In this paper we contribute a literature review and organization framework for classifying the collaboration needs and features should be considered when designing headset-based augmented reality (AR) experiences for collocated settings. In recent years augmented reality technology has been experiencing significant growth through the emergence of headsets that allow gestural interaction, and AR designers are increasingly interested in using this technology to enhance collaborative activities in a variety of physical environments. However, collaborative AR applications need to contain features that enhance collaboration and satisfy needs that are present during the group activities. When AR designers lack an understanding of what collaborators need during an interaction, or what features have already been designed to solve those needs, then AR creators will spend time redesigning features that have already been created, or worse, create applications that do not contain necessary features. While much work has been done on designing virtual reality (VR) collaborative environments, AR environments are a relatively newer design space, and designers are lacking a comprehensive framework for describing needs that arise during collaborative activities and the features that could be designed into AR applications to satisfy those needs. In this paper we contribute a literature review of 92 papers in the areas of augmented reality and virtual reality, and we contribute a list of design features and needs that are helpful to consider when designing for headset-based collaborative AR experiences.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3449243
Physical face-to-face collaboration with someone gives a higher-quality experience compared to mediated communication options, such as a phone- or video-based chat. Participants can share rich sensory cues to multiple human senses in a physical space. Also, the perceptual sensing of the surrounding environment including other peoples' reactions can influence human communication and emotion, and thus collaborative performance. Shared spaces in virtual environments provide degraded sensory experiences because most commercial virtual reality systems typically provide only visual and audio feedback. The impact of richer, multi-sensory feedback on joint decision-making tasks in VR is still an open area of research. Two independent studies exploring this topic are presented in this paper. We implemented a multi-sensory system that delivers vision, audio, tactile, and smell feedback, and we compared the system to a typical VR system. The scenario placed two users in a virtual theme-park safari ride with a number of non-player character (NPC) passengers to simulate realistic scenarios compared to the real-world and we varied the type and complexity of NPCs reactions to participants. In Experiment 1, we provided both users with either multi-sensory or typical sensory feedback symmetrically as a between-subjects factor, and used NPC reaction type as a within-subjects factor. In Experiment 2, we provided sensory feedback asymmetrically to each user (i.e., one had multi-sensory cues and the other had typical sensory cues) as a between-subjects factor, and used NPC reaction type as a within-subjects factor. We found that the number of sensory channels and NPC reactions did not influence user perception significantly under either symmetric or asymmetric sensory feedback conditions. However, after accounting for individual personality traits (e.g., assertive, passive), as well as any existing relationship between the pairs, we found that increasing the number of sensory channels can significantly improve subjective responses.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3449146
The world is entering a new normal of hybrid organizations, in which it will be very common that some members are co-located and others are remote. Hybridity is rife with asymmetries that effect our sense of belonging in an organizational space. This paper reports a study of an XR telepresence technology probe to explore how remote workers might present and be perceived as an equal and unique embodied being in a workplace. VROOM (Virtual Robotic Overlay for Online Meetings) augments a standard Mobile Robotic Telepresence experience by (1) adding a virtual avatar overlay of the remote person to the local space, viewable through a HoloLens worn by the local user, through which the remote user can gesture and express themselves, and (2) giving the remote user an immersive 360° view of the local space, captured by a 360° camera on the robot, which they can view through a VR headset. We ran a controlled experiment to understand how pairs of participants (one local and one remote) collaborate using VROOM in a search game and word-guessing game. Our findings illustrate that there is much potential for a system like VROOM to support dynamic collaborative activities in which embodiment, gesturing, mobility, spatial awareness, and non-verbal expressions are important. However, there are also challenges to be addressed, specifically around proprioception, the mixing of a physical robot body with a virtual human avatar, uncertainties of others' views and capabilities, fidelity of expressions, and the appearance of the avatar. We conclude with further design suggestions and recommendations for future work.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3449133
Videoconference has become the dominant technology for remote meetings. Embodied Virtual Reality is a potential alternative that employs motion tracking in order to place people in a shared virtual environment as avatars. This paper describes a 210 participant study focused on behavioral measures that compares multiparty interaction in videoconference and embodied VR across a range of task types: a factual intellective task, a subjective judgment task and two negotiation tasks, one with visual grounding. It uses state-of-the-art body, face and finger tracking to drive the avatars in VR and a carefully matched videoconferencing implementation. Significant behavioral differences are observed. These include increased activity in videoconference related to maintaining the social connection: more person directed gaze and increased verbal and nonverbal backchannel behavior. Videoconference also had reduced conversational overlap, increased self-adaptor gestures and reduced deictic gestures as compared with embodied VR. Potential explanations and implications are discussed.
Synchrony, the natural time-dependence of behavior in human interaction, is a pervasive feature of communication. However, most studies of synchrony have focused on dyadic interaction. In the current work, we explore synchrony in three-person teams using immersive virtual reality. Participants spent about two hours collaborating on four separate design tasks. The tracking data from the VR system allowed precise measurement of head and hand movements, facilitating calculation of synchrony. Results replicated previous work that found nonverbal synchrony in dyads in immersive VR. Moreover, we manipulated the context of the task environment, an informal garage or a traditional conference room. The environment for the task influenced synchrony, with higher levels occurring in the conference room than the garage. We also explored different methods of extending synchrony from dyads to triads, and explore the relationship of synchrony to turn taking and gaze. This paper provides theoretical insights about nonverbal synchrony and how design work functions in triads and provides suggestions for designers of VR to support good collaboration.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3479544
Design and co-creation activities around 3D artifacts often require close collocated coordination between multiple users. Augmented reality (AR) technology can support collocated work enabling users to flexibly work with digital objects while still being able to use the physical space for coordination. With most of current research focusing on remote AR collaboration, less is known about collocated collaboration in AR, particularly in relation to interpersonal dynamics between the collocated collaborators. Our study aims at understanding how shared augmented reality facilitated by mobile devices (mobile augmented reality or MAR) affects collocated users' coordination. We compare the coordination behaviors that emerged in a MAR setting with those in a comparable fully physical setting by simulating the same task – co-creation of a 3D artifact. Our results demonstrate the importance of the shared physical dimension for participants' ability to coordinate in the context of collaborative co-creation. Namely, participants working in a fully physical setting were better able to leverage the work artifact itself for their coordination needs, working in a mode that we term artifact-oriented coordination. Conversely, participants collaborating around an AR artifact leveraged the shared physical workspace for their coordination needs, working in what we refer to as space-oriented coordination. We discuss implications for a AR-based collaboration and propose directions for designers of AR tools.
It is important to learn from the past as we endeavor into this uncharted territory of mobile human-to-human telepresence for interpersonal use. With the ever-increasing access to live-streaming cameras, we are now at the cusp of being able to create novel, immersive, and interpersonal telepresence activities that have the potential to change how humans interact with one another on a daily basis. Due to its novelty, there are likely socio-technical gaps between the needs of users and the technical specifications of the prototypes that are currently being designed to support the complex social interactions of human-to-human telepresence. Therefore, in this paper, we use a socio-technical lens to conduct a systematic literature review of 51 peer-reviewed articles of early work in this space. Overall, we found that while progress has been made to address the social needs of those involved in telepresence scenarios, there are discontinuities within the existing literature that need to be addressed, particularly with the way we attempt to measure and quantify human-centered outcomes with unvalidated instruments. We also found that the social needs of human streamers have been neglected, as in many articles the streamer was merely treated as a surrogate, or reported feeling socially awkward or unsafe, due to the conspicuous nature of the body-worn technology in public environments. These findings are prevalent, even as researchers consider adding to this body-worn burden in an attempt to improve the viewer’s sense of immersion and presence. To preserve the beneficial nature of telepresence interaction while ensuring that all users’ needs are met, researchers should endeavor to further understand the dynamics of the relationship between the viewer, the streamer, and third parties in the remote environment. Our paper creates a future research agenda that emphasizes the importance of ensuring that all parties involved feel comfortable in their role during interpersonal telepresence interactions.
As the variety of possible interactions with virtual reality (VR) continues to expand, researchers need a way to relate these interactions to users’ needs and goals in ways that advance understanding. Several researchers have called for better attention to mixed reality and co-located interactions, but these efforts have largely focused on the symmetric use of technology, which excludes a rising form of interaction known as asymmetric VR, in which participants use different interfaces to interact with a shared environment. Currently, there is not a systematic way to characterize 1) the ways in which a system may be asymmetric, 2) how the different mediation technology and affordances within asymmetric VR support (or do not support) users’ goals, and 3) the relationships and collaborative capabilities between users of these different technologies. In this paper, the authors review the most-relevant existing frameworks for asymmetric interaction, mediation technology, and computer supported cooperative work to categorize types of asymmetric VR along three Axes of Asymmetry and present the Composite framework for Asymmetric VR (CAVR). The paper concludes with suggestions of ways to test and expand the framework in order to guide future research as it identifies the most-beneficial interaction paradigms for asymmetric VR.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3449079