CHS: Small: Collaborative Research: Improving Wayfinding and Navigation in Immersive Virtual Environments

本研究的目的是为了更有效地设计和使用虚拟世界。虚拟世界在很多领域都很重要，包括建筑、教育、医学、模拟和培训。然而，与现实世界相比，虚拟世界很难有效地移动，并对有效导航构成挑战。如果虚拟世界要得到广泛的应用——特别是在教育、培训和模拟方面的应用——那么这些问题必须得到解决。这项工作将产生重要的发现，改善寻路过程（从一个地方定位和导航到另一个地方），并在沉浸式虚拟世界中移动。因此，它为最近出现的低成本商品级虚拟现实设备提供了关键和协同的补充。本研究采用计算机科学、认知科学和地理信息科学的方法来实现这些目标。结合虚拟世界的空间特征和虚拟环境中用户的个体差异和能力，研究运动模式，可以实现大型沉浸式虚拟世界的寻路导航转换。在这项工作中，虚拟世界被描述和分析在他们的连通性，视觉访问和整合使用的形式化措施总结为空间句法。同样，在虚拟世界中旅行的个人可能会以完全不同的方式导航和推理空间，而这些差异是可以量化和测量的。目标是开发同时考虑空间语法和用户个人属性描述的运动模式。真正有效地设计和使用虚拟世界取决于对个人能力如何与虚拟世界的特征以及在其中移动的机制相关联的理解。这种跨学科的方法以多因素的方式检查寻路和导航，结合对运动模式的关注，对虚拟世界的空间语法（特征）的关注，以及对个人用户的能力和差异的关注。除了改进虚拟世界的设计和使用之外，这项工作将影响多个学科：它不仅推进了计算机图形学和虚拟现实，而且还为认知科学和地理信息科学领域提供了信息。

The objective of this research is to enable more effective design and use of virtual worlds. Virtual worlds are important in many domains, including architecture, education, medicine, simulation, and training. However, when compared to the real world, virtual worlds are hard to move through effectively, and pose challenges to effective navigation. If virtual worlds are going to be widely deployed - particularly for applications in education, training, and simulation - then these problems must be solved. This work will generate essential discoveries improving the process of wayfinding (orienting and navigating from place to place) and locomoting through immersive virtual worlds. It thus provides a critical and synergistic complement to the recent advent of low-cost commodity-level virtual reality equipment.This research is multi-disciplinary and employs methods from computer science, cognitive science, and geographical information science in accomplishing these objectives. A transformation of wayfinding and navigation for large immersive virtual worlds can be accomplished by studying locomotion modes in conjunction with the spatial characteristics of virtual worlds and individual differences and abilities of the users of the virtual environments. In this work, virtual worlds are described and analyzed in terms of their connectivity, visual access, and integration using formal measures summarized as space syntax. Likewise, individuals traveling through virtual worlds may navigate and reason about space quite differently, and these differences can be quantified and measured. The goal is to develop locomotion modes that take into account both characteristics described by space syntax and individual attributes of users. Truly effective design and use of virtual worlds depend on an understanding of how an individual's abilities relate to the characteristics of the virtual world and the mechanisms for moving about in them. This interdisciplinary approach examines wayfinding and navigation in a multi-factor way, combining a focus on locomotion modes, a focus on spatial syntax (characteristics) of the virtual world, and a focus on the abilities and differences of individual users. In addition to improving the design and use of virtual worlds, this work will impact multiple disciplines: it not only advances computer graphics and virtual reality, but also informs the fields of cognitive science and geographical information science.