Brief Overview of the Paper:
The paper explores the asymmetry of interfaces and its impact on collaboration between Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) users. The research question focuses on whether this asymmetry biases interaction. The study involves mixing AR and VR users in a collaborative Mixed Reality (MR) environment. The authors investigate various relationships, such as presence and co-presence, accord and co-presence, leadership and talkativeness, head rotation velocity and leadership, and head rotation velocity and talkativeness.
Contributions Beyond Previous Work:
The paper builds upon prior research that has highlighted the breadth of issues caused by interface asymmetry. Many questions in this area remained unanswered, so the authors designed an experiment to further understand the effects. They formed a clear research question and collected a wide variety of data, including subjective data such as spoken words, presence, leadership, and objective data such as rotation and distance traveled.
Liked Aspects:
One positive aspect of the paper is the extensive data collection. The authors gathered subjective and objective data, providing a comprehensive understanding of the collaboration between AR and VR users.
Disliked Aspects:
One drawback of the study is that it does not clarify whether the observed effects are specific to the particular Head-Mounted Display (HMD) device or the current technical limitations. For example, the reasoning for H3 depends on the specific design of the controllers used. Additionally, the weight or restrictions of the HMD may have influenced user behavior.
Suggestions for Improvement:
To improve the study, the authors could have altered the conditions by using different VR/AR HMDs and conducting the same experiment. This would help determine if the effects are device-specific or more generalizable to all AR and VR experiences.
Future Directions:
In future research, the authors could explore experiences that fall between the spectrum of AR and VR. This could involve environments with blended reality or diminished reality, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of collaboration in mixed environments.