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Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
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Viewpoint Animation With a Dynamic Tether for Supporting Navigation in a Virtual Environment

Wenbi Wang

Defence R&D Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, wenbi.wang{at}drdc-rddc.gc.ca

Paul Milgram

University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Objective: This study examined the concept of dynamic viewpoint tethering for enhancing performance in 3-D avatar control tasks. Background: Dynamic viewpoint tethering refers to a viewpoint animation technique that couples a display viewpoint to a controlled avatar through a virtual tether. A dynamic tether, modeled as a mass spring damper system, can potentially generate desirable viewpoint behavior because of its ability to produce frequency-separated viewpoint responses. This study investigated the impact of a tether’s rigidity and damping properties on users’ navigational performance. Methods: Twelve participants took part in a simulated 3-D aerial navigational task. Performance was evaluated with respect to local guidance and global awareness. Results: Root mean square error scores revealed a decrease in local guidance performance when (a) the tether was either severely underdamped or overdamped and (b) the tether’s rigidity approached either zero or infinity. In addition, (c) global performance was better for higher-frequency forcing functions. Conclusion: Critical damping and medium rigidity can be optimized during design for enhancing users’ navigational efficiency. Application: Guidelines generated from this study support future viewpoint design in interactive virtual reality applications.

Key Words: dynamic viewpoint tethering • navigation • virtual environment • viewpoint animation technique • desirable viewpoint behavior • frequency separated viewpoint response • navigational performance • rigidity and damping • local guidance • global awareness • tether rigidity • tether characteristics • interactive virtual reality applications

This version was published on June 1, 2009

Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Vol. 51, No. 3, 393-403 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0018720809340031
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