Indoor skydiving in immersive virtual reality with embedded storytelling

Abstract

We describe the Virtual Jump Simulator, which allows subjects to perform an indoor parachute jump in a virtual environment. The necessity to jump physically off a platform combined with immersive virtual reality and tactile feedback creates an experience with a high amount of presence, as the evaluation of the prototype confirms. The system consists of a steel cube, a mechanical absorber system with stacked eccentric wheels and counterweights that allows subjects in the weight range from 35 to 150kg to jump without the need for individual calibration, a virtual reality setup with high-quality 3D content and tactile stimuli. In the immersive virtual jump experience, we embed a story using rich multimedia content, such as images and sound. We iteratively tested the entire system with users of different backgrounds. Thereby, we gathered user feedback from the very beginning to create a novel virtual reality system that allows for actual physical jumping and flying with free body movement.