The Gender Factor in Virtual Reality Navigation and Wayfinding

An area of interest that remains to be more thoroughly investigated is that of human navigation and wayfinding in VR. This study attempted to examine the effect of gender on VR navigation and wayfinding. A tool named Virtual Reality Navigation Tool (VRNT) was designed to conduct experiments for this research. Four experiments were conducted to track navigational patterns employed by the subjects while interacting with the 3D maze environment. As each subject was performing a prescribed task, the VRNT was tracking navigational behavior, specifically, the number of turns taken, time spent and the number and order of rooms traversed. The analysis of the tracking revealed some common navigational behaviors. The study results suggest that the tendency to take left and right turns is influenced by gender; whereas, the time traveled and numbers of rooms visited are not.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: HICSS
• Authors: Joaquin Vila, Barbara Beccue, Sachin Anandikar
• Keywords: Biometrics, HICSS 2003, Navigational Behaviors, Reality Navigation Tool, System Sciences, VR Navigation