Perception of a Spatial Implausibility Caused by Seamless Covert Teleportation

Abstract

This paper explores human perception of spatial implausibility using seamless teleportation in circular and hexagonal closed-loop corridors. The impression of impossibility is generated by subtle teleporting the user within these corridors, thereby allowing them to unconsciously skip certain sections of them. Different levels of this ``impossibility’’ are presented by varying the percentage of skipping within these corridors, specifically 0%, 15%, and 30% of the corridor's overall length. These implausibilities are assessed through a within-subject study on naive participants to determine their perception of spatial implausibility. Our findings indicate no significant difference in the detection rates between the two corridor shapes. Interestingly, most participants interpreted the manipulation as a change in the environment's shape or size while only few could perceive the teleportation and the skip. This paves the way for future research to leverage this technique for subtle spatial manipulation.