Summary

This project explores which movement features could be used to detect variations in behaviour in real, augmented, and virtual environments. The goal of this project is to explore how using AR HMDs could perturb gait, other human movement parameters and ultimately user experience. This will be done by collecting normative movement data from people moving in a variety of situations, and then collect data from people while they complete the same walking task wearing an AR HMDs and interact with virtual content.

Head-mounted displays (HMDs) for Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are becoming increasingly popular. Despite this, there has been little research on the impact of wearing HMDs on gait. Previous work has shown that walking while using a phone requires simultaneous engagement of cognitive and motor functions, and division of attention, impacting gait. In a similar way, the cognitive load and reduced visibility associated with using an HMD could also impact gait. For example, if a person is paying more attention to the virtual content in an AR HMD than the real world around them, then their walking gait behaviour may change and their user experience might be impacted.

Acknowledgement

This project is funded by Meta Platforms Technologies.

Related Project

Attention and Distraction in Pedestrian Augmented Reality

Research Outputs

Balachandran, BK, Yeung T, Billinghurst M, Stamenkovic A, Mahnan A, and Lukosch S. (2024). Navigating Virtual Realms: The Impact of Wearing HMDs on Human Gait, in 2024 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct (ISMAR-Adjunct), Bellevue, WA, USA, 2024, pp. 425-426, doi: 10.1109/ISMAR-Adjunct64951.2024.00123

Contact

Prof. Stephan Lukosch 

Project Partners

• • University of South Australia
  • University of Auckland

HIT Lab NZ Project Team