Designing Mobile MR Workspaces

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly used in everyday contexts for a variety of tasks. We particularly look at the confined space for passengers inside cars, where head-mounted displays (HMDs) could complement the prevalent use of mobile devices for work. In a field study (N=19), we tested three mobile workspace setups along the reality-virtuality continuum (Mounted Tablet, Augmented Focus Bubble, and Virtual Office) and let users re-position the virtual keyboard and display while typing on a physical keyboard in a parked car. The results revealed that using HMDs lowered users' awareness of their real surroundings but increased their perceived workload with a performance impairment of text entry rate compared to just using a tablet. Letting users customize their workspace layout improved their perceived performance and decreased pitch-axis head movements for switching between the virtual display and keyboard. This paper discusses challenges and strategies for future work regarding dynamic incorporation of productivity tools, adaptive mixed reality (MR) work environment designs, and optimizing upper thresholds of physical discomfort in mobile MR workspaces.