The sense of presence and embodiment are cornerstone concepts in mixed reality research. Presence is the feeling of being immersed in the virtual environment, which has a strong impact on users’ emotions, attitude, and multimodal sensation. The ability to embody a virtual avatar blurs the line between virtual and physical worlds, feeding the freedom to explore and experiment, with a different personality, gender, or physicality. People respond differently to virtual avatars depending on who they are and the characteristics of the avatar. The identities of virtual avatars can take precedence over our usual identities. The importance of the avatar choice and visual appearances has a large impact on social interaction and collaborations within virtual environment.
In virtual environments, the user’s body is represented as virtual avatars. In augmented reality systems, there is no need to have virtual avatars for the user’s physical body. However, in the context of collaboration, virtual avatars representing collaborators in an augmented environment have a strong effect on social co-presence. In other words, cross-reality collaboration between virtual, augmented, and mixed reality systems provides additional challenges to the concept of co-presence when each collaborator is represented in different realities, virtual versus real. The contrast of physical and virtual bodies proposes inconsistencies that needs to be managed by mixed reality designers and researchers to maximize collaboration effectiveness. How a physical user can feel the presence of virtual avatars within a collaborative mixed reality environment and vice versa is an intriguing research question in this area.
In this Research Topic, we are particularly interested in work exploring the impacts of embodiment and presence in the context of collaborative mixed reality. Additionally, researchers exploring the best practices for designing avatars to support collaborations among users of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality systems are encouraged to contribute to this Research Topic.
Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Applying embodiment concepts and approaches, in mixed reality for collaborative tasks for the purpose of virtual co-working or teaching and learning.
• Approaches to maximise virtual sense of presence, such as innovations in virtual avatars through optimised rendering, volumetric, or point-cloud visualisation
• Designing innovative interactions between virtual avatars and ‘real’ people for collaborative working and learning environments in mixed reality systems
• Addressing consistency issues when collaborating in different physical locations are meeting together in a virtual, augmented, or mixed reality spaces
• Approaches and implementation for utilising sense of embodiment experiences for education, training, and other collaborative domains
• Challenges with creating realistic avatar versus human interactions in mixed reality collaborative spaces
• Studies on creating and the effects of social co-presence in mixed/augmented reality collaboration environments, such as virtual classrooms or meetings
The sense of presence and embodiment are cornerstone concepts in mixed reality research. Presence is the feeling of being immersed in the virtual environment, which has a strong impact on users’ emotions, attitude, and multimodal sensation. The ability to embody a virtual avatar blurs the line between virtual and physical worlds, feeding the freedom to explore and experiment, with a different personality, gender, or physicality. People respond differently to virtual avatars depending on who they are and the characteristics of the avatar. The identities of virtual avatars can take precedence over our usual identities. The importance of the avatar choice and visual appearances has a large impact on social interaction and collaborations within virtual environment.
In virtual environments, the user’s body is represented as virtual avatars. In augmented reality systems, there is no need to have virtual avatars for the user’s physical body. However, in the context of collaboration, virtual avatars representing collaborators in an augmented environment have a strong effect on social co-presence. In other words, cross-reality collaboration between virtual, augmented, and mixed reality systems provides additional challenges to the concept of co-presence when each collaborator is represented in different realities, virtual versus real. The contrast of physical and virtual bodies proposes inconsistencies that needs to be managed by mixed reality designers and researchers to maximize collaboration effectiveness. How a physical user can feel the presence of virtual avatars within a collaborative mixed reality environment and vice versa is an intriguing research question in this area.
In this Research Topic, we are particularly interested in work exploring the impacts of embodiment and presence in the context of collaborative mixed reality. Additionally, researchers exploring the best practices for designing avatars to support collaborations among users of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality systems are encouraged to contribute to this Research Topic.
Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Applying embodiment concepts and approaches, in mixed reality for collaborative tasks for the purpose of virtual co-working or teaching and learning.
• Approaches to maximise virtual sense of presence, such as innovations in virtual avatars through optimised rendering, volumetric, or point-cloud visualisation
• Designing innovative interactions between virtual avatars and ‘real’ people for collaborative working and learning environments in mixed reality systems
• Addressing consistency issues when collaborating in different physical locations are meeting together in a virtual, augmented, or mixed reality spaces
• Approaches and implementation for utilising sense of embodiment experiences for education, training, and other collaborative domains
• Challenges with creating realistic avatar versus human interactions in mixed reality collaborative spaces
• Studies on creating and the effects of social co-presence in mixed/augmented reality collaboration environments, such as virtual classrooms or meetings
