Joint effects of depth-aiding augmentations and viewing positions on the quality of experience in augmented telepresence

Mårten Sjöström,Joakim Edlund,Tahir Qureshi,Mattias Andersson,Elijs Dima,Kjell Brunnström,Mathias Johanson

doi:10.1007/s41233-020-0031-7

Abstract

Virtual and augmented reality is increasingly prevalent in industrial applications, such as remote control of industrial machinery, due to recent advances in head-mounted display technologies and low-latency communications via 5G. However, the influence of augmentations and camera placement-based viewing positions on operator performance in telepresence systems remains unknown. In this paper, we investigate the joint effects of depth-aiding augmentations and viewing positions on the quality of experience for operators in augmented telepresence systems. A study was conducted with 27 non-expert participants using a real-time augmented telepresence system to perform a remote-controlled navigation and positioning task, with varied depth-aiding augmentations and viewing positions. The resulting quality of experience was analyzed via Likert opinion scales, task performance measurements, and simulator sickness evaluation. Results suggest that reducing the reliance on stereoscopic depth perception via camera placement has a significant benefit to operator performance and quality of experience. Conversely, the depth-aiding augmentations can partly mitigate the negative effects of inferior viewing positions. However the viewing-position based monoscopic and stereoscopic depth cues tend to dominate over cues based on augmentations. There is also a discrepancy between the participants’ subjective opinions on augmentation helpfulness, and its observed effects on positioning task performance.

Highlights

Applications of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are becoming increasingly important for non-entertainment applications
We investigated how different AR and viewing positions affect the Quality of Experience (QoE) in immersive telepresence systems, by means of a 27-participant experimental study
A remote controlled excavator was used for a positioning and navigation task, while viewing and controlling the excavator through an immersive telepresence system

Summary

Introduction

Applications of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are becoming increasingly important for non-entertainment applications. Immersive telepresence systems for vehicle operation are fast becoming a reality in industrial applications [9, 10], thanks to the push towards 5G low-latency communications. We use the term Augmented Telepresence (AT) [11] to denote applications where high-quality video-mediated communication is the enabling technology, but where additional data can be superimposed on or merged with the video as in AR. It primarily differs from AR in that the user is present in a remote location seeing the augmented view of the location, with optional two-way audio or audio-visual communication.

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Discussion

Conclusion