Abstract
The current study focuses on design factors that can be manipulated to enhance human performance in virtual environment training systems (VETS). While there is currently an effort to understand for which tasks enhanced human performance can be achieved through VE training, there is limited understanding of how the VETS itself can be designed to enhance human performance in virtual environments. This study aims to establish a set of guiding design principles that enable intuitive and efficient interaction such that human performance in VETS is enhanced. This was accomplished by relating exposure duration, scene parameters, and amount of motion to human performance. A 3times2 between subjects experimental design was used, with 20 participants per treatment condition. The independent variables included exposure duration (15, 30, 45 minutes) and scene content (complex versus simple). The dependent variables included task performance, the amount of rotational roll, pitch and yaw, the amount of translational motion, as well as subjective reports of cybersickness taken immediately after VE exposure. The results were analyzed using non-parametric tests and correlational analyses. The results indicated that performance increased with amount of rotational motion (roll, pitch, and yaw) but was unrelated to the amount of translational motion. Scene content did not have a significant effect on performance nor sickness. In addition, sickness was not correlated with performance, nor, surprisingly, with amount of rotational or translational motion. Sickness did increase as exposure duration increased. The implication is that to maximize human performance, allow for sufficient roll, pitch, and yaw movement to accomplish task objectives, while ensuring the duration of exposure is less than 30 minutes.
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