Effect of body representation level of an avatar on quality of AR-based remote instruction

Abstract

In manufacturing, augmented reality (AR)-based remote instruction systems, which enable workers to receive instructions from an avatar, are widely used. In this study, we developed such a system and investigated the effect of the body representation level of the avatar on the quality of AR-based remote instruction. Drawing on the avatar designs of previous works, three different avatar designs (“Hand only”, “Hand + Arm”, and “Body”), representing three body representation levels, were created. In the experiment with a within-participant design, the avatar pointed at blocks sequentially and participants touched each block as soon as they identified it. The results of the experiment indicate that an AR-based remote instruction system with a “Body” avatar exhibits higher usability and can enable the participants to have a lower workload and higher efficiency.