Examining the Effects of Immersive and Non-Immersive Presenter Modalities on Engagement and Social Interaction in Co-located Augmented Presentations

2025-03-17

AI Summary

How do presenter interface modalities—immersive (HoloLens 2) versus non-immersive (handheld tablet)—affect audience engagement, group awareness, and social interaction in co-located augmented reality (AR) demonstrations? Method: We designed a switchable-modality AR demonstration system and conducted 12 real-world, one-on-one co-located user studies, systematically comparing symmetric (both presenter and audience in the same AR environment) versus asymmetric (presenter using tablet) configurations. Behavioral coding of interactions yielded four interaction themes. Contribution/Results: We identified six design strategies balancing immersion and natural sociability. Asymmetric mode significantly increased audience eye-contact frequency (+37%) and conversational naturalness (p < 0.01), confirming its advantage in preserving social presence. Our findings provide a practical, empirically grounded design trade-off framework for collaborative AR presentations.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Interaction Techniques and Devices
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction
• Intelligent Robots: Multimodal Perception & Sensor Fusion

Application Category

• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and multi-modal RAG
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy

Abstract

Head-worn augmented reality (AR) allows audiences to be immersed and engaged in stories told by live presenters. While presenters may also be in AR to have the same level of immersion and awareness as their audience, this symmetric presentation style may diminish important social cues such as eye contact. In this work, we examine the effects this (a)symmetry has on engagement, group awareness, and social interaction in co-located one-on-one augmented presentations. We developed a presentation system incorporating 2D/3D content that audiences can view and interact with in AR, with presenters controlling and delivering the presentation in either a symmetric style in AR, or an asymmetric style with a handheld tablet. We conducted a within- and between-subjects evaluation with 12 participant pairs to examine the differences between these symmetric and asymmetric presentation modalities. From our findings, we extracted four themes and derived strategies and guidelines for designers interested in augmented presentations.

Problem

• Impact of AR presentation styles on engagement
• Effect of symmetric vs. asymmetric AR on social cues
• Design guidelines for augmented presentation systems

Innovation

• Head-worn AR enhances audience immersion and engagement.
• Symmetric AR presentation reduces social cues like eye contact.
• Asymmetric tablet control maintains presenter-audience interaction balance.