Thesis Description & Objectives
Problem:
Navigating large-scale virtual environments remains an open challenge in VR research. World-in-Miniature (WIM) interfaces have been studied almost exclusively in flat environments, leaving critical issues unresolved regarding scale management, occlusion handling, and the topographic complexity of real-world spaces.
Objective:
Extend and deepen WIM research in complex VR contexts, addressing challenges related to: multi-story indoor environments, occlusion management, adaptive scaling techniques, alternative input modalities (mid-air gestures, eye-gaze control), and hierarchical navigation through Points of Interest (POIs).
Approach: Design and prototype novel WIM techniques and evaluate them through controlled user studies, measuring navigation efficiency, cognitive load, and spatial knowledge acquisition.
Expected Impact:
Effective WIM techniques for topographically complex VR environments.
