Simulation of Mid-air Image Interaction in Virtual Reality

Mid-air images are CG visuals that float in real space and can be observed without using devices. Owing to the unique display of mid-air images, a virtual reality (VR) simulation system is essential for designing and evaluating interactions with these images. However, to date, no such simulations have been developed. We hypothesized that simulating characteristics, such as view area and occlusion problems, would result in similar user behaviors in VR and real space. In this study, we propose and implement a VR system to test this hypothesis by incorporating a method to simulate the occlusion problem without measuring object shapes or positions. By comparing the interactions using our method with actual mid-air images and typical VR objects, we found that simulating the viewing area led to similar observation behaviors in both VR and real space. However, significant differences in the touch-interaction penetration depth indicated that the independent simulation of the occlusion problem was insufficient.