PhD Research Proposal
Collaborative tasks increasingly span diverse technological interfaces, ranging from immersive Virtual Reality (VR) environments to ubiquitous desktop and mobile devices. While immersive technologies offer unparalleled spatial understanding and presence for some users, their non-VR counterparts provide accessibility and familiarity to a broader audience. This technological heterogeneity creates an inherent asymmetry in perception and interaction, posing a fundamental challenge to achieving shared understanding among collaborators. This research proposes to investigate novel interface designs, communication strategies, and system mechanisms to bridge this asymmetry, fostering clear shared understanding and effective collaboration in multi-user, multi-device environments where some users are in VR/MR/AR and others are on traditional 2D displays.
Motivation and Problem Statement
Effective collaboration hinges on shared understanding – a common ground of knowledge, intentions, and context among team members. In traditional co-located settings or even uniform digital environments (e.g., all users on desktop), cues like gaze, pointing, body language, and shared visual fields contribute to this understanding. However, in asymmetric multi-device collaboration, these cues are often lost or distorted. A VR user might leverage a deep spatial understanding of a 3D model, while a desktop user perceives it as a flat projection. A mobile user might be physically distant from the task at hand, whereas a VR user is “inside” it. This divergence leads to:
- Misinterpretations: Different perspectives can lead to users misunderstanding each other’s actions, referents, or progress.
- Reduced Situational Awareness: Non-VR users may lack context about the immersive environment, and VR users may struggle to infer what non-VR users are seeing or doing.
- Inefficient Coordination: Difficulty in aligning actions and intentions due to perceptual gaps.
- Frustration and Disengagement: Users may feel disconnected or less impactful due to the lack of shared ground.
The core problem this research addresses is how to overcome the inherent perceptual and interaction asymmetries in multi-device collaboration involving both immersive (VR/MR/AR) and traditional (desktop/mobile) interfaces, specifically focusing on mechanisms to build and maintain shared understanding among all participants.
Research Questions
This research aims to answer the following key questions:
- Bridging Perceptual Gaps: What novel visualization techniques and abstract representations can be developed to effectively convey spatial context and immersive user actions (e.g., gaze, pointing, spatial manipulations) from VR/AR users to collaborators on 2D desktop/mobile screens?
- Communicating Non-Spatial Context: How can non-spatial context and intentions from 2D desktop/mobile users (e.g., text edits, data analysis, specific viewports) be meaningfully represented and integrated into the immersive environment for VR/AR users?
- Asymmetric Interaction Design: What asymmetric interaction paradigms can enable fluid and effective collaboration where users have disparate levels of immersion and control? How can the system dynamically adapt input and output affordances to match each device’s capabilities while maintaining collaborative coherence?
- Feedback and Awareness Mechanisms: What multi-modal feedback mechanisms (visual, auditory, haptic, olfactory) are most effective in signaling ongoing actions, points of interest, and the general state of other collaborators, particularly when their perceptual contexts differ significantly?
- Impact on Shared Understanding and Collaboration Outcomes: How do different design interventions for bridging asymmetric perception and interaction affect objective measures of shared understanding (e.g., task accuracy, efficiency) and subjective measures of collaboration quality (e.g., co-presence, satisfaction, perceived coordination)?
- Design Guidelines for Asymmetric Collaboration: Based on empirical findings, what generalizable design guidelines and a conceptual framework can be established for fostering shared understanding in multi-device, asymmetric collaborative environments?
Research Methodology
This research will employ a mixed-methods approach, combining iterative design, prototyping, and rigorous user studies. The methodology will involve the following phases:
- Phase 1: Literature Review and Conceptual Framework: A comprehensive review of literature on asymmetric collaboration, multi-device interaction, shared mental models, common ground theory, awareness mechanisms in CSCW (Computer-Supported Cooperative Work), VR/AR interaction, and perceptual psychology in heterogeneous environments. This will inform the development of a conceptual framework for understanding and measuring shared understanding in asymmetric multi-device collaboration.
- Phase 2: Identification of Collaboration Scenarios and Prototyping: Identify and characterize specific collaborative tasks that inherently benefit from or necessitate asymmetric multi-device interaction (e.g., joint design review, remote expert assistance, multi-user training simulations). Design and develop multiple prototype systems exploring different visualization, communication, and interaction techniques to bridge the perceptual gap between VR/AR and 2D users. This will include implementing various forms of “awareness cues” (e.g., avatars, pointers, miniature views, textual summaries).
- Phase 3: User Studies and Evaluation: Conduct a series of controlled laboratory user studies evaluating the effectiveness of the prototyped solutions. These studies will involve groups of users collaborating on the identified tasks across heterogeneous devices (e.g., one VR user, one desktop user, one mobile user). Quantitative measures will include task completion time, error rates, and objective assessments of shared understanding. Qualitative measures will include user interviews, questionnaires (e.g., measuring co-presence, workload, communication quality), and video analysis of collaboration patterns.
- Phase 4: Data Analysis and Iterative Refinement: Analyze the collected data using statistical methods for quantitative results and thematic analysis for qualitative data. Identify successful strategies, emergent behaviors, and areas for improvement. Refine the prototypes and conceptual framework based on these empirical insights, potentially leading to a second round of prototyping and evaluation.
- Phase 5: Guideline Generation and Dissemination: Synthesize the research findings into a set of practical design guidelines and a refined theoretical framework for fostering shared understanding in asymmetric multi-device collaboration. Disseminate research outcomes through peer-reviewed publications in top-tier HCI, VR/AR, and CSCW conferences and journals, and present findings to the broader research community.
Work Plan (Example – 4 Year PhD)
- Year 1: Comprehensive literature review; formalization of the conceptual framework for shared understanding in asymmetric collaboration; identification of initial target collaboration scenarios; preliminary design sketches and low-fidelity prototypes for bridging visualization techniques.
- Year 2: Implementation of core multi-device collaboration infrastructure; development of high-fidelity prototypes exploring different visualization (e.g., VR-to-2D proxies, 2D-to-VR context cues) and asymmetric interaction techniques; pilot user studies to refine experimental design.
- Year 3: Execution of main user studies (multiple experiments potentially exploring different facets of communication and interaction); rigorous data collection and initial statistical/qualitative analysis.
- Year 4: In-depth data analysis and interpretation; iterative refinement of findings and conceptual framework; derivation of concrete design guidelines; thesis writing and submission; publication of research results in leading venues.
Expected Contributions
This research is expected to make significant contributions to the fields of Human-Computer Interaction, Virtual Reality, and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work by:
- Developing novel interaction and visualization techniques that effectively communicate spatial and contextual information across disparate immersive and traditional interfaces.
- Providing empirical evidence and a deeper understanding of the factors that contribute to or hinder shared understanding in asymmetric multi-device collaboration.
- Proposing a refined conceptual framework for analyzing and measuring shared understanding in heterogeneous collaborative environments.
- Generating actionable design guidelines and best practices for developers and researchers aiming to create more inclusive and effective multi-device collaborative systems.
- Advancing the state-of-the-art in asymmetric collaboration, enabling richer and more productive interactions between users regardless of their chosen device.