Modified Egocentric Viewpoint for Softer Seated Experience in Virtual Reality 🪑

Miki Matsumuro1, Shohei Mori2, Yuta Kataoka1, Fumiaki Igarashi1, Fumihisa Shibata1, and Asako Kimura1

1Ritsumeikan University, 2Graz University of Technology

IEEE Trans. on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG), Special Issue IEEE Virtual Reality (VR) 2023

matsumuro_tvcg23.png
Setups for the two experiments: (a) VR content and distances to the assets in front of the participant; (b) sitting in Experiment 1; (c) reclining in Experiment 2. Images 1 and 2 on the right show the user’s view at the beginning and end of the action.

Abstract Users in a prolonged experience of virtual reality adopt a sitting position according to their task, as they do in the real world. However, inconsistencies in the haptic feedback from a chair they sit on in the real world and that which is expected in the virtual world decrease the feeling of presence. We aimed to change the perceived haptic features of a chair by shifting the position and angle of the users' viewpoints in the virtual reality environment. The targeted features in this study were seat softness and backrest flexibility. To enhance the seat softness, we shifted the virtual viewpoint using an exponential formula soon after a user's bottom contacted the seat surface. The flexibility of the backrest was manipulated by moving the viewpoint, which followed the tilt of the virtual backrest. These shifts make users feel as if their body moves along with the viewpoint; as a result, they would perceive pseudo-softness or flexibility consistently with the body movement. Based on subjective evaluations, we confirmed that the participants perceived the seat as being softer and the backrest as being more flexible than the actual ones. These results demonstrated that only shifting the viewpoint could change the participants' perceptions of the haptic features of their seats, although significant changes created strong discomfort.

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BibTex 
@article{matsumuro_tvcg23,
    author={Matsumuro, Miki and Mori, Shohei and Kataoka, Yuta and Igarashi, Fumiaki and Shibata, Fumihisa and Kimura, Asako},
    journal={IEEE Trans. on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG)}, 
    title={Modified Egocentric Viewpoint for Softer Seated Experience in Virtual Reality}, 
    volume={29},
    number={5},
    pages={2230--2238},
    doi={10.1109/TVCG.2023.3247056},
    year={2023}
}