Constructing a Gazebo: supporting teamwork in a tightly coupled, distributed task in virtual reality

  • Authors:
  • David Roberts;Robin Wolff;Oliver Otto;Anthony Steed

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Computer Science, The University of Reading, United Kingdom;Department of Computer Science, The University of Reading, United Kingdom;Department of Computer Science, The University of Reading, United Kingdom;Department of Computer Science, University College London, United Kingdom

  • Venue:
  • Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments
  • Year:
  • 2003

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Abstract

Many tasks require teamwork. Team members may work concurrently, but there must be some occasions of coming together. Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) allow distributed teams to come together across distance to share a task. Studies of CVE systems have tended to focus on the sense of presence or copresence with other people. They have avoided studying close interaction between users, such as the shared manipulation of objects, because CVEs suffer from inherent network delays and often have cumbersome user interfaces, Little is known about the effectiveness of collaboration in tasks requiring various forms of object sharing and, in particular, the concurrent manipulation of objects.This paper investigates the effectiveness of supporting teamwork among a geographically distributed group in a task that requires the shared manipulation of objects. To complete the task, users must share objects through concurrent manipulation of both the same and distinct attributes. The effectiveness of teamwork is measured in terms of time taken to achieve each step, as well as the impression of users. The effect of interface is examined by comparing various combinations of walk-in cubic immersive projection technology (IPT) displays and desktop devices.