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Redirected Walking (RWD) .. a way to simulate large scale environments in confined spaces

LZoltowski
Champion
Hey everyone, for anyone who is interested in technical papers and interesting research, there is a lot of work being done on something called Redirected Walking. It is a method where the user is fooled into thinking they have just walked 200 meters forward in a 20mx20m space ... Very interesting read and there are tonnes of papers on it on the net.

Excerpt: "Redirected Walking, a new interactive locomotion technique for virtual environments (VEs), captures the
benefits of real walking while extending the possible size of the VE. Real walking, although natural and
producing a high subjective sense of presence, limits virtual environments to the size of the tracked space.
Redirected Walking addresses this limitation by interactively and imperceptibly rotating the virtual scene
about the user. The rotation causes the user to walk continually toward the furthest wall of the lab without
noticing the rotation. We implemented the technique using stereo graphics and 3D spatialized audio.
Observations during a pilot study suggest that the technique works: Redirected Walking causes people to
change their real walking direction without noticing it, allows for larger VEs, and does not induce
appreciable simulator sickness. "

Here is an interesting one (quoted above) to get you started: http://www.cs.unc.edu/techreports/01-007.pdf


Also a cool vid from tested on VR research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJbAqAqjFKI


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21 REPLIES 21

kojack
MVP
MVP
It's pretty cool. I'd like to experiment with it a bit.
Once I get my GearVR (when my faulty Note 7 is replaced) I've got some ideas for setting up position tracking in a large space, then I can play around with redirected walking. 🙂

There's also a hand version where you can trick people into thinking they are touching multiple objects at different positions when there's only one object (as long as they follow the instructions from the program, so it can manipulate their perceived arm movements).

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Myrskalle
Protege
All good and well as long as you're walking in a single in-game direction, but not as much so when you turn 90 degrees and find there's a wall a meter away.
Interesting stuff for sure, but ultimately I don't think it'll be of much use.

edmg
Trustee
The real problem is that you either need a game that keeps forcing you to turn, or a large enough play space that you don't notice you're not walking in a straight line when you try to walk in a straight line. So it's useful for large environments, but just a gimmick for home use.

TwoHedWlf
Expert Trustee
Really the treadmill types of setups are looking more and more practical...

brantlew
Adventurer

edmg said:

The real problem is that you either need a game that keeps forcing you to turn, or a large enough play space that you don't notice you're not walking in a straight line when you try to walk in a straight line. So it's useful for large environments, but just a gimmick for home use.



Agree.  Redirection is not a useful general technique for in-home VR.

LZoltowski
Champion
25 meter radius is the minimum space ... 30m is much better. And yeah a 30 meter radius space is a lot bigger than most living rooms but it is still a fascinating bit of research.

Here is a great interview with a Professor who is conducitng some of the research.

http://vrguy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/interview-on-redirected-walking-with.html
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TwoHedWlf
Expert Trustee
I think 30m might be bigger than my whole house.

I'm thinking a newly waxed floor and cotton socks with bungee chord attached to each wall

..I have my best ideas after a few drinks

kevinw729
Honored Visionary
Interesting topic.
Redirected Walking Algorithms (RWA) are an interesting approach to limited space virtual navigation. It is interesting that the ICT work and the DARPA investment has migrated into applications proposed by TheVOID.

Sadly, there seems to be little prospect in the short term of this migrating into consumer application, but there are a number of projects in the DOE (Digital Out-of-Home entertainment) scene that look promising.
https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959