現今空間場域複雜的社會下，人們發展了各種輔助空間導航和尋路的科技設備，但是人們想了解環境空間應主動探索其空間，而非被動接受指示。隨著虛擬環境技術應用的普及，可以高度擬真與現實世界相似的環境空間，而在陌生的空間中人們的尋路策略一直是空間導航界面設計中的一個重要研究課題。
本研究旨在使用兩種不同的視覺顯示器，傳統桌機螢幕和頭戴式顯示器（HMD）虛擬現實（VR）系統來比較參與者的空間學習和尋路表現。 HMD VR（本研究使用HTC vive）設備普及以來，在市場上扮演提供使用者身臨其境的視覺體驗和與虛擬環境的身體互動。為了瞭解兩種虛擬實境顯示系統對尋路者的影響差異，本研究設計了一個虛擬迷宮中尋找目標的實驗檢視三個變項的效果：顯示條件、空間複雜性(迷宮尺寸)和空間輔助資訊(地標類型)。受試者分為兩組：使用以鍵盤滑鼠和桌機螢幕顯示組、以及手把控制器與頭盔顯示器組，兩組受試者任務為在兩種尺寸、三種地標、總共六個尋路環境的條件所設計的迷宮中找到給定目標。在每次目標尋找的嘗試中，參與者接收三種導航輔助工具之一，包括遠距地標、近距地標，或受試者自行投放的地標。實驗的測量為：找到目標的完成時間、折返路線的次數，重複路線的次數和停頓的次數。結果顯示，在較為複雜的遠距地標空間環境中使用頭戴顯示器組的使用者表現出較佳的尋路效果。無論是使用頭戴顯示器或桌機螢幕的使用者都認為投放物品是較有效的尋路輔助，而這也確實反映在他們的尋路表現測量上。研究也發現個人空間能力與尋路時轉彎次數的多寡呈現相關，而尋路策略顯著影響為使用輔助地標的性質。本研究之發現提供了對虛擬環境當中的空間互動行為更深入的了解，第一手的實驗結果也可作為虛擬空間設計時的參考依據。
Our living environments have been composed of complex virtual and real spaces. In order to make sense of the spatial information surrounding us, we possess abilities to acquire environmental information very efficiently, such as the ability of wayfinding. Human spatial navigation and wayfinding has been an important study issue in many fundamental and applied research fields. This study aims at comparing the participants’ spatial learning and wayfinding performance using two different visual displays-the regular Desktop screen and the head mounted display(HMD) virtual reality(VR) system. HMD VR (we used HTC vive) is the popularizing device which provides users the immersive visual experience and full body interaction with the virtual environment. The present study intends to explore the difference between the two virtual reality display systems on wayfinding, and designed a target-finding experiment to examine three factors, the spatial complexity, the visual display, and the landmark type. In each target finding trial, the participant received one of the three navigation aids, a given distant landmark, some local landmarks in every intersection, or local landmarks freely laid by the participant. The researcher measured the complete time, the times of return routes, the times of pause, and the times of taking repeat routes. The study results reveal users of head-mounted display groups have better wayfinding effects in complex distance landmark environments. Users who use a HMD or a PC screen believe that placing items is a more effective wayfinding aid. Moreover, the personal spatial ability is related to the number of turns in the wayfinding, while the wayfinding strategy significantly affects the nature of the use of auxiliary landmarks. The study provides a deeper understanding of the spatial interaction behavior of the virtual environment, and the first-hand experimental results can be used as a reference for virtual space design.
