Extended reality (xr) remote research: A survey of drawbacks and opportunities

Abstract

Extended Reality (XR) technology -such as virtual and augmented reality -is now widely used in Human Computer Interaction (HCI), social science and psychology experimentation. However, these experiments are predominantly deployed in-lab with a co-present researcher. Remote experiments, without co-present researchers, have not fourished, despite the success of remote approaches for non-XR investigations. This paper summarises fndings from a 30-item survey of 46 XR researchers to understand perceived limitations and benefts of remote XR experimentation. Our thematic analysis identifes concerns common with non-XR remote research, such as participant recruitment, as well as XR-specifc issues, including safety and hardware variability. We identify potential positive afordances of XR technology, including leveraging data collection functionalities builtin to HMDs (e.g. hand, gaze tracking) and the portability and reproducibility of an experimental setting. We suggest that XR technology could be conceptualised as an interactive technology and a capable data-collection device suited for remote experimentation.