Sustaining the Experience of Pair Natural Walking in Social Virtual Reality

Walking together is a basic social interaction, making it an essential feature to support in social virtual reality. Most research on locomotion in VR focuses on the motor aspect of walking, rather than on the cognitive or social aspects of social walking. In this paper, we explore walking in pairs, draw on observations from a pilot study, and propose some recommendations for enhancing the experience of pair walking in social VR. Using arm arm-swinging locomotion, we implemented two features based on movement rhythm, a footstep cue and an aura to enhance the awareness of one’s partner walking, that we tested in a custom virtual environment. The initial results highlight the potential benefits of our proposals, yet future work is needed to strengthen these findings.