Evaluation of Surround-View and Self-Rotation in the OCTAVIS VR-System

In this paper we evaluate spatial presence and orientation in the OCTAVIS system, a novel virtual reality platform aimed at training and rehabilitation of visual-spatial cognitive abilities. It consists of eight touch-screen displays surrounding the user, thereby providing a 360 horizontal panorama view. A rotating office chair and a joystick in the armrest serve as input devices to easily navigate through the virtual environment. We conducted a two-step experiment to investigate spatial orientation capabilities with our device. First, we examined whether the extension of the horizontal field of view from 135 (three displays) to 360 (eight displays) has an effect on spatial presence and on the accuracy in a pointing task. Second, driving the full eight screens, we explored the effect of embodied self-rotation using the same measures. In particular we compare navigation by rotating the world while the user is sitting stable to a stable world and a self-rotating user.