Vection (The Self-motion Illusion) in Virtual Reality

Abstract

Vection is a phenomenon in which a person feels as if he or she is moving, but there is no actual movement. Vection can be broadly categorized into linear vection (up-down or back-and-forth), circular vection (around your standing location or around your line of sight), or curvilinear vection. In this thesis, three virtual stimulus environments were simulated based on the Oculus Rift DK1, a commodity-level wide-field-of-view head-mounted display. We also had access to an optokinetic drum, a circular chamber with rotating stripes that can induce vection in the real world. In a comprehensive study, we compared these forms of stimuli to see how well they induce vection. We did so by measuring vection onset latency, and subjective ratings of how intensive and convincing the vection was. Thus, five stimuli were compared: linear horizontal and verticle virtual stimuli, circular virtual stimulu, the optokinetic drum with a full, naturalistic field of view, and the optokinetic drum with a field of view matched to our head-mounted display. Linear vection was induced faster than any other type, while circular vection in the real world occurs more rapidly than a virtual one. These results may have application to the design of virtual environment locomotion interfaces.