SafeRDW: Keep VR Users Safe When Jumping Using Redirected Walking

Redirected Walking (RDW) is an important intermediary layer in virtual reality (VR) interaction systems. It addresses the issues of spatial restrictions in VR exploration by imperceptibly remapping the virtual environment’s movement to the physical environment, enhancing the user’s immersive experience. In VR, jumping is also a noteworthy motion besides walking. However, existing redirected walking (RDW) algorithms typically focus on reducing collisions between users and obstacles during walking but overlook the safety when users perform significant actions such as jumping. This oversight can pose serious risks to users during VR exploration, especially when there are physical obstacles or boundaries near the virtual locations that require user jumping. We propose SafeRDW, the first RDW algorithm that takes the user’s jumping safety into consideration. The proposed method considers both walking and jumping actions in the virtual environment, reducing physical resets and redirecting users to safer locations when a jump is required in the virtual space, ensuring user safety. Simulation experiments and user study results both show that our method not only reduces the number of resets, but also significantly ensures user safety when they reach the jumping points in the virtual scene.