Skip to main content

Investigation of Map Orientation by the Use of Low-Cost Virtual Reality Equipment

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Cartography - Maps Connecting the World

Abstract

This chapter investigates how low-cost virtual reality equipment can be used in the study of human wayfinding aided by maps in a virtual environment. In particular, the chapter looks into how head-up maps perform compared to north-up maps. An experiment including two mazes in a virtual environment was prepared and the navigation through the mazes was accomplished by a number of human subjects. In our experiment, the time used by each subject was measured. The timing showed no significant differences between the use of head-up maps and north-up maps when the subjects were finding their way by the use of Oculus Rift DK1 in the actual environment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Anderson TW, Darling DA (1954) A test of goodness of fit. J Amer Stat Assoc 49(268):765–769

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Antonov M, Mitchell N, Reisse A, Cooper L, La Valle S, Katsev M (2013) SDK overview, SDK version 0.2.5. Oculus VR. URL: http://static.oculusvr.com/sdk-downloads/documents/Oculus_SDK_Overview.pdf. Accessed May 13 2014)

  • Aretz AJ (1991) The design of electronic map displays. Human Factors J Human Factors Ergon Soc 33(1):85–101

    Google Scholar 

  • Aretz Anthony J, Wickens Christopher D (1992) The mental rotation of map displays. Human Perform 5(4):303–328

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bakker NH, Werkhoven PJ, Passeniern PO (1999) The effects of proprioceptive and visual feedback on geographical orientation in virtual environments. Presence Teleoper Virtual Environ 8(1):36–53. doi:10.1162/105474699566035

  • Buchholz H, Bohnet J, Dollner J (2005) Smart and physically-based navigation in 3D geovirtual environments. In: Proceedings of Ninth international conference on information visualisation, 2005, pp 629–635. doi:10.1109/IV.2005.117

  • Cuevas HM, Huthmann A, Knudsen A, Wei C (2001) Performance differences in a navigation task among users presented with a north-up versus track-up orientation map display. Proc Human Factors Ergon Soc Ann Meet 45(23):1666–1670. doi:10.1177/154193120104502322

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darken RP, Cevik H (1999). Map usage in virtual environments: orientation issues. In: Proceedings of IEEE virtual reality, pp 133–140

    Google Scholar 

  • Darken RP, Peterson B (2002) Spatial orientation, wayfinding, and representation. In: Handbook of virtual environments, pp 493–518

    Google Scholar 

  • EpicGames (2014) Unreal development kit. URL: https://www.unrealengine.com/products/udk. Accessed June 9 2014)

  • Golledge RG (1999) Human wayfinding and cognitive maps. In: Wayfinding behavior: cognitive mapping and other spatial processes, pp 5–45. ISBN:9780801859939

    Google Scholar 

  • Henriksen SP, Midtbø T (2014) Map related experiments by the use of oculus rift. Work in progress

    Google Scholar 

  • Hermann F, Bieber G, Duesterhoeft A (2003) Egocentric maps on mobile devices. In: The proceedings of international workshop on mobile computing, pp 32–37. Fraunhofer IRB Verlag

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman Hunter G, Meyer Walter J, Ramirez Maribel, Roberts Linda, Seibel Eric J, Atzori Barbara, Sharar Sam R, Patterson David R (2014) Feasibility of articulated arm mounted oculus rift virtual reality goggles for adjunctive pain control during occupational therapy in pediatric burn patients. Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw 17(6):397–401. doi:10.1089/cyber.2014.0058

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kickstarter (2014) Oculus rift: step into the game. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&term=oculus+rift. Accessed 28 Oct 2014)

  • Klatzky RL (1998) Allocentric and egocentric spatial representations: definitions, distinctions, and interconnections. In: Freksa C, Habel C, Wender KF (eds) Spatial cognition. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 1404. Springer, Berlin, pp 1–17. http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/3-540-69342-4_1

  • Kot T, Novák P (2014) Utilization of the oculus rift HMD in mobile robot teleoperation. App Mech Mater 555:199–208. doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.555.199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kozhevnikov M, Garcia A (2011) Visual-spatial learning and training in collaborative design in virtual environments. In: Wang, X, Tsai JJH (eds) Collaborative design in virtual environments. Intelligent systems, control and automation: science and engineering, vol 48. Springer, Netherlands, pp 17–26. http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-007-0605-7_2

  • MacEachren AM, Edsall R, Haug D, Baxter R, Otto G, Masters R, Fuhrmann S, Qian L (1999) Virtual environments for geographic visualization: potential and challenges. In: Proceedings of the 1999 workshop on new paradigms in information visualization and manipulation in conjunction with the eighth ACM international conference on information and knowledge management. ACM, New York, pp 35–40. doi:10.1145/331770.331781

  • Meng L (2005) Egocentric design of map-based mobile services. Cartographic J 42(1):5–13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Montello DR, Sas C (2006) Human factors of wayfinding in navigation. In: Karwowski W (ed) International encyclopedia of ergonomics and human factors. CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, Ltd, pp 2003–2008. http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/42335/

  • Nilsson NC, Serafin S, Nordahl R (2014) Establishing the range of perceptually natural visual walking speeds for virtual walking-in-place locomotion. IEEE Trans Vis Comp Graph 20(4):569–578. doi:10.1109/TVCG.2014.21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porathe T (2005). Navigation with Exocentric 2-D and Egocentric 3-D Maps. In: Proceedings of the 37th annual conference of the Nordic ergonomic society. Oslo

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherman WR, Craig AB (2003) In Understanding virtual reality: interface, application, and design. Morgan Kaufmann, Burlington. ISBN:9781558603530

    Google Scholar 

  • Smets NJJM, te Brake GM, Neerincx MA, Lindenberg J (2008) Effects of mobile map orientation and tactile feedback on navigation speed and situation awareness. In: Proceedings of the 10th international conference on human computer interaction with mobile devices and services. ACM, pp 73–80

    Google Scholar 

  • Steck SD, Mallot HA (2000) The role of global and local landmarks in virtual environment navigation. Presence Teleoper Virtual Environ 9(1):69–83. doi:10.1162/105474600566628

  • Török Á, Nguyen TP, Kolozsvári O, Buchanan RJ, Nadasdy Z (2014) Reference frames in virtual spatial navigation are viewpoint dependent. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.00646 (September)

  • Van Veen HAHC, Distler HK, Braun SJ, Bülthoff HH (1998) Navigating through a virtual city: using virtual reality technology to study human action and perception. Future Gener Comp Syst 14(3):231–242

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Viita D, Werner S (2006) Alignment effects on simple turn decisions in track-up and north-up maps. In: Proceedings of the human factors and ergonomics society annual meeting, vol 50. SAGE Publications, New York, pp 1519–1522

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Terje Midtbø .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Henriksen, S.P., Midtbø, T. (2015). Investigation of Map Orientation by the Use of Low-Cost Virtual Reality Equipment. In: Robbi Sluter, C., Madureira Cruz, C., Leal de Menezes, P. (eds) Cartography - Maps Connecting the World. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17738-0_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics