The importance of visual context for eye-height estimation in immersive virtual reality
(2026) In Virtual Reality 30(3).- Abstract
Eye-height is a reliable metric that help us scaling the surrounding world, understanding objects’ dimensions, how they move, and their distance from us. Previous studies have shown that inaccuracies in how people perceive their own eye-height can lead to significant errors in spatial estimation within immersive virtual reality (IVR). This study investigated how the visual context influences people's estimation of their own eye-height in IVR. Forty-eight healthy adults participated in a series of experiments that examined how two different factors influenced their eye-height estimation error: the environmental context of three virtual scenarios (Experiment 1), the visibility of body representations (Experiment 2), and the combined... (More)
Eye-height is a reliable metric that help us scaling the surrounding world, understanding objects’ dimensions, how they move, and their distance from us. Previous studies have shown that inaccuracies in how people perceive their own eye-height can lead to significant errors in spatial estimation within immersive virtual reality (IVR). This study investigated how the visual context influences people's estimation of their own eye-height in IVR. Forty-eight healthy adults participated in a series of experiments that examined how two different factors influenced their eye-height estimation error: the environmental context of three virtual scenarios (Experiment 1), the visibility of body representations (Experiment 2), and the combined effect of these two factors (Experiment 3). Our results suggest that both the environmental context and the visibility of body representations are important to improve people’s eye-height estimation in IVR. Moreover, our findings are compatible with the idea of a weighted integration of multiple visual cues. In contextually enriched environments depth and spatial cues played a major role in the estimation process. In contrast, in contextually sparse environments, the visibility of body references became crucial to attain an accurate self-perception of eye-height. These results are consistent with cue weighting theoretical frameworks, in which the perceptual system dynamically adjusts the relative importance of different visual cues based on their reliability to obtain more precise eye-height estimates.
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- author
- Job, Mirko ; De Simone, Maricarmina ; Recenti, Filippo LU ; Giardulli, Benedetto ; Leuzzi, Gaia ; Iurato, Matteo ; Trucco, Marco and Testa, Marco
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026-09
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Distance perception, Embodiment, Eye-height, Virtual environment, Virtual reality
- in
- Virtual Reality
- volume
- 30
- issue
- 3
- article number
- 142
- publisher
- Springer Science and Business Media B.V.
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105045562829
- ISSN
- 1359-4338
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10055-026-01394-3
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 56cf3d6a-f4b5-494d-be38-9f0b433d9ed3
- date added to LUP
- 2026-09-30 14:42:55
- date last changed
- 2026-09-30 14:43:30
@article{56cf3d6a-f4b5-494d-be38-9f0b433d9ed3,
abstract = {{<p>Eye-height is a reliable metric that help us scaling the surrounding world, understanding objects’ dimensions, how they move, and their distance from us. Previous studies have shown that inaccuracies in how people perceive their own eye-height can lead to significant errors in spatial estimation within immersive virtual reality (IVR). This study investigated how the visual context influences people's estimation of their own eye-height in IVR. Forty-eight healthy adults participated in a series of experiments that examined how two different factors influenced their eye-height estimation error: the environmental context of three virtual scenarios (Experiment 1), the visibility of body representations (Experiment 2), and the combined effect of these two factors (Experiment 3). Our results suggest that both the environmental context and the visibility of body representations are important to improve people’s eye-height estimation in IVR. Moreover, our findings are compatible with the idea of a weighted integration of multiple visual cues. In contextually enriched environments depth and spatial cues played a major role in the estimation process. In contrast, in contextually sparse environments, the visibility of body references became crucial to attain an accurate self-perception of eye-height. These results are consistent with cue weighting theoretical frameworks, in which the perceptual system dynamically adjusts the relative importance of different visual cues based on their reliability to obtain more precise eye-height estimates.</p>}},
author = {{Job, Mirko and De Simone, Maricarmina and Recenti, Filippo and Giardulli, Benedetto and Leuzzi, Gaia and Iurato, Matteo and Trucco, Marco and Testa, Marco}},
issn = {{1359-4338}},
keywords = {{Distance perception; Embodiment; Eye-height; Virtual environment; Virtual reality}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
publisher = {{Springer Science and Business Media B.V.}},
series = {{Virtual Reality}},
title = {{The importance of visual context for eye-height estimation in immersive virtual reality}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10055-026-01394-3}},
doi = {{10.1007/s10055-026-01394-3}},
volume = {{30}},
year = {{2026}},
}