Hoverboard: A Leap to the Future of Locomotion in VR!?

  • Jan Smeddinck
  • Dmitry Alexandrovsky
  • Dirk Wenig
  • Michel Zimmer
  • Waldemar Wegele
  • Sylvia Juergens
  • Rainer Malaka
Conference paper
First Online:
Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS, volume 10507)

Abstract

Locomotion in virtual reality (VR) remains challenging due to limitations of common input methods. Sedentary input devices may endanger immersion, real-to-virtual world perception dissonance can lead to simulator sickness, and physical input devices such as framed walking dishes are often complex and expensive. We present a low-cost, easy to use, easy to manufacture, and easily portable device for locomotion in VR based on a hoverboard metaphor. Building on related work and our own iterative VR locomotion system designs we hypothesize that hoverboarding can provide a compelling and intuitive method for short- and long-distance locomotion in VR with a potential to reduce simulator sickness due to consistent and stable locomotion that corresponds well to the physical proprioception of the users while navigating VR. We discuss design iterations of our device prototypes, promising results from an early explorative evaluation, as well as ongoing continued work.

Keywords

Locomotion Virtual Reality (VR) Motion-based control Natural user interface Hoverboard Leaning Whole-body interface Gaming 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access

Notes

Acknowledgments

This research is partially funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). We thank the University of Bremen Spiele AG for support with the latest prototype.

References

  1. 1.
    Wang, J., Lindeman, R.W.: Comparing isometric and elastic surfboard interfaces for leaning-based travel in 3D virtual environments. In: 3DUI 2012, pp. 31–38. IEEE (2012)Google Scholar
  2. 2.
    Klatzky, R.L., Loomis, J.M., Beall, A.C., Chance, S.S., Golledge, R.G.: Spatial updating of self-position and orientation during real, imagined, and virtual locomotion. Psychol. Sci. 9, 293–298 (1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. 3.
    Bowman, D.A., Kruijff, E., Laviola, J.J., Poupyrev, I.: 3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice. Addison-Wesley, Boston (2004)Google Scholar
  4. 4.
    Teleporting. In: HTC Vive Support. https://www.vive.com/us/support/category_howto/839430.html. Accessed 11 Jan 2017
  5. 5.
    Walther-Franks, B., Wenig, D., Smeddinck, J., Malaka, R.: Suspended walking: a physical locomotion interface for virtual reality. In: Anacleto, J.C., Clua, E.W.G., Silva, F.S.C., Fels, S., Yang, H.S. (eds.) ICEC 2013. LNCS, vol. 8215, pp. 185–188. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-41106-9_27 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. 6.
    Ohnishi, K., Shibata, M., Murakami, T.: Motion control for advanced mechatronics. IEEE ASME Trans. Mechatron. 1, 56–67 (1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. 7.
    Iwata, H., Yano, H., Nakaizumi, F.: Gait master: a versatile locomotion interface for uneven virtual terrain. In: Proceedings of IEEE Virtual Reality 2001, pp. 131–137 (2001)Google Scholar
  8. 8.
    Medina, E., Fruland, R., Weghorst, S.: Virtusphere: walking in a human size VR “Hamster Ball”. Proc. Hum. Factors Ergon. Soc. Annu. Meet. 52, 2102–2106 (2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. 9.
    Ruddle, R.A., Lessels, S.: For efficient navigational search, humans require full physical movement, but not a rich visual scene. Psychol. Sci. 17, 460–465 (2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. 10.
    Harris, A., Nguyen, K., Wilson, P.T., Jackoski, M., Williams, B.: Human joystick: Wii-leaning to translate in large virtual environments. In: VRCAI 2014, pp. 231–234. ACM (2014)Google Scholar
  11. 11.
    Kruijff, E., Marquardt, A., Trepkowski, C., Lindeman, R.W., Hinkenjann, A., Maiero, J., Riecke, B.E.: On Your Feet! enhancing self-motion perception in leaning-based interfaces through multisensory stimuli. In: SUI 2016, pp. 149–158. ACM (2016)Google Scholar
  12. 12.
    Marchal, M., Pettré, J., Lécuyer, A.: Joyman: a human-scale joystick for navigating in virtual worlds. In: 3DUI 2011, pp. 19–26. IEEE (2011)Google Scholar
  13. 13.
    Slater, M., Usoh, M., Steed, A.: Taking steps: the influence of a walking technique on presence in virtual reality. ACM Trans. Comput. Hum Interact. (TOCHI) 2, 201–219 (1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. 14.
    Williams, B., Bailey, S., Narasimham, G., Li, M., Bodenheimer, B.: Evaluation of walking in place on a Wii balance board to explore a virtual environment. ACM Trans. Appl. Percept. 8, 1–14 (2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. 15.
    Anjum, A., Ilyas, M.U.: Activity recognition using smartphone sensors. In: Proceedings of the 10th Consumer Communications and Networking Conference, pp. 914–919. IEEE (2013)Google Scholar

Copyright information

© IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  • Jan Smeddinck
    • 1
  • Dmitry Alexandrovsky
    • 1
  • Dirk Wenig
    • 1
  • Michel Zimmer
    • 1
  • Waldemar Wegele
    • 1
  • Sylvia Juergens
    • 1
  • Rainer Malaka
    • 1
  1. 1.Digital Media Lab, TZIUniversity of Bremen‎BremenGermany

Personalised recommendations