Virtual reality locomotion techniques and mental workload: an empirical investigation of point-teleport and directed-steering during virtual task performance
DOI: 10.1007/s10055-025-01290-2
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Summary
This study investigates the differential mental workload associated with two primary virtual reality (VR) locomotion techniques: Point-Teleport and Directed-Steering. Motivated by the need for human-centered design in virtual environments (VE) to prevent occupational hazards and improve task performance, the research specifically compares subtypes of these techniques. The authors hypothesized that Point-Teleport using a curved ray would induce lower mental workload than a straight ray, and that Directed-Steering would result in higher workload than Point-Teleport, with wrist-directed control being more demanding than head-directed control. The experiment involved 20 participants performing navigation, object-manipulation, and target-selection tasks within a simulated virtual manufacturing environment. The study utilized a mixed within- and between-subjects design. Participants experienced Point-Teleport with both curved and straight rays, as well as Directed-Steering controlled via head orientation or wrist movement. Mental workload was assessed using objective performance metrics (completion time, error rates, number of teleportations) and subjective ratings via the Raw-NASA-TLX questionnaire. Additional measures included the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ), iGroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ), and System Usability Scale (SUS) to control for confounding variables like presence and motion sickness. The results indicated that Point-Teleport with a curved ray resulted in relatively lower mental workload and better performance compared to the straight ray variant. Specifically, participants using the straight ray required significantly more teleportations to complete navigation and object-manipulation tasks, and exhibited longer completion times in certain sequences. In contrast, both variants of Directed-Steering (head- and wrist-directed) led to impaired performance and higher subjective workload. This impairment was primarily attributed to visually induced motion sickness, as evidenced by significantly increased SSQ scores after the Directed-Steering task blocks. While presence ratings remained high and stable throughout the experiment, usability scores for Directed-Steering were lower than those for Point-Teleport. The findings support the selection of Point-Teleport, particularly with a curved ray, for human-centered task performance in VR environments. The study concludes that Directed-Steering techniques pose significant risks regarding mental workload and motion sickness, making them less suitable for complex tasks in virtual manufacturing or training scenarios. These results provide empirical evidence for ergonomic design strategies, suggesting that interaction techniques should be chosen based on their impact on user workload and physiological comfort to ensure effective and safe integration of VR in professional settings.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-08-10 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| enrich | success | semantic_scholar | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-nvidia | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 10 | 2026-08-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-nvidia on 2026-08-10; verification: verified.
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- Empirical Findings: self report data