Allow Me Into Your Dream: A Handshake-and-Pull Protocol for Sharing Mixed Realities in Spontaneous Encounters

2026-04-21

AI Summary

This work addresses the lack of socially legible protocols in public mixed reality (MR) environments that support spontaneous sharing during chance encounters. The authors propose TouchPort, a novel protocol that compresses a multi-stage workflow—encompassing discovery, consent, confirmation, spatial co-location, object synchronization, and permission management—into a single natural, embodied gesture: “shake-and-pull.” Inspired by AirDrop and SharePlay, TouchPort integrates spatial computing with an ephemeral sharing layer to enable intuitive, temporary, and ethically compliant MR collaboration. Evaluated across three representative scenarios, TouchPort demonstrates strong expressiveness and usability in transitioning MR experiences from isolated to shared, offering both a technical foundation and ethical framework for future ubiquitous MR interactions.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Interaction Techniques and Devices
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: The sharing economy
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization
• Security and Privacy: Data transparency and provenance

Abstract

Mixed reality systems support shared anchors and co-located interaction, yet they lack a socially legible protocol for entering another person's mixed reality in public settings. We frame this as a protocol problem: co-located MR sharing requires a staged sequence -- Discover, Consent, Confirm, Allow, Spatial Colocation, Sync Objects, Permission Management -- each demanding user understanding and agreement. Using AirDrop and Apple Vision Pro SharePlay as a baseline, we show that MR encounter complexity far exceeds file transfer, yet must feel equally effortless. We present TouchPort, an embodied sharing protocol that collapses this multi-stage sequence into a single gesture: a handshake and pull that simultaneously signals intent, negotiates consent, and initiates a temporary shared encounter layer between otherwise separate mixed realities. Through three implied scenarios, we demonstrate the protocol's expressive range in the transition from isolated to spontaneously shared realities. We discuss how embodied gestures can address the consent problem in ubiquitous MR and examine the ethical tensions of encounter protocols for MR futures.

Problem

• mixed reality
• spontaneous encounters
• social protocol
• consent
• co-located interaction

Innovation

• mixed reality
• sharing protocol
• embodied interaction
• consent negotiation
• spontaneous co-presence