Blended Collaboration: Communication and Cooperation Between Two Users Across the Reality-Virtuality Continuum

Abstract

Mixed reality (MR) technologies provide enormous potential for collaboration between multiple users across the Reality-Virtuality continuum. We evaluate communication in a MR-based two-user collaboration task, in which the users have to move an object through an obstacle without collision. We used a blended reality environment, in which one user is immersed in virtual reality, whereas the other uses mobile augmented reality. Both users have different abilities and information and mutually depend on each other for successful completion of the task. Communication consensus can either be achieved by using speech, visual widgets, or a combination of both. The results indicate that speech plays a fundamental role. The usage of widgets served as an extension rather than a replacement of language. However, the combination of speech and widgets improved the clearness of communication with less miscommunication. These results provide important indications about how to design blended collaboration across the Reality-Virtuality continuum.