Affiliations: [a] Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Canada | [b] Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, Canada | [c] Department of Computer Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, Canada | [d] Man Vehicle Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Dr. Heather Jenkin, Department of Psychology, York University, 4700 Keele St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M3J 1P3. Tel.: +1 416 736 2100 22542; E-mail: hjenkin@yorku.ca
Abstract: Supine subjects inside a furnished room in which both they and the room are pitched 90° backwards may experience themselves and the room as upright relative to gravity. This effect is known as the levitation illusion because observers report that their arms feel weightless when extended, and objects hanging in the room seem to "levitate". This illusion is an extreme example of a visually induced illusion of static tilt. Visually induced tilt illusions are commonly experienced in wide-screen movie theatres, flight simulators, and immersive virtual reality systems. For technical reasons an observer's field of view is often constrained in these environments. No studies have documented the effect of field-of-view (FOV) restriction on the incidence of the levitation illusion. Preliminary findings suggest that when concurrently manipulating the FOV and observer position within an environment, the incidence of levitation illusions depends not only on the field of view but also on the visible scene content.
