Allow Me Into Your Dream: A Handshake-and-Pull Protocol for Sharing Mixed Realities in Spontaneous Encounters

TL;DR

This paper introduces TouchPort, a gesture-based protocol for seamless and socially clear sharing of mixed realities during spontaneous encounters, addressing consent and interaction complexity.

Contribution

It proposes a novel embodied gesture protocol that simplifies multi-stage MR sharing into a single handshake, enhancing social and ethical interaction in mixed reality environments.

Findings

TouchPort effectively collapses multiple sharing stages into one gesture.

The protocol demonstrates expressive range through three illustrative scenarios.

It addresses consent and ethical considerations in MR encounter protocols.

Abstract

Mixed reality systems support shared anchors and co-located interaction, yet they lack a socially legible protocol for entering another person's mixed reality in public settings. We frame this as a protocol problem: co-located MR sharing requires a staged sequence -- Discover, Consent, Confirm, Allow, Spatial Colocation, Sync Objects, Permission Management -- each demanding user understanding and agreement. Using AirDrop and Apple Vision Pro SharePlay as a baseline, we show that MR encounter complexity far exceeds file transfer, yet must feel equally effortless. We present TouchPort, an embodied sharing protocol that collapses this multi-stage sequence into a single gesture: a handshake and pull that simultaneously signals intent, negotiates consent, and initiates a temporary shared encounter layer between otherwise separate mixed realities. Through three implied scenarios, we demonstrate the protocol's expressive range in the transition from isolated to spontaneously shared realities. We discuss how embodied gestures can address the consent problem in ubiquitous MR and examine the ethical tensions of encounter protocols for MR futures.