Navigating Realities: Assessing Egocentric Distance Perception in Virtual Environments for Construction Applications

초록

This study delves into the intricacies of egocentric distance perception within Virtual Reality (VR) environments, especially in the context of the construction industry, where accurate spatial understanding is paramount. Employing VR to observe and interact with the built environment presents novel opportunities for enhancing planning, design, and safety training processes. Through a series of experiments involving participants from construction management and civil engineering disciplines, this research quantitatively assesses the errors in distance estimation and execution of walking tasks in both VR and real-world settings. Findings indicate a consistent underestimation of distances and an increased likelihood of overshooting target distances in VR compared to real-world experiences, with significant implications for the reliability of VR-based decision-making in construction. Surprisingly, the study reveals no substantial advantage of using omnidirectional treadmills - a presumed more natural mode of locomotion in VR - over traditional joysticks in improving egocentric distance perception. This outcome suggests that factors such as device familiarity and experimental design limitations might influence the effectiveness of immersive technologies in VR. The research underscores the need to further explore diverse human behaviors within VR environments to enhance our understanding of spatial perception and to better leverage VR technologies in construction and beyond.

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