This report explores a new method in redirected walking (RDW) by exploiting blink-induced change blindness to hide architectural manipulations. Two within-subject designed experiments were conducted to test this method. Firstly, thresholds were investigated and analysed using a two-alternative forced method, indicating that front facing walls can be moved up to 0.38m towards, or 0.90m away from users as they blink, without the vast majority noticing. Secondly, to demonstrate the effectiveness of said thresholds, an experiment comparing blink-induced change blindness to existing methods, were developed. Results of a Wilcoxon signed rank test showed no significant change between blink- and turn-induced change blindness for RDW, providing a foundation for future use cases of this method in VR applications.
Ultimately, the findings are valuable as they provide thresholds for detecting front facing manipulations during blinks, while also demonstrating that the method allows users to explore a larger virtual space than physically possible, with minimal noticeability. This technique has potential as a technique within RDW, and offers a unique approach to architectural manipulation