Evaluating the effects of four VR locomotion methods: joystick, arm-cycling, point-tugging, and teleporting

In this work we present two novel methods of exploring a large immersive virtual environment (IVE) viewed through a head-mounted display (HMD) using the tracked controllers that come standard with commodity-level HMD systems. With the first method, "Point-Tugging," users reach and pull the controller trigger at a point in front of them and move in the direction of the point they "tug" with the controller. With the second method, "Arm-Cycling," users move their arms while pulling the trigger on the hand-held controllers to translate in the yaw direction that their head is facing. We perform a search task experiment to directly compare four locomotion techniques: Joystick, Arm-Cycling, Point-Tugging, and Teleporting. In the joystick condition, a joystick is used to translate the user in the yaw direction of gaze with physical rotations matching virtual rotations. In the teleporting condition, the controllers create an arched beam that allows the user to select a point on the ground and instantly teleport to this location. We find that Arm-Cycling has advantages over the other methods and could be suitable for wide-spread use.