Perception of Visual Variables on Virtual Wall-Sized Tiled Displays in Immersive Environments

Abstract: We investigate the perception of visual variables on wall-sized tiled displays within an immersive environment. We designed and conducted two formal user studies focusing on elementary visualization reading tasks in VR. The first study compared three different virtual display arrangements (Flat, Cylinder, and Cockpit). It showed that participants made smaller errors on virtual curved walls (Cylinder and Cockpit) compared to Flat. Following that, we compared the results with those from a previous study conducted in a real-world setting. The comparative analysis showed that virtual curved walls resulted in smaller errors than the real-world flat wall display, but with longer task completion time. The second study evaluated the impact of four 3D user interaction techniques (Selection, Walking, Steering, and Teleportation) on performing the elementary task on the virtual Flat wall display. The results confirmed that interaction techniques further improved task performance. Finally, we discuss the limitations and future work.