Virtusphere: Walking in a Human Size VR “Hamster Ball”

A major challenge for virtual reality (VR) interfaces is to provide realistic human interactions with the virtual world in more natural ways; one solution is to use a device called the VirtuSphere (VS). The VS provides a mechanism for walking in VR in semi-natural way; however, users have to adapt to walking in a moving platform, having limited visual feedback and integrating motion cues with physical responses. In this study we report on the challenges novice users of this virtual reality locomotion device encounter when performing navigation tasks in a virtual environment in two visual conditions (first-person and third-person viewpoint). We analyzed how performance, simulator sickness, and satisfaction vary under these two viewpoint conditions. We found that motion sickness and balance disturbance were more pronounced for the first-person viewpoint group than for the third-person group. However the first-person viewpoint group performed better and enjoyed the experience more than the third-person view group.