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VRChairRacer: Using an Office Chair Backrest as a Locomotion Technique for VR Racing Games
CHI EA
2019
Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '19
TL;DR
What we did:
We built VRChairRacer, a novel locomotion technique that uses the backrest of an office chair to control a virtual racing cart in a multiplayer racing game.
What we found:
We found that mapping the chair's tilt to acceleration and its rotation to steering provides an immersive and realistic racing experience while minimizing cyber sickness.
Takeaway:
Our approach offers a low-cost and effective solution for enhancing locomotion in Virtual Reality environments, making it accessible for use in multiplayer settings.
Abstract
Locomotion in Virtual Reality (VR) is an important topic as there is a mismatch between the size of a Virtual Environment and the physically available tracking space. Although many locomotion techniques have been proposed, research on VR locomotion has not concluded yet. In this demonstration, we contribute to the area of VR locomotion by introducing VRChairRacer. VRChairRacer introduces a novel mapping the velocity of a racing cart on the backrest of an office chair. Further, it maps a users’ rotation onto the steering of a virtual racing cart. VRChairRacer demonstrates this locomotion technique to the community through an immersive multiplayer racing demo.