Investigating the impact of virtual element misalignment in collaborative Augmented Reality experiences

TL;DR

This study addresses how misalignment of virtual elements and avatar cues affect collaboration in co-located AR. It employs two controlled experiments with 24 dyads performing cooperative tasks to manipulate virtual element alignment and positional synchrony/avatars, evaluated with ATI, UEQ, FSS, IPQ, and open-ended responses. The results indicate that divergent object perception has limited direct impact on collaboration, while positional synchrony significantly improves learnability and flow, with avatars playing a smaller, context-dependent role. The findings offer practical guidelines for designing collaborative AR environments, suggesting designers prioritize accurate alignment and use divergence strategically for training or communication enhancement.

Abstract

The collaboration in co-located shared environments has sparked an increased interest in immersive technologies, including Augmented Reality (AR). Since research in this field has primarily focused on individual user experiences in AR, the collaborative aspects within shared AR spaces remain less explored, and fewer studies can provide guidelines for designing this type of experience. This article investigates how the user experience in a collaborative shared AR space is affected by divergent perceptions of virtual objects and the effects of positional synchrony and avatars. For this purpose, we developed an AR app and used two distinct experimental conditions to study the influencing factors. Forty-eight participants, organized into 24 pairs, participated in the experiment and jointly interacted with shared virtual objects. Results indicate that divergent perceptions of virtual objects did not directly influence communication and collaboration dynamics. Conversely, positional synchrony emerged as a critical factor, significantly enhancing the quality of the collaborative experience. On the contrary, while not negligible, avatars played a relatively less pronounced role in influencing these dynamics. The findings can potentially offer valuable practical insights, guiding the development of future collaborative AR/VR environments.

Figures (4)

• Figure 1: The two tasks for the experiment setups. On the left, the task executed in the first experiment setup, in which the users have to sort blue cubes and green spheres by color and shape. On the right, the task executed in the second experiment, where the user verbally guides their partner to place a sphere into a semi-transparent cube visible only to the guiding subject.
• Figure 2: The two conditions of the second setup with avatars. On the left, avatars are aligned with the user ("Sync-w-A"), on the right, avatars are not aligned ("ASync-w-A").
• Figure 3: The graph depicts the results from the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) for the second experiment. The blue bars represent the average scores where the avatar was activated, and the red bars represent the average scores where the avatar was deactivated. The user experience is perceived significantly better in synchronous conditions compared to asynchronous ones, regardless of whether the avatar is activated or not. Notably, in the synchronous condition, the avatar being activated (blue bar) appears to have a slightly better user experience score than when it is deactivated (red bar). In the asynchronous condition, the avatar's deactivation (red bar) results in a better user experience than when it is activated (blue bar). All the differences here are statistically significant as denoted by the asterisks. Significance values: *p$<$ .05, **p$<$ .01, ***p$<$ .001
• Figure 4: The graph depicts the results from the Flow State Scale (FSS) for the second comparison. The blue bars represent the average scores where the avatar was activated, and the red bars represent the average scores where the avatar was deactivated. For both synchronous and asynchronous conditions, the presence of an avatar (blue) does not show a significant difference in the flow state compared to when the avatar is deactivated (red). The double asterisks (**) denote that the differences between synchronous and asynchronous conditions, both with the avatar activated and deactivated, are statistically significant. Significance values: *p$<$ .05, **p$<$ .01, ***p$<$ .001