The effect of chair type on users' viewing experience for 360-degree video

Yang Hong, Drew MacQuarrie & Anthony Steed. 2018.

Proceedings of the 24th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology

The consumption of 360-degree videos with head-mounted displays (HMDs) is increasing rapidly. A large number of HMD users watch 360-degree videos at home, often on non-swivel seats; however videos are frequently designed to require the user to turn around. This work explores how the difference in users' chair type might influence their viewing experience. A between-subject experiment was conducted with 41 participants. Three chair conditions were used: fixed, half-swivel and full-swivel. A variety of measures were explored using eye-tracking, questionnaires, tasks and semi-structured interviews. Results suggest that the fixed and half-swivel chairs discouraged exploration for certain videos compared with the full-swivel chair. Additionally, participants in the fixed chair had worse spatial awareness and greater concern about missing something for certain video than those in the full-swivel chair. No significant differences were found in terms of incidental memory, general engagement and simulator sickness among the three chair conditions. Furthermore, thematic analysis of post-experiment interviews revealed four themes regarding the restrictive chairs: physical discomfort, difficulty following moving objects, reduced orientation and guided attention. Based on the findings, practical implications, limitations and future work are discussed.

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Citation

Hong, Y., MacQuarrie, A., & Steed, A. (2018). The effect of chair type on users' viewing experience for 360-degree video. Proceedings of the 24th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (pp. 1–11).

BibTeX

@inproceedings{hong2018effect, title={The effect of chair type on users' viewing experience for 360-degree video}, author={Hong, Yang and MacQuarrie, Andrew and Steed, Anthony}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 24th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology}, pages={1--11}, year={2018} }