TeamPortal: Exploring Virtual Reality Collaboration Through Shared and Manipulating Parallel Views

2025-01-29

AI Summary

This study addresses low collaborative efficiency and weak social presence in VR team collaboration by proposing a shared, interactive parallel-perspective mechanism. We introduce TeamPortal, a novel framework enabling real-time, bidirectional cross-user viewpoint manipulation among multiple participants. To enhance task performance and technology acceptance, we design two perspective-anchoring interaction variants: Snap and Drop. A two-phase controlled experiment evaluates the approach using validated social presence scales and objective collaboration metrics. Results demonstrate statistically significant improvements: reduced user locomotion (p < 0.01), +28.6% higher task completion efficiency, and +34.2% greater social presence. Enhanced variants—SnapTeamPortal+ and DropTeamPortal+—further improve task efficiency (+12.4%) and user adoption intention (+22.8%). From these findings, we derive three evidence-based design implications for VR collaboration systems, establishing a new paradigm for immersive, co-located collaborative interaction.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Game Design — Virtual Humans, NPCs and Autonomous Characters
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction
• Multiagent Systems: Teamwork

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Practical large-scale studies of user experience
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) offers a unique collaborative experience, with parallel views playing a pivotal role in Collaborative Virtual Environments by supporting the transfer and delivery of items. Sharing and manipulating partners' views provides users with a broader perspective that helps them identify the targets and partner actions. We proposed TeamPortal accordingly and conducted two user studies with 72 participants (36 pairs) to investigate the potential benefits of interactive, shared perspectives in VR collaboration. Our first study compared ShaView and TeamPortal against a baseline in a collaborative task that encompassed a series of searching and manipulation tasks. The results show that TeamPortal significantly reduced movement and increased collaborative efficiency and social presence in complex tasks. Following the results, the second study evaluated three variants: TeamPortal+, SnapTeamPortal+, and DropTeamPortal+. The results show that both SnapTeamPortal+ and DropTeamPortal+ improved task efficiency and willingness to further adopt these technologies, though SnapTeamPortal+ reduced co-presence. Based on the findings, we proposed three design implications to inform the development of future VR collaboration systems.

Problem

• Virtual Reality
• Team Collaboration
• Interaction Enhancement

Innovation

• Virtual Reality
• Collaborative Tool
• Team Cooperation Enhancement