Between Places and Images: the use of virtual reality devices and the spatial perception

• Autor(a) principal: Zilles Borba, Eduardo
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: E-Compós
• Texto Completo: https://www.e-compos.org.br/e-compos/article/view/1362
• topic: Realidade virtual; Dispositivos; Percepção espacial; Materialidade; Tecnologias da comunicação.

This work carries out a sociotechnical approach to investigate the user relations with Virtual Reality (VR) devices, specifically the Head-Mounted Display (HMD) Google Cardboard. In addition to studying the involvement of the subject with virtual environment, the article investigates the equipment influences on user’s spatial. It is based on the principle of Fragoso (2015) in which relations and intersections of the user-virtual environment agency are governed by three spaces: imagined space, enunciation space and material space. To research these relationships and intersections an empirical experiment was conducted, in which eight participants – four experts and four non-experts in VR– used a device called Cardboard to explore four scenarios that differ in their context, design and functionalities. After the explorations, semi-structured interviews were applied in order to collect data about user’s perception of space, materiality, immersion and interaction. In short, it is possible to point out that the perception of imagined space was relevant to inexperienced users, whereas enunciation space was more relevant for experienced ones and, also, the material space was responsible for connecting perceptions of space of each kind of user.