A Comparison of Navigation Techniques in a Virtual Museum Scenario

Abstract

Thanks to the recent availability of low-cost immersive Virtual Reality (VR) devices, applications like Virtual Museums, where the users can explore fictional or recreated buildings hosting different artworks, are becoming increasingly popular. Different solutions can be implemented to enable users' navigation in an immersive Virtual Museum and the choice of the best one for a specific application is not easy, as several issues must be taken into account, like motion sickness, user's freedom, loss of orientation. In this work, we propose a novel locomotion technique called Map Overview Teleport, particularly suitable for exploration of virtual museums and compare it with standard ones in a specifically designed user study. The outcomes of the experiment give useful insights into the design of effective applications.