University of Washington Thesis
Scholars have developed methods and produced studies all pertaining to the way people interact with virtual environments. Many of these instances involve the use of ways to enhance a selection method to show that it has benefits in certain applications. Many other instances have conducted studies directly using common selection methods to evaluate the performance of said selection methods in varying environments. Virtual Reality (VR) is still experimental, meaning that there is still much to understand about the way that people experience it. Although other researchers have done a great deal of work in the field, there is a pattern in all of the potential future work for these collective works. The next step forward will come from finding the elements that affect the overall experience in VR the most, then taking those elements and striking the perfect balance between them in order to produce the most immersive VR experience that allows users to feel that they are attentive and that their actions in VR feel effective and natural. This study will revolve around the three part trifecta that theoretically amplifies an overall VR experience. Those three elements include selection/interaction methods, the vr environment, and the application. This research can potentially fill in the gaps within the relationship between the natural affordance people demonstrate while performing physical interactions and the experience of similar activities simulated in a virtual environment. All with the end goal of giving developers a reference point for designing their own virtual experiences that draw full immersiveness, attentiveness, and effectiveness from their users. Plainly stated, the purpose of this study is to pinpoint the ways to draw out the most natural virtual experience for a user in order to push VR to the next level of interaction.