Assessing Depth Perception in Virtual Environments: A Comprehensive Framework

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5753/jis.2023.3515

Keywords:

Framework, Depth Perception Evaluation, Visualization Techniques, Stereoscopy

Abstract

Understanding humans’ perception of depth and how they interact with virtual environments is a challenging task. This context involves investigating how features of these environments affect depth perception, which is crucial for tasks like object manipulation and navigation that require interpreting spatial information. This article presents a comprehensive (general, extensible and flexible) framework to assess depth perception in different virtual environments to support the development of more effective and immersive virtual experiences. This approach can assist developers in decision-making regarding different approaches for assessing depth perception in virtual environments, considering stereoscopic and monoscopic techniques for visualization. The framework considers parameters such as the distance between the user and virtual objects and the sizes of virtual objects. Metrics such as hit rate, response time, and presence questionnaire responses were utilized to assess depth perception. The previous experiments are presented (anaglyph and shutter glasses), as well as the new experiments, considering cave environments with and without anaglyph glasses.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Anderson, A. P., Mayer, M. D., Fellows, A. M., Cowan, D. R., Hegel, M. T., and Buckey, J. C. (2017). Relaxation with immersive natural scenes presented using virtual reality. Aerospace medicine and human performance, 88(6):520–526. DOI: 10.3357/amhp.4747.2017.

Armbrüster, C., Wolter, M., Kuhlen, T., Spijkers, W., and Fimm, B. (2008). Depth perception in virtual reality: distance estimations in peri-and extrapersonal space. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 11(1):9–15.

Burns, C. G. and Fairclough, S. H. (2015). Use of auditory event-related potentials to measure immersion during a computer game. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 73:107–114.

Cecotti, H. (2022). A serious game in fully immersive virtual reality for teaching astronomy based on the messier catalog. In 2022 8th International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN), pages 1–7. DOI: 10.23919/iLRN55037.2022.9815994.

Clemente, M., Rey, B., Rodriguez-Pujadas, A., BarrosLoscertales, A., Banos, R. M., Botella, C., Alcaniz, M., and Ávila, C. (2013a). An fMRI Study to Analyze Neural Correlates of Presence during Virtual Reality Experiences. Interacting with Computers, 26(3):269–284. DOI: 10.1093/iwc/iwt037.

Clemente, M., Rodriguez, A., Rey, B., and Alcaniz, M. (2013b). Measuring presence during the navigation in a virtual environment using eeg. Studies in health technology and informatics, 191:136–140.

Coakley, C. W. and Heise, M. A. (1996). Versions of the sign test in the presence of ties. Biometrics, 52(4):1242–1251. DOI: doi:10.2307/2532840.

dos Santos, M. C. C., Sangalli, V. A., and Pinho, M. S. (2017). Evaluating the use of virtual reality on professional robotics education. In 2017 IEEE 41st Annual Computer Software and Applications Conference (COMPSAC), volume 1, pages 448–455. IEEE.

e Silva, S. K. G. and Nunes, F. L. S. (2015). Depth perception evaluation with different stereoscopic techniques: A case study. In Virtual and Augmented Reality (SVR), 2015 XVII Symposium on, pages 52–60.

Edgington, E. S. and Onghena, P. (2007). Randomization Tests. Chapman & Hall/CRC.

Geuss, M., Stefanucci, J., Creem-Regehr, S., and Thompson, W. (2012). Effect of viewing plane on perceived distances in real and virtual environments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 38(5):1242–1253. DOI: 10.1037/a0027524.

Grassini, S. and Laumann, K. (2020). Questionnaire measures and physiological correlates of presence: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 11:349. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00349.

Hattori, A., ichi Tonami, K., Tsuruta, J., Hideshima, M., Kimura, Y., Nitta, H., and Araki, K. (2022). Effect of the haptic 3d virtual reality dental training simulator on assessment of tooth preparation. Journal of Dental Sciences, 17(1):514–520. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jds.2021.06.022.

Heeter, C. (1992). Being there: The subjective experience of presence, telepresence, presence: Teleoperators and virtual environments.

Jockel, K.-H. (1986). Finite sample properties and asymptotic efficiency of monte carlo tests. The Annals of Statistics, 14(1):336–347.

Leopardi, A., Ceccacci, S., Mengoni, M., Naspetti, S., Gambelli, D., Ozturk, E., and Zanoli, R. (2021). X-reality technologies for museums: a comparative evaluation based on presence and visitors experience through user studies. Journal of Cultural Heritage, 47:188–198. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2020.10.005.

Lessiter, J., Freeman, J., Keogh, E., and Davidoff, J. (2001). A Cross-Media Presence Questionnaire: The ITC-Sense of Presence Inventory. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 10(3):282–297. DOI: 10.1162/105474601300343612.

Lin, C. J., Abreham, B. T., and Woldegiorgis, B. H. (2019). Effects of displays on a direct reaching task: A comparative study of head mounted display and stereoscopic widescreen display. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 72:372–379. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ergon.2019.06.013.

Livatino, S., De Paolis, L., D’Agostino, M., Zocco, A., Agrimi, A., De Santis, A., Bruno, L., and Lapresa, M. (2015). Stereoscopic visualization and 3-D technologies in medical endoscopic teleoperation. Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on, 62:525–535. DOI: 10.1109/TIE.2014.2334675.

Maciel, C., Bim, S. A., and da Silva Figueiredo, K. (2018). Digital girls program: Disseminating computer science to girls in brazil. In Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Gender Equality in Software Engineering, GE ’18, pages 29––32, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery. DOI: 10.1145/3195570.3195574.

McMahan, R. P., Gorton, D., Gresock, J., McConnell, W., and Bowman, D. A. (2006). Separating the effects of level of immersion and 3D interaction techniques. In Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology, VRST ’06, pages 108–111, New York, NY, USA. ACM.

Meehan, M., Insko, B., Whitton, M., and Brooks Jr, F. P. (2002). Physiological measures of presence in stressful virtual environments. Acm transactions on graphics (tog), 21(3):645–652.

Ng, A. K., Chan, L. K., and Lau, H. Y. (2016). Depth perception in virtual environment: The effects of immersive system and freedom of movement. In International Conference on Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality, pages 173–183. Springer.

Ochs, M., Mestre, D., De Montcheuil, G., Pergandi, J.-M., Saubesty, J., Lombardo, E., Francon, D., and Blache, P. (2019). Training doctors’ social skills to break bad news: evaluation of the impact of virtual environment displays on the sense of presence. Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces, 13(1):41–51.

Oehlert, G. W. (2010). A first course in design and analysis of experiments. Retrieved from the University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy.

Oh, C. S., Bailenson, J. N., and Welch, G. F. (2018). A systematic review of social presence: Definition, antecedents, and implications. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 5:114. DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2018.00114.

Poels, K., Hoogen, W. v. d., Ijsselsteijn, W., and de Kort, Y. (2012). Pleasure to play, arousal to stay: The effect of player emotions on digital game preferences and playing time. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 15(1):1–6. PMID: 21875354. DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2010.0040.

Putter, J. (1955). The treatment of ties in some nonparametric tests. Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 26:368–386.

R Core Team (2018). R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria.

Schubert, T., Friedmann, F., and Regenbrecht, H. (2001). Igroup presence quest.

Sheridan, T. B. et al. (1992). Musings on telepresence and virtual presence. Presence Teleoperators Virtual Environ., 1(1):120–125.

Silva, S. K. G., Correa, C. G., and Nunes, F. L. S. (2016). Three-dimensionality perception evaluation in stereoscopic virtual environments: a systematic review. In Virtual and Augmented Reality (SVR), 2016 XVIII Symposium on, pages 1–12.

Silva, S. K. G., Corrêa, C. G., Lauretto, M. S., and Nunes, F. L. S. (2022). A framework for evaluating depth perception in stereoscopic virtual environments. In Proceedings of the XXIV Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality (SVR), Natal, RN.

Sitzmann, V., Serrano, A., Pavel, A., Agrawala, M., Gutierrez, D., Masia, B., and Wetzstein, G. (2017). How do people explore virtual environments?

Slater, M., Spanlang, B., and Corominas, D. (2010). Simulating virtual environments within virtual environments as the basis for a psychophysics of presence. ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), 29(4):92.

Slater, M. and Usoh, M. (1993). Representations systems, perceptual position, and presence in immersive virtual environments. Presence: Teleoperators and virtual environments, 2(3):221–233.

Slater, M., Usoh, M., and Steed, A. (1994). Depth of Presence in Virtual Environments. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 3(2):130–144. DOI: 10.1162/pres.1994.3.2.130.

Steuer, J. (1992). Defining virtual reality: Dimensions determining telepresence. Journal of Communication, 42(4):73–93. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1992.tb00812.x.

Thalmann, D., Lee, J., and Thalmann, N. M. (2016). An evaluation of spatial presence, social presence, and interactions with various 3D displays. In Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Computer Animation and Social Agents, pages 197–204.

Vienne, C., Masfrand, S., Bourdin, C., and Vercher, J.-L. (2020). Depth perception in virtual reality systems: Effect of screen distance, environment richness and display factors. IEEE Access, 8:29099–29110. DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2972122.

Vinnikov, M. and Allison, R. S. (2014). Gaze-contingent depth of field in realistic scenes: The user experience. In Proceedings of the Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications, ETRA ’14, pages 119–126, New York, NY, USA. ACM. DOI: 10.1145/2578153.2578170.

Witmer, B. G. and Kline, P. B. (1998). Judging perceived and traversed distance in virtual environments. Presence, 7(2):144–167.

Witmer, B. G. and Singer, M. J. (1998). Measuring presence in virtual environments: A presence questionnaire. Presence: Teleoperators and virtual environments, 7(3):225–240.

Yanoff, M. and Duker, J. (2018). Ophthalmology 5th Edition. Elsevier.

Zhao, L., Zhang, Y., Wu, H., and Xiao, J. (2020). The difference of distance stereoacuity measured with different separating methods. Annals of translational medicine, 8(7).

Downloads

Published

2024-01-01

How to Cite

SILVA, S. K. G.; CORRÊA, C. G.; SANCHES, S. R. R.; LAURETTO, M. S.; NUNES, F. L. S. Assessing Depth Perception in Virtual Environments: A Comprehensive Framework. Journal on Interactive Systems, Porto Alegre, RS, v. 15, n. 1, p. 104–117, 2024. DOI: 10.5753/jis.2023.3515. Disponível em: https://sol.sbc.org.br/journals/index.php/jis/article/view/3515. Acesso em: 29 apr. 2024.

Issue

Section

Regular Paper

Most read articles by the same author(s)