Studying the Influence of Translational and Rotational Motion on the Perception of Rotation Gains in Virtual Environments

Rotation gains in Virtual Reality (VR) enable the exploration of wider Virtual Environments (VEs) compared to the workspace users have in VR setups. The perception of these gains has been consequently explored through multiple experimental conditions in order to improve redirected navigation techniques. While most of the studies consider rotations, in which participants can rotate at the pace they desire but without translational motion, we have no information about the potential impact of the translational and rotational motions on the perception of rotation gains. In this paper, we estimated the influence of these motions and compared the perceptual thresholds of rotations gains through a user study (n = 14), in which participants had to perform virtual rotation tasks at a constant rotation speed. Participants had to determine whether their virtual rotation speed was faster or slower than their real one. We varied the translational optical flow (static or forward motion), the rotational speed (20, 30, or 40 deg/s), and the rotational gain (from 0.5 to 1.5). The main results are that the rotation gains are less perceivable at lower rotation speeds and that translational motion makes detection more difficult at lower rotation speeds. Furthermore, the paper provides insights into the user’s gaze and body motions behaviour when exposed to rotation gains. These results contribute to the understanding of the perception of rotation gains in VEs and they are discussed to improve the implementation of rotation gains in redirection techniques.