Computational Methods for Locomotion in Virtual Reality  

Niall Williams


Abstract: Exploration of large, complex virtual environments is an integral part of an immersive experience in virtual reality (VR). However, safe exploration of virtual environments is difficult since the virtual world is generally much larger than the user's physical environment, meaning that an unobstructed path in the virtual world may correspond to an obstructed path in the physical world. Locomotion interfaces are techniques that allow users to move through virtual environments without colliding with physical objects. Existing interfaces, such as walking-in-place or teleportation, can enable long-distance exploration, but are not immersive due to their unrealistic controls. Interfaces that let users navigate using natural, everyday walking are usually preferred since they are more intuitive and create a higher sense of presence, but they usually require a large physical space in order to be used effectively.     

In this talk, I will discuss how we combine techniques from human visual perception and robot motion planning to develop new algorithms that enable users to explore large virtual environments using natural walking, with a focus on interfaces that can function outside of controlled lab environments. To achieve this, we leverage the concept of alignment to develop new locomotion interfaces that take into account the structure of both the physical and virtual environment to optimally steer the user away from physical obstacles that they cannot see. Additionally, we introduce new algorithms that are built using a formalization of the VR locomotion problem based on motion planning. Our mathematical formalization allows us to leverage techniques from robot motion planning and computational geometry to develop steering algorithms that are more easily generalizable to different environment layouts without requiring us to change the algorithm implementation. Finally, I will present ongoing work that leverages interactable components of the virtual environment to further influence users to travel on collision-free paths while providing an immersive virtual experience.   

Speaker Bio: Dr. Niall Williams is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Zaragoza, where he conducts research on computer graphics and applied visual perception.  He completed his bachelor’s degree in computer science at Davidson College and his MS and PhD in computer science at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research takes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding how humans interact with real-time computer graphics systems, building upon results from vision science, robotics, computational geometry, and statistical modeling to optimize graphics systems to improve the user experience. In the past, he was a Faculty Fellow at New York University and has interned at Meta Reality Labs and NVIDIA. He is the recipient of multiple best paper honorable mentions for his research on locomotion in virtual reality.