An Exploration into Vection During Virtual Helicopter Flight Using Varying Levels of Active Control and Passive Control
The illusory perception of self-motion, which is called vection, is a phenomenon that is traditionally measured in passive participants. Eliciting a compelling vection experience enhances the immersiveness of, and presence in, virtual environments. The investigation of vection during active control has mostly been done through subjective reports using single intensity stimuli for virtual locomotion or driving tasks, however, a vection study on virtual flight with varying difficulty levels appears to be missing from literature. Herein, we aimed to investigate how varying difficulty levels of active control as well as passive control of a virtual aircraft affects subjective vection intensity and objective physiological signals. Participants were visually and audibly immersed in a virtual environment in which either they or an AI controlled a virtual helicopter. Active control was facilitated by means of a stationary helicopter simulator. Galvanic skin response (GSR) and accelerations of the body core were recorded during flight and upon completion of each condition participants rated the intensity of vection and object-motion for 3 sensory modalities separately. Marginally higher vection intensity ratings compared to object-motion ratings were found and vection ratings were lightly affected by control difficulty due to weather conditions. Furthermore, participants reporting higher vection intensity ratings showed elevated changes in GSR compared to participants reporting lower vection intensity ratings. Our results show that vection can be elicited and modulated through active control with varying difficulty levels and including objective measures could elevate our understanding vection during active control tasks.