In human-agent interaction, establishing trust and a social bond with the agent is crucial to improving communication quality and performance in collaborative tasks. This paper investigates how a Mixed Reality Agent’s (MiRA) ability to acknowledge a user’s physiological state affects perceptions such as empathy, social connectedness, presence, and trust. In a within-subject study with 24 subjects, we varied the companion agent’s awareness during a mixed-reality first-person shooting game. Three agents provided feedback based on the users’ physiological states: (1) No Awareness Agent (NAA), which did not acknowledge the user’s physiological state; (2) Random Awareness Agent (RAA), offering feedback with varying accuracy; and (3) Accurate Awareness Agent (AAA), which provided consistently accurate feedback. Subjects reported higher scores on perceived empathy, social connectedness, presence, and trust with AAA compared to RAA and NAA. Interestingly, despite exceeding NAA in perception scores, RAA was the least favored as a companion. The findings and implications for the design of MiRA interfaces are discussed, along with the limitations of the study and directions for future work.

In this research, we investigate the effectiveness of asymmetric interactions (HandStylus, HandController, and TwoHands) in Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Extended Reality (XR) for 3D digital drawing overlaying on physical and virtual objects. We evaluate the input accuracy and fatigue of these object-based 3D drawing experiences using quantitative measurements and further explore the correlation between these outcomes with subjective questionnaires. We found significant independence between environments and interface types, which considerably influence the performance and usability of 3D immersive drawing. We noted discrepancies between users’ subjective experiences and objective performance. Specifically, although AR drawing on physical objects provides superior accuracy and minimal muscle fatigue due to tangible feedback, and the TwoHands interaction offers the highest precision, the subjective results show the reverse outcome. Based on these findings, we propose design recommendations and discuss directions for future research in immersive drawing environments.