Scene-Motion Thresholds Correlate with Angular Head Motions for Immersive Virtual Environments

To better understand motion perception in immersive virtual environments, we conducted a user study to quantify perception of scene motion as subjects yawed their heads. We measured psychometric functions of scene-velocity thresholds for different head motions and then extracted 75% thresholds, creating scene-velocity thresholds as functions of three measures of head motion: 1) angular range, 2) peak angular velocity, 3) and peak angular acceleration. We also measured scene-velocity thresholds for four phases of head motion: 1) the start of the head turn, 2) the center of the head turn, 3) the end of the head turn, 4) and all of the head turn. Scene-velocity thresholds increased as head motion increased for all tested conditions.