Augmented Virtual Teleportation for High-Fidelity Telecollaboration.

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality
• Augmented Reality
• Mixed Reality

Background:

• Telecollaboration requires high environmental fidelity for effective spatial referencing.
• Existing telepresence systems often lack seamless integration between remote and local collaborators.
• Asymmetric collaboration platforms are needed to bridge the gap between different immersive technologies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and evaluate Augmented Virtual Teleportation (AVT), a novel asymmetric platform for telecollaboration.
• To enable high-fidelity telepresence of a remote VR user within a local AR user's real-world environment.
• To assess the impact of AVT on spatial presence, co-presence, and user satisfaction.

Main Methods:

• AVT utilizes a 360° camera to stream real-world environments to a remote VR user.
• The VR user's movements are translated into a 3D avatar visible to the local AR user.
• Synchronized audio-visual cues and interactive virtual objects are presented within a Mixed Reality Collaboration space (MRC-space).

Main Results:

• The AVT platform provides high-fidelity telepresence, enabling remote users to experience co-presence in the local environment.
• Users can interact with virtual objects using real-world objects as spatial references.
• The system facilitates seamless blending of virtual elements into the real scene for unique mixed reality use cases.

Conclusions:

• AVT offers a promising solution for enhancing telecollaboration through high-fidelity mixed reality experiences.
• The platform supports interactive collaboration by synchronizing remote and local users within a shared space.
• Further applications of AVT can be explored to advance remote collaboration in various domains.