| dc.description.abstract | Advances in VR technology enabled the development and distribution of 360° videos.
Also called panoramic videos, this type of media is shot from multiple camera angles,
forming a complete surround experience. Paired with a HMD device, this creates a fully
immersive experience.
For the majority of 360° video players, view point changes in order to explore all
viewing directions are often exclusively performed by head movements.
While this design helps greatly with immersion, it also creates some practical problems.
To explore the content of a video in all viewing directions, a viewer has to rotate their
whole body along the yaw axis. This is especially problematic if the viewer wishes to
remain stationary, for example on a non-rotating chair. In this case, the whole video
content can only be accessed by performing extreme head movements and straining neck
rotations.
This work focuses on implementing alternative rotation methods which allow a viewer
to fully navigate the content of a video while remaining in a stationary position and
while avoiding straining head rotations. To this end, three distinct rotation methods
have been created, each being a representative for a basic interaction concept. A GUI
method, which implements additional graphical user interface elements, a thumbstick
method, utilising a physical VR controller as input, and a dragging method, which uses
gestures for video rotation. These methods are then analysed and compared against
each other in a user study, focusing both on viewer performance as well as subjective
feedback.
The results show that while there is no complete elimination of head movement, nor
significant difference of it between the three rotation methods, every rotation method
allows a viewer to navigate the video content from a stationary position. Participant
feedback suggests that the Thumbstick method was best suited for this task. These results suggest that implementing the Thumbstick method into 360° video players provides
viewers with a powerful alternative for video navigation. The additional inclusion of the
Dragging method provides viewers with multiple options for rotation which accommodates different preferences. | |
