Investigating the Effects of Avatarization and Interaction Techniques on Near-field Mixed Reality Interactions with Physical Components

• Published in: IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics Vol. 30; no. 5; pp. 2756 - 2766
• Main Authors: Venkatakrishnan, Roshan, Venkatakrishnan, Rohith, Canales, Ryan, Raveendranath, Balagopal, Pagano, Christopher C., Robb, Andrew C., Lin, Wen-Chieh, Babu, Sabarish V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.05.2024; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Augmented reality; Avatars; End effectors; Factorial design; Interactions in MR; Mixed reality; Motor drives; Near fields; Self-Avatars; Tangible entities; Task analysis; User experience; Virtual reality; Visual tasks; Visualization
• ISSN: 1077-2626; 1941-0506; 1941-0506
• DOI: 10.1109/TVCG.2024.3372050

Mixed reality (MR) interactions feature users interacting with a combination of virtual and physical components. Inspired by research investigating aspects associated with near-field interactions in augmented and virtual reality (AR & VR), we investigated how avatarization, the physicality of the interacting components, and the interaction technique used to manipulate a virtual object affected performance and perceptions of user experience in a mixed reality fundamentals of laparoscopic peg-transfer task wherein users had to transfer a virtual ring from one peg to another for a number of trials. We employed a 3 (Physicality of pegs) X 3 (Augmented Avatar Representation) X 2 (Interaction Technique) multi-factorial design, manipulating the physicality of the pegs as a between-subjects factor, the type of augmented self-avatar representation, and the type of interaction technique used for object-manipulation as within-subjects factors. Results indicated that users were significantly more accurate when the pegs were virtual rather than physical because of the increased salience of the task-relevant visual information. From an avatar perspective, providing users with a reach envelope-extending representation, though useful, was found to worsen performance, while co-located avatarization significantly improved performance. Choosing an interaction technique to manipulate objects depends on whether accuracy or efficiency is a priority. Finally, the relationship between the avatar representation and interaction technique dictates just how usable mixed reality interactions are deemed to be.