Study on the comparison of the difference of human behavior between the real and the virtual environment using HMD

A purpose of this research is to investigate a difference of human cognitive behavior (in other word, ecological cognition) in VR using HMD and the real environment and to examine a method to compensate the difference. Therefore, this research conducts a comparative experiment using a cognitive behavior called "Stepping-over" and "Passing-under". First, a subject estimate whether the subject can step over a rope which is set in a height and set at 2 meters away from the subject. After that, the subject comes close to the rope and estimates the same thing again, and if the estimation is "can step over", the subject tries to step over the rope. The result of success or failure is investigated in the virtual space and the real space. As the result, there was no difference between the prior estimation and the actual behavior in both the virtual and the real spaces. However, in simplified virtual environment where almost of all environmental information is removed, the number of the subject who makes the difference between the prior estimation and the actual behavior was increased. The result shows the human cognitive behavior comes from the environmental information. As the result, it was suggested that an amount of environmental information in the virtual space is important to realize the same human cognitive behavior as one in the real space.