You Invaded My Tracking Space! Using Augmented Virtuality for Spotting Passersby in Room-Scale Virtual Reality

Abstract: With the proliferation of room-scale Virtual Reality (VR), more and more users install a VR system in their homes. When users are in VR, they are usually completely immersed in their application. However, sometimes passersby invade these tracking spaces and walk up to users that are currently immersed in VR to try and interact with them. As this either scares the user in VR or breaks the user’s immersion, research has yet to find a way to seamlessly represent physical passersby in virtual worlds. In this paper, we propose and evaluate three different ways to represent physical passersby in a Virtual Environment using Augmented Virtuality. The representations encompass showing a Pointcloud, showing a 3D-Model, and showing an Image Overlay of the passerby. Our results show that while an Image Overlay and a 3D-Model are the fastest representations to spot passersby, the 3D-Model and the Pointcloud representations were the most accurate.

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