UNDERSTANDING VISUAL AND AURAL CUES FOR NAVIGATION IN VIRTUAL WORLDS

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• UNDERSTANDING VISUAL AND AURAL CUES FOR
  NAVIGATION IN VIRTUAL WORLDS
• Leman Figen Gül
• Supervisor Prof. Mary Lou Maher
• Associate Supervisor Dr. Kirsty Beilharz

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Outline

• Motivations
• Objectives
• Background study
• Methods

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Motivations

• getting lost in hyperspace (Conklin, 1987)
• Virtual environments contain navigation and
  orientation problems that have to be addressed
  (Mills and Noyes, 1999 Wann and Mon-Williams,
  1996)

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Motivations

• within a unified layout, people can remember
  where they are and whats around them. Without
  this, people will find cyberspace rather
  disorientating and discontinuesIn a unified
  cyberspace, you can make maps, or stop somewhere
  and ask directions. (Pesce, 1995)
• Because of human innate abilities to orient and
  navigate through physical space, the problems
  associated with these tasks in virtual space have
  not been addressed in any depth. (Darken, 1996)

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Objectives

• To develop an understanding of navigational
  behavior in 3D virtual worlds founded on
• basic principles of human spatial abilities, the
  ways in which
• human acquire knowledge,
• human represent knowledge,
• human access spatial knowledge.

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Objectives questions

• What is the role of visual and aural cues in
  navigation in virtual worlds?
• How do people use visual and aural cues to
  develop a mental model of the environment?
• How do visual and aural cues facilitate the
  updating of position and orientation (path
  integration)?

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Scope

• The focus of study
• Cognitive mapping
• Peoples ability to effectively process this
  knowledge
• The role of visual and aural cues to developing a
  cognitive map
• Domain 3Dvirtual worlds
• Non-immersive virtual world
• No haptic devices, gloves, goggles
• Desktop environment
• Keyboard, mouse, screen, headphones
• 3D Virtual World
• Multi-user, Synchronous

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Background Study

• Navigation and wayfinding- Definitions
• Cognitive mapping
• Physical world vs virtual world
• Navigational behaviours

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Background study What is navigation?
Navigation Wayfinding Locomotion Knowing
where to go' Getting there' Rudy Darken

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Background study What is navigation?

• Navigation is ... about finding your way
  confidently and successfully to your goal while
  discovering fresh delights along the way.Mark
  Apperley
• Navigation is the cognitive process of acquiring
  knowledge about a space, strategies for moving
  through space, and changing one's metaknowledge
  about a space. Laura Leventhal

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Background study What is wayfinding?

• selecting a path through an environment to the
  desired destination, and is called pathfinding
  and wayfinding (Bovy and Stern, 1990).

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Background study What is wayfinding?

• considers the task in query requiring that
  navigation (physical movement) take place
  (Darken, 1996).
• Spatial orientation and wayfinding. Allow
  people an idea of surrounding space, of their
  positions in that space, and they allow
  purposeful movement within that space. (Passini,
  1986)

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Background study .Cognitive Mapping Theory

• is used to specify the internal representation of
  spatial information, a concept invented by
  Tolman (1948). Term implies
• deliberate and
• motivated encoding of environmental information.
• It can be used to determine
• Where one is at any moment
• Where specific encoded objects are in surrounding
  space
• How to get from one place to another
• How to communicate spatial knowledge to others

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Background study .Cognitive Mapping Theory

• Experiment

• The stimulus response
• Or
• A complex mental phenomenon

A. Tolmans training maze. B. Tolmans sunburst
maze. Reproduced from Tolman 1948
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Background study Cognitive Mapping Theory

• Human experience and learn
• Names and identities
• The location
• The size, magnitude and frequency of occurrence
• Temporal domain
• Times of existence
• Legibility
• Familiarity

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Background study .Cognitive Mapping Theory

• Geometric components of spatial knowledge
  (Golledge,1999)
• Points (Landmarks, reference nodes)
• Lines (routes, paths)
• Areas (region, neighbourhood)
• Surfaces (physical topography, density)

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Background study Spatial cognition

• Spatial tasks require spatial knowledge gathered
  from environment. (Brown,1932)
• Distribution of spatial knowledge (Siegel and
  White, 1975)
• Landmarks
• Unique places
• Helping people to maintain their orientation
• Route knowledge
• Ability to navigate from one location to another
• The sequence of actions required to follow a
  particular route
• Based on ego-centered frame of reference (known
  in relation to oneself)
• Survey knowledge
• Knowledge of the overall configuration (give us a
  sense of direction)
• Topological properties of environments
• Resides in the form of mental map (internal
  cognitive map)

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.Anchor point theory of spatial knowledge
acquisition

• The theory emphasis the role of landmarks in
  learning process (Golledge and Spector, 1978),
  they suggest that
• Different places have different salience to
  individuals, and therefore
• Become hierarchically structured
• More important landmarks are acting as mental
  anchors to less important information

Figure An example of how this Anchor Point
Theory works for spatial knowledge acquisition
(Golledge, 1999)
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Background study .Cognitive Mapping Theory

• Anchor point theory of spatial knowledge
  acquisition
• Used as a centroid for spatially partitioning a
  region
• Have visible dominance
• Locations,
• Features,
• Path segments
• Familiar district
• Encoding
• Storage
• Decoding

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..The use of Landmarks in Cognitive Mapping

• are often noticed and
• remembered because of dominance of visible form,
• peculiarity of shape or structure, or
• because of socia cultural significance
• Something capable of attracting attention
• Being commonly recognize by many people
• Places and features tied to individual activity
  patterns

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Background study .
In physical worlds.
(Vinson, 1999 Lynch, 1960)
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Background study

• In virtual worlds.

(Darken and Sibert, 1993)
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Background study .Navigational Behaviours
Spatial models of navigation

• it exploits our familiarity with the naturally
  spatial organization of the real world,
• a user move from one item to another because of
  a spatial relationship- above, below, outside
  (Dourish and Chalmers,93).

• Inherently spatial
• most obviously seen
• 2.Semantic
• relationship between information objects
• mapped onto a spatial arrangements

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Background study .Navigational Behaviours
Semantic models of navigation

• Hypertext systems
• A semantic web is a network of concepts linked
  by relations (Woods, 1975)
• a user move from one item to another because
  of a semantic relationship- bigger, alike,
  faster (Dourish and Chalmers,93).

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Background study .Navigational Behaviours
Social models of navigation

• Moving toward a cluster of other people
• Selecting objects because others have been
  examining them
• In spatially- organised information environments
• In non- spatially- organised information
  environments

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Background study .Navigational Behaviours
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Methods

• Experiments
• An existing virtual world
• Two variables
• visual cues
• aural cues

Figure Independent variables (Biocca,2002)
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Methods

• The role of aural cues
• Use of sound as
• Boundary notification
• Landmark
• The role of visual cues
• Landmarks (Spatial navigation)
• 1. Local
• 2. Global

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Methods

• Quantitative approach
• Unidimensional data generation
• To determine a participants knowledge of spatial
  relationship between two locations
• Direction tasks
• Distance tasks
• Two-dimensional data generation
• To obtain a participants knowledge of
  configurational spatial relationships
• Graphic and modelling task
• Completion tasks
• Recognition tasks
• Qualitative approach
• Protocol analysis
• (Kitchin and Blades,2002)

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Conclusion

• This research will contribute
• to develop a better understanding of human
  navigational behavior in 3D virtual worlds.
• to improve the spatial legibility of virtual
  spaces
• usability, usefulness,
• increase user navigation

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References

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• Dourish, P. and Chalmers, M. (1994). Running out
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