Investigation of Personal Space perception in Augmented Reality

Abstract

Over the past five years, the interest in Augmented Reality (AR) technologies has significantly increased. Different industries adopted it, such as gaming, tourism, e-commerce, and entertainment, to name a few. Due to its non-fully immersive property, easy implementation, and compatibility with the most recent smartphones, AR seems to be suitable for daily usage. This poses a significant challenge in creating a good User Experience (UX), as this kind of technology needs to be designed for private scenarios and public ones. In its context, it is essential to understand how users are influenced in their social interactions while using AR. Through the use of humanoid Virtual Characters, this paper is intended to better the understanding of how people perceive personal space in AR. By varying Virtual Character Gender (male, female) and its Placement Modality (predefined, dynamic distance) in the real environment, the effects on UX, Emotions, and Social Presence are investigated. As Personal Space is a dynamic psychological construct, which could depend on individual factors, this paper further investigates some possible co-variant effects of users' preferences towards a female or a male character based on their Sexual Attraction. Results show that Placement Modality significantly affects Personal Space boundaries in terms of position, width, and hedonic quality of the experience. Moreover, an effect of Virtual Character Gender was found on users' Personal Space inner boundary, and Social Presence in its emotional contagion dimension. Finally, an effect of Sexual Attraction on UX, Social Presence in its emotional contagion dimension, and dominance were discovered.