Egocentric distance judgments in a large-screen immersive display virtual environment

People underestimate egocentric distances in head-mounted display virtual environments (VEs) as compared to the real world. In a recent study [Riecke et al, 2009, APGV, 15-18] it was shown that when a person viewed a photorealistic world through an HMD or a large screen display (while sitting and not moving their head) they did not underestimate egocentric distances. We further investigate whether people underestimate egocentric distances in a large screen immersive display. In our experiment, participants were asked to report verbal estimates of egocentric distances in a large screen display with floor projection or in the real world. Overall, in the virtual world we found an underestimation of distances by 17 as compared to near accurate performance in the real world. Moreover, in the virtual world there was an effect of distance, which indicated overestimation for distances that occurred before the screen (3.5 meters), while for distances past the physical screen there was underestimation. To determine th e full reason for these effects further analysis is needed. Our results demonstrate that egocentric distance judgments are also underestimated in a large screen immersive display as compared to the real world