When sight closes in: The effects of Field of View on wayfinding and spatial representation

This thesis examined how limiting the Field of View (FoV) impairs the ability to integrate visual information and make navigational decisions. Participants wore field-restricting goggles with a 40° or 90° horizontal FoV and were asked to locate specific targets within a maze-like environment. Performance was measured by average walking speed. Afterwards, they completed a set of spatial memory tasks that included sketching a map of the search area and distance and relative direction judgments. Participants with the narrower FoV walked significantly slower to the targets, and independent raters showed a significant preference for the maps of the wide FoV group. There was no effect of FoV for the relative direction and distance estimation task indicating a limited impact on object location memory. The results suggest that FoV restriction significantly impacts spatial representation of layout that needs to be considered in the design and use of augmented vision systems.