Efficiently navigating virtual environments with simulated reference frames and body-based sensory information

Despite recent advancements in technology, there remain a number of major challenges in Virtual Reality (VR) such as spatial disorientation and motion sickness. People tend to get sick or get lost when they navigate a virtual environment for a while. This dissertation presents two experiments investigating two phenomena that significantly contribute to human spatial updating in VR locomotion. In the first study, we designed and evaluated two Simulated Reference Frames, i.e., Simulated Cave and Simulated Room, using a mixed-method repeated-measures experiment. Results showed that the Simulated Room can improve participants performance and reduce their perceived motion sickness. In the second study, we implemented four locomotion interfaces providing translational body-based sensory information at different levels, in order to investigate at which level the information might be enough for sufficient VR locomotion. Results showed that leaning combined with real rotation can help participants perform as good as when they are physically walking.