One of the primary barriers to the widespread adoption of virtual reality (VR) is cybersickness, a form of visually-induced motion sickness caused by the mismatch between visual and vestibular cues. Our study investigates the role of field-dependence on cybersickness susceptibility. We used a virtual reality roller coaster simulation to induce sickness and measured the time for participant dropout. Field dependence was measured using the Group Embedded Figure test and two variations of the Rod and Frame test. A survival analysis indicated that field dependence can be an effective measure of individual differences in cybersickness. Field-dependent individuals have a 37 % increased risk of dropping out and females showed an increased risk of 126 %. We did not find a significant effect from age or sleep quality. The study also confirms that the dropout rates paradigm can effectively identify susceptibility to cybersickness and may be preferable to questionnaires. Psychological tests that measure these variables may eventually blend seamlessly in virtual environments and allow for greater prediction of cybersickness susceptibility.

Virtual Reality has been used to improve motivation and help in the visualization of complex computing topics. However, few studies directly compared immersive and non-immersive environments. To address this limitation, we developed Abacus, a programming environment that can run in both immersive and non-immersive modes. We conducted a between-subjects study (n=40), with twenty participants assigned to the desktop mode and twenty participants assigned to the VR mode. Participants used a block-based editor to complete two programming tasks: a non-spatial procedural task, and a spatial 3D math task. We found that VR led to higher gains in self-efficacy and that the gain was significant for participants with lower initial levels of experience and spatial skills.

Locomotion is a fundamental component in many virtual reality (VR) games. However, few techniques have been designed with game’s demands in mind. In this paper, we propose two locomotion techniques for fast-paced VR games: Repeated Short-Range Teleports and Continuous Movement Pads. We conducted a user study with 27 participants using these techniques against Smooth Locomotion and Teleport in a game-like scenario. We found that Movement Pads can be a suitable alternative for games, with competitive performance on various criteria such as time, damage taken, usability, workload, and user preference. On the other hand, Repeated Short-Range Teleport displayed lower usability and higher mental workload.

With the continuing development of affordable immersive virtual reality (VR) systems, there is now a growing market for consumer content. The current form of consumer systems is not dissimilar to the lab-based VR systems of the past 30 years: the primary input mechanism is a head-tracked display and one or two tracked hands with buttons and joysticks on hand-held controllers. Over those 30 years, a very diverse academic literature has emerged that covers design and ergonomics of 3D user interfaces (3DUIs). However, the growing consumer market has engaged a very broad range of creatives that have built a very diverse set of designs. Sometimes these designs adopt findings from the academic literature, but other times they experiment with completely novel or counter-intuitive mechanisms. In this paper and its online adjunct, we report on novel 3DUI design patterns that are interesting from both design and research perspectives: they are highly novel, potentially broadly re-usable and/or suggest interesting avenues for evaluation. The supplemental material, which is a living document, is a crowd-sourced repository of interesting patterns. This paper is a curated snapshot of those patterns that were considered to be the most fruitful for further elaboration.

A critical decision when designing glanceable information displays is where to place the content. Since blocking the center of the field of view with virtual information is not desirable, designers often opt for placement in the visual periphery. Another option is to only show virtual content when needed. However, no study has been made to systematically evaluate world-locked content position, considering both cognitive and physiological constraints. With this goal in mind, we designed a scenario that mimics context switching between a real world-task and an information display. We then conducted a within-subjects study to evaluate the effect of position, parameterized by horizontal angle, vertical angle, and distance from the user. Our results show that context switching time increases as the information is displayed far from the task position. The same happens with discomfort: content placed at eye level, or below, was faster and more comfortable than in other positions. We also found participants preferred content at medium distances, although they were also faster with content at far distances.

Specifying points in three-dimensional (3D) space is an essential function in many augmented reality (AR) applications. When an environment model is not available, a straightforward solution is to perform geometric triangulation using two rays. However, naïve implementations suffer from low accuracy caused by technical limitations of AR devices and human motor constraints. To overcome these issues, we designed and evaluated two enhanced geometric techniques for 3D point marking. VectorCloud uses multiple rays to reduce the effects of pointing jitter, and ImageRefinement improves the accuracy by allowing users to refine the 3D direction of the two rays. We conducted studies to understand the characteristics of these techniques in both ecologically valid outdoor settings using a mobile AR display and in more controlled setting using virtual reality simulation. Our experiments demonstrate that both techniques improve the precision of 3D point marking, and that ImageRefinement is superior to VectorCloud overall. These results are particularly relevant in the design of mobile AR systems intended for use in large outdoor areas.

Mobile augmented reality may eventually replace our smartphones as the primary way of accessing information on the go. However, current interfaces provide little support to walking and to the variety of actions we perform in the real world. To achieve its full potential, augmented reality interfaces must support the fluid way we move and interact in the physical world. We explored how different adaptation strategies can contribute towards this goal. We evaluated design alternatives through contextual studies and identified the key interaction patterns that interfaces for walking should support. We also identified desirable properties of adaptation-based interface techniques, which can be used to guide the design of the next-generation walking-centered augmented reality workspaces.

Technostress is an emerging and significant psychological phenomenon associated with the use of technology. As humans increasingly encounter computational technology on a daily basis, there is a need to manage the anxieties and tensions that can result from these interactions. Using the lens of critical design, we created a design probe to explore this concept of technology induced stress. The probe builds on the topic of slow technology and embraces multisensory experiences as a tool for individuals to reflect on their relationship with technology.

Specifying points in three-dimensional space is essential in AR applications. Geometric triangulation is a straightforward way to specify points, but its naïve implementation has low precision. We designed two enhanced geometric techniques for 3D point marking: VectorCloud, which uses multiple rays to reduce jittering, and ImageRefinement, which allows 3D ray refinement to improve precision. Our experiments, conducted in both simulated and real AR, demonstrate that both techniques improve the precision of 3D point marking, and that ImageRefinement is superior to VectorCloud overall. These results are particularly relevant in the design of mobile AR systems for large outdoor areas.

Walking is bound to become a common activity in wearable augmented reality. Compared to walking in virtual reality, walking in augmented reality is very simple and uncomplicated. The ability to use AR in different places and even while walking is likely to deeply impact the way users will experience this technology. The research on walk-centric interfaces has the goal to explore this design space, and bring about a better understanding of how walking affects the design of augmented reality applications. This paper outlines the design space, preliminary, and future work on this topic.

Specifying 3D positions in the real world is an essential step to create augmented reality content. However, this task can be challenging when information about the depth or geometry of the target location is not available. In this paper, we evaluate alternative techniques for 3D pointing at a distance without knowledge about the environment. We present the results of two studies evaluating the accuracy of techniques based on geometry and human depth perception. We find that geometric methods provide higher accuracy but may suffer from low precision due to pointing errors. We propose a solution that increases precision by combining multiple samples to obtain a better estimate of the target position.

In this paper, we present multiple 3D interaction techniques to address the three tasks in the 2018 3DUI contest: ladder climbing, drone flying and tower stacking. The proposed techniques provide smart interfaces to aid efficiency and error prevention. We discuss the principles and rationale used in the design.

We describe how self-production systems theory can be applied in the design of new creative interfaces. By modeling the interface as an organizationally closed system, we can support creative agency while still allowing collaboration with the user. Although in this approach the interactor no longer solely determines the output, both the user and interface can become structurally coupled, achieving a balanced interaction. We discuss our theoretical motivations and describe an initial attempt in the domain of human-machine collaborative painting.

Better Hands (2017) is an interactive installation that explores the limits and the role of tools in the creative process. It questions the nature of authorship by bringing the interface closer to the body, while empowering it with embedded agency. The artwork invites us to reflect on the effect of modern technology on the basic act of creation and whether we control or are defined by it.

We report the findings of a study designed to evaluate the effect of stereopsis and field of regard (FOR) in two different mixed reality (MR) simulation platforms: a head-mounted display (HMD) and a CAVE. We compared the performance of participants on two levels of stereopsis (mono and stereo) and two levels of FOR (90 degrees and 270 degrees) using a variety of scientific visualization tasks. Among the findings, we observed that not all the effects were consistent between the platforms. Stereo alone or in combination with higher FOR improved completion time on both platforms. However, adding stereo solely reduced the accuracy of the participants on the CAVE and improved on the HMD. Our findings extend prior knowledge on the contribution of visual fidelity components and suggests potential limits on MR simulation between platforms.