Recent Head-Mounted Displays enable users to perceive the real environment using a video-based see-through mode and the fully virtual environment within a single display. Leveraging these advancements, we present a generic concept to seamlessly transition between the real and virtual environment, with the goal of supporting users in engaging with and disengaging from any real environment into Virtual Reality. This transition process uses a digital replica of the real environment and incorporates various stages of Milgram’s Reality-Virtuality Continuum, along with visual transitions that facilitate gradual navigation between them. We implemented the overall transition concept and four object-based transition techniques. The overall transition concept and four techniques were evaluated in a qualitative user study, focusing on user experience, the use of the replica and visual coherence. The results of the user study show, that most participants stated that the replica facilitates the cognitive processing of the transition and supports spatial orientation.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642844
The whiteboard is essential for collaborative work. To preserve its physicality in remote collaboration, Mixed Reality (MR) can blend real whiteboards across distributed spaces. Going beyond reality, MR can further enable interactions like panning and zooming in a virtually reconfigurable infinite whiteboard. However, this reconfigurability conflicts with the sense of physicality. To address this tension, we introduce Blended Whiteboard, a remote collaborative MR system enabling reconfigurable surface blending across distributed physical whiteboards. Blended Whiteboard supports a unique collaboration style, where users can sketch on their local whiteboards but also reconfigure the blended space to facilitate transitions between loosely and tightly coupled work. We describe design principles inspired by proxemics; supporting users in changing between facing each other and being side-by-side, and switching between navigating the whiteboard synchronously and independently. Our work shows exciting benefits and challenges of combining physicality and reconfigurability in the design of distributed MR whiteboards.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642293
Cross-reality tasks, like creating or consuming virtual reality (VR) content, often involve inconvenient or distracting switches between desktop and VR. An initial formative study explores cross-reality switching habits, finding most switches are momentary "peeks" between interfaces, with specific habits determined by current context. The results inform a design space for context-aware "peeking" techniques that allow users to view or interact with desktop from VR, and vice versa, without fully switching. We implemented a set of peeking techniques and evaluated them in two levels of a cross-reality task: one requiring only viewing, and another requiring input and viewing. Peeking techniques made task completion faster, with increased input accuracy and reduced perceived workload.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642358
We introduce Seated-WIP, a footstep-based locomotion technique tailored for users seated in confined spaces such as on an airplane. It emulates real-world walking using forefoot or rearfoot in-place stepping, enhancing embodiment while reducing fatigue for pro- longed interactions. Our footstep-locomotion maps users’ footstep motions to four locomotion actions: walking forward, turning-in- place, walking backward, and sidestepping. Our first study examined embodiment and fatigue levels across various sitting positions using forefoot, rearfoot, and fullfoot stepping methods. While all these methods effectively replicated walking, users favored the forefoot and rearfoot methods due to reduced fatigue. In our sec- ond study, we compared the footstep-locomotion to leaning- and controller-locomotion on a multitasking navigation task. Results indicate that footstep locomotion offers the best embodied sense of walking and has comparable fatigue levels to controller-locomotion, albeit with slightly reduced efficiency than controller-locomotion. In seated VR environments, footstep locomotion offers a harmonious blend of embodiment, fatigue mitigation, and efficiency.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642395
Volumetric telepresence aims to create a shared space, allowing people in local and remote settings to collaborate seamlessly. Prior telepresence examples typically have asymmetrical designs, with volumetric capture in one location and objects in one format. In this paper, we present a volumetric telepresence mixed reality system that supports real-time, symmetrical, multi-user, partially distributed interactions, using objects in multiple formats, across multiple locations. We align two volumetric environments around a common spatial feature to create a shared workspace for remote and co-located people using objects in three formats: physical, virtual, and volumetric. We conducted a study with 18 participants over 6 sessions, evaluating how telepresence workspaces support spatial coordination and hybrid communication for co-located and remote users undertaking collaborative tasks. Our findings demonstrate the successful integration of remote spaces, effective use of proxemics and deixis to support negotiation, and strategies to manage interactivity in hybrid workspaces.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642814