Understanding the Effects of Tablet-based Virtual Reality (VR) Viewing Systems for an Inclusive, Cross-device Virtual Environment

Abstract

Wearing a virtual reality head-mounted display (VR-HMD) disconnects users from the real- world context that they are physically in. While one solution is to have everyone in the room wear VR-HMDs, this is not inclusive for all users. For example, children are not recommended to wear VR-HMDs due to eyesight concerns, and individuals with cybersickness, make-up, or thick hair texture may not want to wear them. In this thesis, we investigated the effects of using motion-tracked tablets as a window through which people can see the virtual world and understand how we can offer a more inclusive and social VR experience. Finally, we explore our in-lab user study to evaluate the usability of such a system, and we compare it against watching the VR-HMD user's egocentric view on a computer screen. Our results show that the tablet-based VR system is highly usable. Because of its agency, the participants felt more present and preferred the tablet-based system over the baseline method.