Can we perceive changes in our moving speed: a comparison between directly and indirectly powering the locomotion in virtual environments

Abstract

Many categories of the illusion of self-motion have been widely studied with the potential support of virtual reality. However, the effects of directly and indirectly powering the movement on the possibility of perceiving changes in moving speed and their relationship with sensory feedback on users' speed change perception have not been investigated before. In this paper, we present the results of our user study on the difference in perceiving changes in moving speed between two different movement techniques: "pedaling" and "throttling". We also explore the effects of different velocity gains, accelerations and speeds of airflow, and their interactions with the movement techniques on users' perception of speed changes in addition to user performance and perception. We built a bike simulator that supports both of the movement techniques and provides sensory feedback. In general, "pedaling" gave users more possibility to perceive changes in moving velocity than "throttling".