Managing Information Overload in Large-Scale Distributed Mixed-Reality Meetings

TL;DR

Large-scale distributed MR meetings face cognitive overload and social fatigue. The paper proposes a suite of context-aware adaptations across visual, audio, spatial, and AI-assisted attention management to modulate information presentation and interaction. Key contributions include idle avatar fading, relevance-based avatar scaling, adaptive audio, dynamic environment partitioning, topic labeling with emotion cues, and a framework contrasting user-driven and system-driven adaptation strategies. The work provides design guidance for scalable, transparent MR meeting systems that balance automation with user agency to reduce cognitive load and sustain collaboration.

Abstract

Large-scale distributed mixed-reality meetings involve many people and their audiovisual representations. These collaborative environments can introduce challenges such as sensory overload, cognitive strain, and social fatigue. In this paper, we discuss how the unique adaptability of Mixed Reality can be leveraged to weaken these stressors by managing information overload.