Collaboration in Immersive Environments: Challenges and Solutions

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current research on collaboration in VR and AR environments, highlighting challenges like communication and social presence, and discusses potential applications and future research directions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of collaboration types, challenges, and limitations in immersive environments, emphasizing the need for further research in this emerging field.

Findings

Collaboration in immersive environments involves communication, coordination, and social presence.

Challenges include lack of physical cues, high costs, and usability issues.

Potential applications span education, industry, and group work.

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) tools have been applied in all engineering fields in order to avoid the use of physical prototypes, to train in high-risk situations, and to interpret real or simulated results. In order to complete a shared task or assign tasks to the agents in such immersive environments, collaboration or Shared Cooperative Activities are a necessity. Collaboration in immersive environments is an emerging field of research that aims to study and enhance the ways in which people interact and work together in Virtual and Augmented Reality settings. Collaboration in immersive environments is a complex process that involves different factors such as communication, coordination, and social presence. This paper provides an overview of the current state of research on collaboration in immersive environments. It discusses the different types of immersive environments, including VR and AR, and the different forms of collaboration that can occur in these environments. The paper also highlights the challenges and limitations of collaboration in immersive environments, such as the lack of physical cues, cost and usability and the need for further research in this area. Overall, collaboration in immersive environments is a promising field with a wide range of potential applications, from education to industry, and it can benefit both individuals and groups by enhancing their ability to work together effectively.