The influence of body orientation relative to gravity on egocentric distance estimates in virtual reality

Virtual reality head mounted displays (VR-HMD) can immerse individuals into a variety of virtual environments while accounting for head orientation to update the virtual environment. VR-HMDs also allow users to explore environments while maintaining different body positions (e.g. sitting and laying down). How discrepancies between real world body position and the virtual environment impact the perception of virtual space or, additionally, how a visual upright with incongruent changes in head orientation affects space perception within VR has not been fully defined. In this study we sought to further understand how changes in head-on-body orientation (laying supine, laying prone, laying on left side and, being upright) while a steady visual virtual upright is maintained can affect the perception of distance. We used a new psychophysics perceptual matching based approach with two different probe configurations (“L” & “T” shape) to extract distance perception thresholds in the four previously mentioned positions at egocentric distances of 4, 5, and 6 virtual meters. Our results indicate that changes in observer orientation with respect to gravity impact the perception of distances with a virtual environment when it is maintained at a visual upright. Here we found significant differences between perceived distances in the upright condition compared to the prone and laying on left side positions. Additionally, we found that distance perception results were impacted by differences in probe configuration. Our results add to a body of work on how changes in head-on-body orientation can affect the perception of distance, while stressing that more research is still needed to fully understand how these changes with respect to gravity affect the perception of space within virtual environments.