Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) offer unique opportunities for human communication. Humans can interact with each other over a distance in any environment and visual embodiment they want. Although deictic gestures are especially important as they can guide other humans' attention, humans make systematic errors when using and interpreting them. Recent work suggests that the interpretation of vertical deictic gestures can be significantly improved by warping the pointing arm. In this paper, we extend previous work by showing that models enable to also improve the interpretation of deictic gestures at targets all around the user. Through a study with 28 participants in a CVE, we analyzed the errors users make when interpreting deictic gestures. We derived a model that rotates the arm of a pointing user's avatar to improve the observing users' accuracy. A second study with 24 participants shows that we can improve observers' accuracy by 22.9%. As our approach is not noticeable for users, it improves their accuracy without requiring them to learn a new interaction technique or distracting from the experience.

During physical games, we love to socially interact with other players through bluffing or giving them hits. This work aims to enrich AR characters by adding a suggestive behavior to them intended to playfully influence game decisions. In a user study, we evaluated such behaviors presented as body postures by animated card characters using an AR trading card game. Our results indicate that AR characters can indeed influence the player’s game decisions through postures that encourage or discourage to play a certain card. Our approach enriches the game design space, can make the game more interesting, and finally adds a social component to the game.

Currently, (invisible) smart speech assistants, such as Siri, Alexa, and Cortana, are used by a constantly growing number of people. Moreover, Augmented Reality (AR) glasses are predicted to become widespread consumer devices in the future. Hence, smart assistants can easily become common applications of AR glasses, which allows for giving the assistant a visual representation as an embodied agent. While previous research on embodied agents found a user preference for a humanoid appearance, research on the uncanny valley suggests that simply designed humanoids can be favored over hyper-realistic humanoid characters. In a user study, we compared agents of simple versus more realistic appearance (seen through AR glasses) versus an invisible state-of-the-art speech assistants (see Figure 1). Our results indicate that a more realistic visualization is preferred as it provides additional communication cues, such as eye contact and gaze, which seem to be key features when talking to a smart assistant. But if the situation requires visual attention, e.g., when being mobile or in a multitask situation, an invisible agent can be more appropriate as they do not distract the visual focus, which can be essential during AR experiences.

Games are a great objective for research on tangible and embodied interaction as they not only have a long tradition in both the analogue and the digital game domain; they also perfectly represent the tangible and the embodiment through the nature of game play. In this Studio, we will go beyond the analogue characteristics of board games, not just by adding a visual digital layer, but by examining new game play mechanics for board games through digital technology. We will do this by introducing a new role in board games as an immersed 'character' in the game. For this, we use a very specific technology (virtual reality live streaming from a miniature perspective) as a new lens on (existing) board games. Through experimentation with and exploration of existing board games through this new lens, we will conceptualize and prototype game play mechanics for this new notion of game participation.