The usage of fully immersive head-mounted displays in social everyday contexts

Technology often evolves from decades of research in university and industrial laboratories and changes people's lives when it becomes available to the masses.In the interaction between technology and consumer, established designs in the laboratory environment must be adapted to the needs of everyday life.This paper deals with the challenges arising from the development of fully immersive Head Mounted Displays (HMD) in laboratories towards their application in everyday contexts.Research on virtual reality (VR) technologies spans over 50 years and covers a wide field of topics, e.g., technology, system design, user interfaces, user experience or human perception.Other disciplines such as psychology or the teleoperation of robots are examples for users of VR technology.The work in the previous examples was mainly carried out in laboratories or highly specialized environments.The main goal was to generate systems that are ideal for a single user to conduct a particular task in VR.The new emerging environments for the use of HMDs range from private homes to offices to convention halls.Even in public spaces such as public transport, cafes or parks, immersive experiences are possible.However, current VR systems are not yet designed for these environments. Previous work on problems in the everyday environment deals with challenges such as preventing the user from colliding with a physical object.However, current research does not take into account the new social context for an HMD user associated with these environments.Several people who have different roles are around the user in these contexts.In contrast to laboratory scenarios, the non-HMD user, for example, does not share the task with or is aware of the state of the HMD user in VR.This thesis contributes to the challenges introduced by the social context. For this purpose I offer solutions to overcome the visual separation of the HMD user.I also suggest methods for investigating and evaluating the use of HMDs suitable for everyday context.First, we present concepts and insights to overcome the challenges arising from an HMD covering the user's face.In the private context, e.g., living rooms, one of the main challenges is the need for an HMD user to take off the HMD to be able to communicate with others.Reasons for taking off the HMD are the visual exclusion of the surrounding world for HMD users and the HMD covering the users' face, hindering communication.Additionally, the Non-HMD users do not know about the virtual world the HMD user is acting in.Previous work suggests to visualize the bystanding Non-HMD user or its actions in VR to address such challenges.The biggest advantage of a fully immersive experience, however, is the full separation from the physical surrounding with the ultimate goal of being at another place.Therefore I argue not to integrate a non-HMD users directly into VR.I introduce the approach of using a shared surface that provides a common basis for information and interaction between a non-HMD and a HMD user. Such a surface can be utilized by using a smartphone. The same information is presented to the HMD in VR and the Non-HMD user on the shared surface in the same physical position, enabling joint interaction at the surface.By examining four feedback modalities, we provide design guidelines for touch interaction.The guidelines support interaction design with such a shared surface by an HMD user.Further, we explore the possibility to inform the Non-HMD user about the user's state during a mixed presence collaboration, e.g., if the HMD user is inattentive to the real world.For this purpose I use a frontal display attached to the HMD.In particular we explore the challenges of disturbed socialness and reduced collaboration quality, by presenting the users state on the front facing display. In summary, our concepts and studies explore the application of a shared surface to overcome challenges in a co-located mixed presence collaboration.Second, we look at the challenges of using HMDs in a public environment that have not yet been considered.The use of HMDs in these environments is becoming a reality due to the current development of HMDs, which contain all necessary hardware in one portable device.Related work, in particular, the work on public displays, already addresses the interaction with technology in public environments.The form factor of the HMD, the need to take an HMD onto the head and especially the visual and mental exclusion of the HMD user are new and not yet understood challenges in these environments.We propose a problem space for semi-public (e.g., conference rooms) and public environments (e.g., market places).With an explorative field study, we gain insight into the effects of the visual and physical separation of an HMD user from surrounding Non-HMD users.Further, we present a method that helps to design and evaluate the unsupervised usage of HMDs in public environments, the \emph{audience funnel flow model for HMDs}.Third, we look into methods that are suitable to monitor and evaluate HMD-based experiences in the everyday context.One core measure is the experience of being present in the virtual world, i.e., the feeling of ``being there''.Consumer-grade HMDs are already able to create highly immersive experiences, leading to a strong presence experience in VR.Hence we argue it is important to find and understand the remaining disturbances during the experience.Existing methods from the laboratory context are either not precise enough, e.g, questionnaires, to find these disturbances or cause high effort in their application and evaluation, e.g., physiological measures.In a literature review, we show that current research heavily relies on questionnaire-based approaches. I improve current qualitative approaches -- interviews, questionnaires -- to make the temporal variation of a VR experience assessable.I propose a drawing method that recognizes breaks in the presence experience.Also, it helps the user in reflecting an HMD-based experience and supports the communication between an interviewer and the HMD user.In the same paper, we propose a descriptive model that allows the objective description of the temporal variations of a presence experience from beginning to end.Further, I present and explore the concept of using electroencephalography to detect an HMD user's visual stress objectively.Objective detection supports the usage of HMDs in private and industrial contexts, as it ensures the health of the user.With my work, I would like to draw attention to the new challenges when using virtual reality technologies in everyday life. I hope that my concepts, methods and evaluation tools will serve research and development on the usage of HMDs.In particular, I would like to promote the use in the everyday social context and thereby create an enriching experience for all.