The movement patterns and the experiential components of virtual environments

  • Authors:

  • Heikki Särkelä;Jari Takatalo;Patrick May;Mikko Laakso;Göte Nyman

  • Affiliations:

  • Psychology of Evolving Media and Technology (POEM), Faculty of Behavioral Sciences, University of Helsinki, PO Box 9, FIN-00014, Finland;Psychology of Evolving Media and Technology (POEM), Faculty of Behavioral Sciences, University of Helsinki, PO Box 9, FIN-00014, Finland;Department of Biomedical Engineering and Computational Science, Helsinki University of Technology, PO Box 3310, FIN-02015 TKK, Finland;Department of Media Technology, Helsinki University of Technology, PO Box 5400, FIN-02015 TKK, Finland;Psychology of Evolving Media and Technology (POEM), Faculty of Behavioral Sciences, University of Helsinki, PO Box 9, FIN-00014, Finland

  • Venue:
  • International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

Human movement in virtual environments (VEs) is a largely unstudied area, and there are no well-established methods of measuring it in VEs. Consequently, it is unclear how movement affects the experiential side of VEs. We introduce a novel method of measuring and modelling human movement. A specific information entropy-based modelling method enabled us to identify different movement patterns and analyse the experiential components related to them. The data was collected by registering the movement patterns of 68 participants who were in a virtual house doing a search task. The experiential side of the VE was measured with the Experimental Virtual Environment Questionnaire (EVEQ). Four movement patterns were identified. In addition, fluent movement in VEs was related to a high sense of presence. Moreover, the participants who moved fluently in the environment assessed their skills high. The results show how movement is related the way in which people experience the VE. The movement analysis method introduced here is applicable to other related research areas as well.