Abstract. Various forms of extended reality might empower remote collaboration in ways that the current de facto standards cannot facilitate. Especially when combined by a digital twin of the remote physical object, mixed reality (MR) opens up interesting new ways to support spatial communication. In this study, we explore the use of a digital twin to facilitate visuospatial communication in an expert-guided repair and maintenance operation scenario, supported by visual annotations. We developed two MR prototypes, one with a digital twin of the object of interest, and another where a first-person camera view was shown additionally. We tested these prototypes in a study with 19 participants (9 pairs) against a state-of-the art solution as a baseline and measured their usability, and obtained qualitative user feedback. Our findings suggest that digital twin supported mixed reality enriched with real time visual annotations can potentially improve remote collaboration tasks.
Abstract. Immersive analytics, at the intersection of visual analytics and virtual reality has recently gained some traction. Taking a similar approach, VaRt-DataExplorer project is concerned with exploration of data spaces in Virtual Reality (VR) in the context of cultural heritage collections. Our main objective is to facilitate better a understanding and insight into spatially referenced cultural heritage data sets. Within the scope of the project, this goal would be achieved by providing potentially ‘intuitive’ forms of real time interaction with the data, and rendering quickly recognizable visuospatial representations to offer more context to cultural artifacts. In particular, a spatial context is provided to the viewers by referencing geographical aspects of the data. Due to the incomplete and imprecise nature of data in this domain, thoughtful attention is given to visualization fidelity. Our initial user study suggests that using an immersive VR offers benefits for the exploration task for the viewer and the user experience provided by VaRt-DataExplorer has received high ratings.
Abstract. There is evidence in literature that collaborative work while using digital tools could benefit from visualizing the real time eye movements of a selected participant, or possibly, several participants. In this study, we examine alternative gaze interaction and visualization design prototypes in a digital collaboration scenario, in which assumed collaboration environment is a co-located mixed reality environment. Specifically, we implemented a virtual pointer as a baseline, and representations of gaze as a line, a cursor, and an ‘automated line’ where the line and cursor are automatically alternated based on occlusion detection. These prototypes are then evaluated in a series of usability studies with additional exploratory observations for a spatial communication scenario. In the scenario participants either describe routes to someone else or learn them from someone else for navigational planning. In this paper we describe the alternative interaction design prototypes, as well as various visualization designs for the gaze itself (continuous line and dashed line) and the point of regard (donut, dashed donut, sphere, rectangle) to guide collaboration and report our findings from several usability studies (n=6). We also interviewed our participants which allows us to make some qualitative observations on the potential function and usefulness of these visualization and interaction prototypes. Overall, the outcomes suggest that gaze visualization solutions in general are promising approaches to assist communication in collaborative XR, although, not surprisingly, how they are designed is important.
Abstract. With increasing technical feasibility of extended reality (XR) on smartphones and tablets, we also witness increasing versatility in the use of the mixed reality (MR) (i.e., rather than augmented or virtual) in utility-oriented apps (e.g., for navigation, indoor/outdoor spatial planning, entertainment and location based gaming. In cases where user adaptation and adherence is important, the design of the story itself, visualization and interaction in the game must be engaging, and ideally support spatial knowledge acquisition. In this paper, we briefly review the literature on creating engaging MR experiences for a location based game, and present a case study in which we feature a location based MR game (SBB Stories). We conceptualized, designed and implemented the SBB Stories with user-centered design methods in collaboration with the SBB (Swiss Federal Railways). In this paper we feature an interactive story that took place in Zurich’s main train station in 1937. Our findings from several cycles of user studies shows an increased spatial awareness of the surroundings as participants used the SBB Stories app. Importantly, participants reported the blending of historical and current visual elements as an outstanding and inspiring experience. Besides a high score of 83.75/100 in a standardized usability test, and a similarly high score of 4.25/5.00 in a standardized user engagement scale, all participants reported that they would spend extra time at the train station to play this game, suggesting that the app was indeed engaging.
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