Comparative Evaluation of Visual and Tactile Spatial Guidance Systems in Virtual Reality

Comparative Evaluation of Visual and Tactile Spatial Guidance Systems in Virtual Reality | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Comparative Evaluation of Visual and Tactile Spatial Guidance Systems in Virtual Reality Zhi Liu, Jingjing Li, Tatsuki Fushimi, Yoichi Ochiai This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4073920/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Despite the common use of visual aids for spatial guidance, the extensive use of visual elements can lead to interface overcrowding and visual overload. In contrast, tactile navigation presents a vision-free alternative in assisting way-finding tasks. However, previous studies kept directional cues constantly active in experiments, overlooking potential differences in user interaction behavior caused by variations in interpretation speed and localization accuracy between visual, tactile, and combined spatial guidance. Additionally, these studies typically simplified navigation tasks, focusing on following cues without the multitasking demands of large-scale virtual environments. This paper aims to fill the gap by investigating the effects of visual, vibrotactile (equidistant and localized magnification), and combined (visual + equidistant and visual + localized magnification) spatial guidance modalities on task performance, user behavior and tendency in large-scale virtual environments.By building an immersive virtual scene that enables continuous tracking of participants' performance and interaction behaviors, results indicated no significant disparities in task completion times and way-finding strategies across modalities. However, tactile modalities were activated more frequently but for a shorter duration compared to visual and combined modalities. Moreover, when both visual and tactile directional cues were presented, users tended to rely on visual cues. Biological sciences/Psychology/Human behaviour Physical sciences/Engineering/Electrical and electronic engineering Full Text Additional Declarations Competing interest reported. This work was funded by "Strategic Research Platform towards Digital Nature Powered by Pixie Dust Technologies, Inc". Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4073920","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":283547089,"identity":"c5b7334d-539e-4e82-bbac-b1110c2f84e6","order_by":0,"name":"Zhi Liu","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"University of Tsukuba","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhi","middleName":"","lastName":"Liu","suffix":""},{"id":283547090,"identity":"28fc7bdf-7747-4fb6-aa56-f4806c094c65","order_by":1,"name":"Jingjing Li","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Tsukuba","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jingjing","middleName":"","lastName":"Li","suffix":""},{"id":283547091,"identity":"9004f3cb-2e02-46e9-b890-799c328b07e5","order_by":2,"name":"Tatsuki Fushimi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Tsukuba","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tatsuki","middleName":"","lastName":"Fushimi","suffix":""},{"id":283547092,"identity":"5492f087-359c-4b3e-ba1d-b9c91c2b426f","order_by":3,"name":"Yoichi Ochiai","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Tsukuba","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yoichi","middleName":"","lastName":"Ochiai","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-03-11 12:49:04","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4073920/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4073920/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":54809682,"identity":"b4d8ab3a-3b5b-48d7-955e-67de220ae39a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-04-17 05:51:33","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":4087661,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ComparativeEvaluationofVisualandTactileSpatialGuidanceSystemsinVirtualReality.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4073920/v1_covered_99f676db-52a2-45ab-9fee-9c849a993de0.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"Competing interest reported. This work was funded by \"Strategic Research Platform towards Digital Nature Powered by Pixie Dust Technologies, Inc\".","formattedTitle":"Comparative Evaluation of Visual and Tactile Spatial Guidance Systems in Virtual Reality","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4073920/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4073920/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Despite the common use of visual aids for spatial guidance, the extensive use of visual elements can lead to interface overcrowding and visual overload. In contrast, tactile navigation presents a vision-free alternative in assisting way-finding tasks. However, previous studies kept directional cues constantly active in experiments, overlooking potential differences in user interaction behavior caused by variations in interpretation speed and localization accuracy between visual, tactile, and combined spatial guidance. Additionally, these studies typically simplified navigation tasks, focusing on following cues without the multitasking demands of large-scale virtual environments. This paper aims to fill the gap by investigating the effects of visual, vibrotactile (equidistant and localized magnification), and combined (visual + equidistant and visual + localized magnification) spatial guidance modalities on task performance, user behavior and tendency in large-scale virtual environments.By building an immersive virtual scene that enables continuous tracking of participants' performance and interaction behaviors, results indicated no significant disparities in task completion times and way-finding strategies across modalities. However, tactile modalities were activated more frequently but for a shorter duration compared to visual and combined modalities. Moreover, when both visual and tactile directional cues were presented, users tended to rely on visual cues.","manuscriptTitle":"Comparative Evaluation of Visual and Tactile Spatial Guidance Systems in Virtual Reality","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-03-26 02:08:14","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4073920/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"508fa7af-1b4c-4fce-9e72-952cb6c3d6e5","owner":[],"postedDate":"March 26th, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":29847274,"name":"Biological sciences/Psychology/Human behaviour"},{"id":29847275,"name":"Physical sciences/Engineering/Electrical and electronic engineering"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-04-17T05:43:25+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-03-26 02:08:14","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-4073920","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-4073920","identity":"rs-4073920","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"qtupq5eGEP_6zYnWcrvyt","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}