Studying Collaborative Object Positioning In Distributed Augmented Realities

Augmented Reality (AR) displays have been suggested as shared-space technology to support remote collaboration, e.g., in design and building tasks. But with AR displays, the shared space typically consists of only the virtual work objects (e.g., design artifacts) while collaborators' interaction is grounded in their individual, physical environment. This can become problematic during activities that involve the positioning of virtual objects because the collaborators may require shared spatial references to coordinate their actions. In a lab experiment with 16 dyads, we studied how collaborators deal with that issue, and whether the provisioning of additive, virtual landmarks influences collaboration. As a result the landmarks improved user experience and decreased the reported temporal demand. In addition, we identified task-specific problem situations and provide implications for the design of distributed ARs to facilitate the collaborative positioning of virtual objects.