5 to 1.8 times shoulder width.
03Participants rotated their shoulders significantly more than straight walking at all aperture widths tested.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
Only 11 young adults were studied, and they were healthy, so the findings may not apply to patients with balance, vision, or cognitive problems. The avatars were stationary and may not have had movement abilities, social cues, or personal space boundaries that real people have. The head-mounted display had a limited field of view, and participants could not see their own body, which may have made it hard to judge the opening size relative to their body. The virtual environment did not include a self-avatar, which the authors noted can improve accuracy of stepping under obstacles.
Declared interests
The article is listed as supported by non-U.S. government research. The authors declared no financial conflicts of interest with company products used for data collection or analysis.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that avatars are treated like human obstacles. The study compared avatars with poles in 11 healthy young adults, not with real people, and found no significant difference between the two virtual obstacles.