Abstract
Virtual Reality (VR) is a promising immersive technology, which provides users with place and plausibility illusions in a virtual environment (VE). However, current immersive experiences are often limited to those users wearing a VR head-mounted display (HMD). In this paper we present VR Invite, a project-independent smartphone app, which allows multiple non-immersive bystanders to observe and interact with the VE and the HMD users. Our system renders multiple view ports of the scene on a host computer, and transmits the data via wireless local network to the mobile devices. Furthermore, the position and orientation of the smartphones is tracked to change the viewpoints accordingly.
We conducted a user study with 26 participants in the context of rehabilitation for older adults in retirement homes, with a focus on bystander integration. In the study, a VR user had to play multiple rounds of a memory game, while a bystander provided support. We compared VR Invite with a TV-gamepad-combination as interaction medium for the support role regarding sense of presence, social presence, workload and usability, both with purely verbal and active assistance capabilities. The results indicate that the opportunity for direct interaction positively influences the bystander’s sense of presence in the VE and the reported usability of the Smartphone app. However, social presence was rated higher in passive conditions in which the real person was the center of attention, as opposed to the avatar on the screen. Furthermore, users valued the comfort of sitting down over active participation and agency with room-scale movement.
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Freiwald, J.P., Gollek, S., Steinicke, F. (2021). VR Invite: A Project-Independent Smartphone App for VR Observation and Interactivity. In: Ardito, C., et al. Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2021. INTERACT 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12932. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85623-6_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85623-6_22
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