The Reality-Virtuality Interaction Cube

Tom Williams and Daniel Szafir and Tathagata Chakraborti

2nd International Workshop on Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality for HRI

There has recently been an explosion of work in the humanrobot interaction (HRI) community on the use of mixed, augmented, and virtual reality. In this paper, we present a novel conceptual framework to characterize and cluster work in this new area and identify gaps for future research. We begin by introducing the Plane of Interaction: a framework for characterizing interactive technologies in a 2D space informed by the Model-View-Controller design pattern. We then describe how Interaction Design Elements that contribute to the interactivity of a technology can be characterized within this space and present a taxonomy of Mixed-Reality Interaction Design Elements. We then discuss how these elements may be rendered onto both reality- and virtuality-based environments using a variety of hardware devices and introduce the Reality-Virtuality Interaction Cube: a three-dimensional continuum representing the design space of interactive technologies formed by combining the Plane of Interaction with the Reality-Virtuality Continuum. Finally, we demonstrate the feasibility and utility of this framework by clustering and analyzing the set of papers presented at the recent 2018 VAM-HRI Workshop.