There are three common types of head tracking provided by virtual reality (VR) systems based on their degrees of freedom (DOF): complete 6-DOF, rotational 3-DOF, and translational 3-DOF. Prior research has indicated that complete 6-DOF head tracking provides significantly better user performance than not having head tracking, but there is little to no research comparing the three common types of head tracking. In this paper, we present one of the first studies to investigate and compare the effects of complete head tracking, rotational head tracking, and translational head tracking. The results of this study indicate that translational head tracking was significantly worse than complete and rotational head tracking, in terms of task time, task errors, reported usability, and presence. Surprisingly, we did not find any significant differences between complete and rotational head tracking. We discuss potential reasons why, in addition to the implications of the results.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-rIcbav6yY&t=1s
This project was developed for a Virtual Reality user study in Future Immersive Virtual Environment (FIVE) Lab at UT Dallas. This purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the effects of complete head tracking (6 DOF), rotational head tracking (3 DOF in HPR), and translational head tracking (3 DOF in XYZ). The project consisted of a pawn shop as the virtual environment. The pawn shop had objects scattered all around in the virtual space. The user task was to select different set of objects using 3 different head tracking. The application provided visual and audio cues for selecting an object. The user study was conducted in a Motion Capture Vestibule with pre-installed and calibrated Vicon system. Oculus Rift DK1 was used as the Head Mounted Display, Nintendo Wii remotes were used for interaction in the virtual environment.
Virtual Reality, Unity 3D, C#, Maya, Oculus Rift DK1, Nintendo Wii remotes.