VitruvianVR introduces and implements a new way of interaction for the movement control system for Virtual Environments (VE) that is intended to increase the sense of presence while reducing the effect of cybersickness during a session in Virtual Reality (VR). Through the combination of three different rotating rings controlled by the users itself, this new interaction system adds body rotations on three different axis (i.e., roll, pitch and yaw) differentiating itself from traditional virtual reality hand-held controllers (with the characteristics of palm controllers).
Detailing, the HTLAB team focused on the design, development, and evaluation of an experience of flying with a hang-glider using this novel embodied interface. The virtual environment was created by experts in VR within the laboratory to be used for conducting the experiment. During the experiment, the team compared two different modalities of interaction recruiting users between 18 and 30 years of age: the traditional one using an hand-held controller alongside an Head Mounted Display (HMD), and the more innovative one, using VitruvianVR alongside an HMD.

The team has applied a human-centered approach based to evaluate a wide range of human perceptual and behavioral factors including the sense of presence, cybersickness, user’s experience, acceptance, usability, mental work task load index and also performance (e.g. accuracy and fails), rotation of the body and head movements.

Generally, results of the experiment indicated a higher level of acceptance and better user experience, as well as increased perception of the sense of presence during the simulation while the users were interacting with the VitruvianVR compared to when they were interacting with the traditional system. While, cybersickness resulted to be noticeably reduced when interacting with VitruvianVR. On the other hand, performance resulted to be less good during the session with the VitruvianVR if compared with a hand-held device. Despite this, performance still results to be efficient, highlighting the capability of this novel interface to support these kinds of experiences.