Glide-in-Place: Foot-Steered Differential-Drive for Hands-Free VR Locomotion

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Hu, Bin, Liu, Yang, Liu, Xizi, Xiao, Qinggerou, Wang, Xiru, Yuan, Zhe, Ku, Wen, Li, Xiu, Wang, Yun
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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author Hu, Bin
Liu, Yang
Liu, Xizi
Xiao, Qinggerou
Wang, Xiru
Yuan, Zhe
Ku, Wen
Li, Xiu
Wang, Yun
author_facet Hu, Bin
Liu, Yang
Liu, Xizi
Xiao, Qinggerou
Wang, Xiru
Yuan, Zhe
Ku, Wen
Li, Xiu
Wang, Yun
contents Seated VR locomotion in constrained environments, including homes, offices, and transit settings, calls for hardware that is lightweight and deployable, steering that remains continuous enough for curved motion, and a control channel that leaves the hands free for concurrent interaction. Inspired by the steering logic of self-balancing scooters, we present Glide-in-Place, a seated foot locomotion system that maps per-foot fore-aft pressure to a differential-drive model: the two feet act as virtual wheels whose relative drive continuously determines translation and yaw. This lets users move forward, rotate in place, and follow arcs in one unified vocabulary without hand-held input or discrete mode switches. We evaluated Glide-in-Place in a counterbalanced within-subject study with 16 participants against two baselines: joystick control and a seated walking-in-place technique with discrete snap motions. Across two steering-heavy navigation tasks, zig-zag path following with multitasking and curved-path traversal, Glide-in-Place was consistently faster than Seated-WIP, reduced physical demand, and lowered fatigue-related discomfort without significantly differing from joystick control on total VRSQ. We position Glide-in-Place as a deployable hardware-control design point for constrained seated VR: thin insole sensing, continuous foot steering, and lightweight calibration packaged in one compact artifact.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_10237
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Glide-in-Place: Foot-Steered Differential-Drive for Hands-Free VR Locomotion
Hu, Bin
Liu, Yang
Liu, Xizi
Xiao, Qinggerou
Wang, Xiru
Yuan, Zhe
Ku, Wen
Li, Xiu
Wang, Yun
Human-Computer Interaction
Seated VR locomotion in constrained environments, including homes, offices, and transit settings, calls for hardware that is lightweight and deployable, steering that remains continuous enough for curved motion, and a control channel that leaves the hands free for concurrent interaction. Inspired by the steering logic of self-balancing scooters, we present Glide-in-Place, a seated foot locomotion system that maps per-foot fore-aft pressure to a differential-drive model: the two feet act as virtual wheels whose relative drive continuously determines translation and yaw. This lets users move forward, rotate in place, and follow arcs in one unified vocabulary without hand-held input or discrete mode switches. We evaluated Glide-in-Place in a counterbalanced within-subject study with 16 participants against two baselines: joystick control and a seated walking-in-place technique with discrete snap motions. Across two steering-heavy navigation tasks, zig-zag path following with multitasking and curved-path traversal, Glide-in-Place was consistently faster than Seated-WIP, reduced physical demand, and lowered fatigue-related discomfort without significantly differing from joystick control on total VRSQ. We position Glide-in-Place as a deployable hardware-control design point for constrained seated VR: thin insole sensing, continuous foot steering, and lightweight calibration packaged in one compact artifact.
title Glide-in-Place: Foot-Steered Differential-Drive for Hands-Free VR Locomotion
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.10237