AN ANALYSIS OF VISUAL ELEMENTS OF NAVIGATION IN AUGMENTED AND VIRTUAL REALITIES

Abstract

Human navigation is a fundamental form of human activity, and with the adventof the technologies of augmented and virtual reality, there is an increase in possible environments requiring navigation and the methods by which environments are navigated. Many tools and methods appropriate for older navigation contexts exist, but these may not be applicable or useful in these newer contexts. This work examines the challenges these contexts pose and provides tools and novel methods to address them, by focusing on the sense of vision and the navigation elements that address that sense. Augmented reality allows for greater precision in path-routing and ease of following directions for the user, but the challenges of localization and the physical constraints of navigation in the real world must be addressed for the technology to provide utility to the user. Research into augmented reality navigation suffers from significant limitations, which are identified in the course of this dissertation. An effort to support the development of augmented reality solutions is also included in the form of a software tool for creating depth maps from sensors of augmented reality devices. Virtual reality environments can be a struggle to navigate within due to cybersickness, leading to a research focus on locomotion techniques. These locomotion techniques can be improved by creative modifications due to the presence of fewer physical constraints than exist in the real world, and this dissertation presents several strategies to improve a classic locomotion technique: teleportation. Overall, the goal of the work presented here is to improve the user experience of navigating, both in virtual and real contexts, by analyzing and contributing visual navigation strategies where they are lacking in the current field of research.