I'm in Control! Transferring Object Ownership between Remote Users with Haptic Props in Virtual Reality

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) remote collaboration is becoming more and more relevant in a wide range of scenarios, such as remote assistance or group work. A way to enhance the user experience is using haptic props that make virtual objects graspable. But physical objects are only present in one location and cannot be manipulated directly by remote users. We explore different strategies to handle ownership of virtual objects enhanced by haptic props. In particular, two strategies of handling object ownership - SingleOwnership and SharedOwnership. SingleOwnership restricts virtual objects to local haptic props, while SharedOwnership allows collaborators to take over ownership of virtual objects using local haptic props. We study both strategies for a collaborative puzzle task regarding their influence on performance and user behavior. Our findings show that SingleOwnership increases communication and enhanced with virtual instructions, results in higher task completion times. SharedOwnership is less reliant on verbal communication and faster, but there is less social interaction between the collaborators.