Enabling Human Interaction in Virtual Reality: An Explorative Overview of Opportunities and Limitations of Current VR Technology

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) enables users to experience immersive virtual environments and has become an important tool in different domains such as industry, healthcare, professional services, or education. In many of the VR use cases, humans do not only need to interact with the virtual surroundings (e.g., machines), but also with other humans (e.g., business meetings or creativity workshops). However, human (to human) interaction in VR leads to technological challenges. Hence, researchers and practitioners need to analyze which VR technology actually supports features for human interaction that fit their use cases. A current overview in that regard, however, is missing. Therefore, based upon a market analysis, this paper provides a summary of current VR hardware, software applications and frameworks. We compare the general VR hardware ecosystems, sensory capabilities, technical specifications, available software applications that focus on human interaction, and development tools. The results show that, while many technologies provide specific features, only few solutions allow for the full range of human interaction in VR.