- https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9382870
- The paper discusses the importance of group navigation in distributed virtual environments and proposes a technique based on short-distance teleportation (jumping) to facilitate guided tours. The technique was evaluated in a user study, where participants found it easy to learn, comprehensible, and non-nauseating, making it suitable for performing guided tours.
Brief overview of the paper:
- Requirements: Group navigation techniques should be understandable for both the guide and the attendees, help the group avoid obstacles, and allow for meaningful spatial arrangements with respect to objects of interest.
- Focus: Colocated navigation in a virtual world and distributed navigation in the real world.
- Contribution: Prior works have focused on individual navigation, but this paper addresses the specific challenges of group navigation.
What I like about it:
- The method of collecting qualitative data by asking participants to think aloud is commendable. It allows for real-time and spontaneous comments that may not be captured through interviews or questionnaires after the experiment.
What I don’t like about it:
- The study relies on subjective responses from a small number of participants (12), which may not be fully convincing. While some objective data is included, it is not the main focus of the analysis.
- The setting of the study seems oversimplified, as it assumes silent attendees without any specific actions.
What could have been done differently:
- The study could have included a larger number of participants and explored different actions for the tour attendees. This would provide a more comprehensive understanding of the technique’s effectiveness and usability.
What should be done next:
- In situations with more participants, it may not be necessary to display every avatar during the group tour. By limiting each participant’s view to only a few other avatars, multiple avatars that do not see each other could overlap.
- Visualizations such as a World-in-Miniature could provide an overhead view to guides, helping them make movement decisions. Viewing from a bird’s-eye perspective may make it easier to determine formations and positions of multiple people compared to a first-person view.