Assessement of Assisted Navigation in NUI Virtual Architectural Environments

Abstract

[Abstract]: This paper describes the results of a case study about how Assisted Navigation and Natural User Interfaces can facilitate user control in virtual architectural walkthroughs and improve the overall experience. This study combines the authors' previous research in these lines, studying the summed effect of both on a UX test scenario. The installation uses a depth camera for NUI interaction and applies an attractor based approach to assisted navigation. The analysis uses the data collected in an experiment with two test groups of participants considering their previous experience and gaming abilities. The experiment was composed of five stages, with three different test sets of increasing complexity. During the test, the system monitored and recorded the user movements to extract relevant data about time to complete the task, number of collisions and time spent in a collision condition. In addition, the users completed specifically questionnaires immediately after completion of tasks. The results indicate the benefits of combining both technologies enhancing the virtual visit experience. It also evaluates the effects of users' previous expertise on 3D video games in the results.