Seated-WIP: Enabling Walking-in-Place Locomotion for Stationary Chairs in Confined Spaces

We introduce Seated-WIP, a footstep-based locomotion technique tailored for users seated in confined spaces such as on an airplane. It emulates real-world walking using forefoot or rearfoot in-place stepping, enhancing embodiment while reducing fatigue for prolonged interactions. Our footstep-locomotion maps users’ footstep motions to four locomotion actions: walking forward, turning-in-place, walking backward, and sidestepping. Our first study examined embodiment and fatigue levels across various sitting positions using forefoot, rearfoot, and fullfoot stepping methods. While all these methods effectively replicated walking, users favored the forefoot and rearfoot methods due to reduced fatigue. In our second study, we compared the footstep-locomotion to leaning- and controller-locomotion on a multitasking navigation task. Results indicate that footstep locomotion offers the best embodied sense of walking and has comparable fatigue levels to controller-locomotion, albeit with slightly reduced efficiency than controller-locomotion. In seated VR environments, footstep locomotion offers a harmonious blend of embodiment, fatigue mitigation, and efficiency.