Redirected walking in virtual reality with auditory step feedback

We present a novel approach of redirected walking (RDW) based on step feedback sounds to redirect users in virtual reality. The main idea is to achieve path manipulation by changing step noises to deviate the users, who still believe that they are walking a straight line. Our approach can be combined with traditional visual approaches for RDW based on eye-blinking. Moreover, we have conducted a user study in a large area (10x20m) using a within-subject design. We achieved a translational redirection of 1.7m in average with pure audio feedback. Moreover, our results show that visual methods can amplify the deviation of our new auditory approach by 80cm in average at the distance of 20 m.