  Traveling distances in the real world inherently involves time, as moving to
a desired location is a continuous process. This temporal component plays a
role when estimating the distance covered. However, in virtual environments,
this relationship is often changed or absent. Common teleportation techniques
enable instantaneous transitions, lacking any temporal element that might aid
in distance perception. Since distances are found to be commonly underestimated
in virtual environments, we investigate the influence of time on this
misperception, specifically in target-selection-based teleportation interfaces.
Our first experiment explores how introducing a delay proportional to the
distance covered by teleportation affects participants' perception of
distances, focusing on underestimation, accuracy, and precision. Participants
are required to teleport along a predefined path with varying delays. A second
experiment is designed to determine whether this effect manifests in a more
application-specific scenario. The results indicate a significant reduction in
distance underestimation, improving from 27% to 16.8% with a delayed
teleportation method. Other sub-scales of distance estimation hardly differ.
Despite targeted adaptations of previous study designs, participants have again
found strategies supporting them in estimating distances. We conclude that time
is a factor affecting distance perception and should be considered alongside
other factors identified in the literature.
