Effects of Depth of Field on Focus Using a Virtual Reality Escape Room

• Published in: Speech and Computer Vol. 13721; pp. 665 - 675
• Main Authors: Tsiftsis, Nikolaos, Moustakas, Konstantinos, Fakotakis, Nikolaos
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 2022; Springer International Publishing
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: Depth of field; Escape Room; Immersive game; Virtual reality
• ISBN: 3031209796; 9783031209796
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-20980-2_56

Depth of Field (DOF) is an effect that can be found in every single optical camera. Nowadays DOF is a common effect even for virtual cameras and it is used for more realistic rendering. In this work, an Escape Room is constructed and it is equipped with a post-process DOF effect to help the players navigate through the game. The DOF is independent from the player’s vision direction. It is designed to highlight the objects that are important to progress towards the end of the game and not the ones the player is looking at. It is desired to shift the attention of the user subconsciously and make him move more efficiently. If an object becomes important during the game it gets highlighted too and if one is no longer useful the DOF stops focusing on it. Finally, an experiment took place to test if the DOF is making the players navigate more effectively inside the game, and check for possible side effects, like frustration and motion sickness. The analysis results suggest that the DOF can be used as a hint system.