Research & Understanding of Virtual Reality Terminology

Taylor Reilly
Nov 6 · 2 min read

Taylor Reilly | Emergent Design | November 2019

Degrees of Freedom or DoF is the number of ways we can move through three-dimensional space. There are six total degrees. These degrees are separated out into rotational movement and transitional movement. So, seated or moving around. This is an essential concept that converts human movement into VR movement.

Position VS. Orientation Position refers to the coordinates along the three axes in 3-dimensional space, and the orientation refers to the way we rotate that head set through that 3-dimensional space.

Pitch is the x axes rotation.

Yaw is the y axes rotation and compass orientation.

Roll is the z axes rotation.

Swaying is the horizontal movement of a motion platform.

Heaving is the up and down movement of a motion platform.

Impact of degrees of freedom is directly affected by the rendering quality of the VR’s application device. A higher quality render with accurate feedback and reliable haptic feedback result in a better overall experience for the user.

Relative and absolute degrees of freedom refer to the positioning of objects in VR space. Absolute being we have the freedom within the program to approach and interact with the object. While relative objects stay in the same position relative to the subject. Meaning no matter how close I want to get to an object in relative space, it will always stay in the same spot in relation to where I am.

6 Degrees of Freedom, as I stated above, refers to the ability of rotational and translational movement granted to the user of the application. Which means, a user can move around their physical space and it will translate into the virtual space they currently occupy.

Sources

https://medium.com/immersion-for-the-win/relative-positioning-in-a-frame-d839fc0e3249

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92853/

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