On the usability of consumer locomotion techniques in serious games: Comparing arm swinging, treadmills and walk-in-place

When we refer to locomotion in Virtual Reality (VR) we subtend a vast and variegated number of investigations, solutions and devices coming from both research and industry. Despite this richness, a consolidated methodology for evaluating the many locomotion techniques available is still lacking. The present paper extends a previous work in which authors performed a user study-based comparison between two common locomotion techniques, i.e., Arm Swinging, and an omni-directional treadmill with a containment ring. In the study, users were engaged in a realistic immersive VR scenario depicting a fire event in a road tunnel. Remaining adherent to the previously defined methodology, the current work widens the comparison to consider two other locomotion methods (keeping results obtained with the former technique above for reference purposes), namely, a different treadmill constraining the user through a top-mounted independent support structure, and Walk-in-Place, a technique which allows the user to move in the virtual environment by performing a natural marching gesture by exploiting two sensors placed on his or her legs.